ST. LOUIS - Following their first stumbling block of 2025, St. Louis City SC looks to get back on track at home Sunday afternoon, hosting Austin FC.
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It was old friend Bradley Carnell and the Philadelphia Union handing City their first loss of 2025. Well, potentially not an old friend of striker João Klauss.
Klauss got in Carnell’s face following the 1-0 loss in greater Philadelphia last Saturday evening, bumping Carnell in the chest and the two exchanging words before they were separated by members of their respective teams.
Both Klauss and Carnell didn’t offer much comment on their kerfuffle. Carnell dismissed the question when asked by Philly media following the game, and Klauss didn’t offer much more, saying he wanted to “move on” from the incident when asked after a training session this week.
Moving on to Austin FC, City faces one of the four teams currently above them in the early MLS Western Conference standings. In four previous meetings between the two, Austin hasn’t managed to beat St. Louis, with City taking three wins and a draw over the past two seasons.
But the Austin FC team coming to Energizer Park on Sunday is quite a different beast than the Austin team that underachieved expectations in 2023 and 2024. The Verde and Black decided to move on from their head coach, their club captain, an MLS 100-goals club member, and their all-time leading goalscorer for a big reshuffle for 2025.
Gone is Josh Wolff, who has been Austin’s head coach since the team was merely a green and black logo without a club behind it. Wolff was hired in 2019 and was relieved of his duties following disappointing 2023 and 2024 seasons that saw Austin FC miss out on the playoffs.
Alex Ring, who captained Austin from their MLS debut in 2021 and has spent the majority of the past four seasons with the captain’s armband, had his option declined by the club in the offseason. The Helsinki native returned back home to join HJK Helsinki in the Finnish Veikkausliiga.
Gyasi Zardes, an MLS legend primarily for his extended time with the LA Galaxy and Columbus Crew, spent the past two seasons in Texas before the team decided to move on from him during the winter months. His goalscoring output wasn’t the same as it was in his MLS prime, scoring 10 goals in 67 appearances across all competitions. Zardes, now 33, remains a free agent after having his contract bought out.
But the biggest departure for Austin FC has to be the sale of their all-time leading scorer, Sebastian Driussi, to Argentine powerhouse River Plate. Driussi came to Austin during their inaugural season in 2021 from Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian Premier League, and made a massive impact upon his arrival.
He had eight goal involvements (five goals, three assists) in limited time in 2021 following the summer transfer, but really exploded onto the MLS scene in 2022, scoring 22 goals and adding five assists in the regular season, and adding three more goals in Austin’s MLS Cup Playoff run that year.
Driussi didn’t quite match those heights in 2023 and 2024, playing less and dealing with nagging injuries, but still added 18 goals over those two seasons. In total, Driussi scored 51 goals and added 17 assists in his time in MLS.
So who are the new faces leading Austin in 2025? First off, Nico Estévez takes the reins as head coach, following his dismissal from Texas rival FC Dallas in June of 2024. Estévez started his coaching career in Spain before moving stateside to join Gregg Berhalter’s staff with the Columbus Crew. He then followed Berhalter to the United States Men’s National Team before taking the Dallas job in 2021.
Who replaces the goal threat of Sebastian Driussi for new Austin boss Estévez? That would be the forward tandem of Brandon Vazquez and Myrto Uzuni.
Vazquez is already a known quantity in Major League Soccer and US soccer circles following his time in Atlanta, time with the US National Team, but most notably in Cincinnati where he had a highlight 2022 season and followed it up with a more than solid 2023. Vazquez scored 20 goals in all competitions in 35 games played for FC Cincinnati in 2022, and followed it up with 17 goals in 40 games in 2023.
Vazquez started his career in the Tijuana youth academy, and returned to Mexico in 2024 to play for Monterrey in Liga MX. Perhaps the highlight of his year in Mexico was scoring on FC Cincinnati in CONCACAF Champions Cup play. In total in Mexico, the US International picked up 10 goals in 40 appearances for Rayados.
Austin FC moved to sign Vazquez this past January for what was then a club-record transfer fee of $10 million, signing a four-year deal. It took five matches, but Vazquez scored his first goal for Austin in their 2-1 win over San Diego FC last Sunday.
That club-record fee was broken almost instantly when Austin acquired Myrto Uzuni, an Albanian international who was purchased for $12.3 million from Spanish second-tier side Granada CF, just weeks after the signing of Vazquez.
"Myrto has shown himself to be a prolific goalscorer in every team and league where he has previously played," said Austin sporting director Rodolfo Borrell in a club statement when Uzuni was signed. "His high work rate during games, finishing ability, ambition, determination, and versatility to be able to play both centrally and in the wide areas will all be big assets.”
Uzuni made a big mark in the Spanish second division, scoring 49 goals in 106 appearances to make himself Granada’s all-time leading scorer. Uzuni missed last weekend’s game against San Diego on international duty for Albania, where he scored in a 3-0 win over Andorra in a World Cup qualifier.
Uzuni and Vazquez are on track to start together for just the third time this season this Sunday against a City team looking to get their own offense on track.
There are no big offseason attacking additions to bolster a City attack that has looked quite stagnant, regardless of who has been starting up top. City head coach Olof Mellberg is still trying to find the right balance between attack and his defense-first philosophy.
“I think we’re in a learning phase,” said City wingback Conrad Wallem during the team’s pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. “Not big details, just twitches and tweaks to improve to be a lot better offensively. We have a solid [defensive] base, and we just need to build on that and try to be more effective and better with the ball.”
City will need to be better with the ball without the man who has been widely considered as their best player on the ball. Eduard Löwen picked up a second yellow card turned red card in the team’s loss in Philadelphia last weekend for kicking a ball away when Philadelphia had a throw-in.
Löwen is suspended for Sunday because of that red card, and City will likely look to Alfredo Morales or Tomas Ostrak to fill Löwen’s spot in the lineup. With Löwen suspended, he’s also away from the team for personal reasons, missing training on Friday.
Also absent from the training ground on Friday was Cedric Teuchert, who has been nursing a hamstring injury and taking it easy this week. Mellberg said Tuechert was “doubtful” for Sunday’s game, and that the team wants him back for next weekend.
City will have to make do on Sunday without two players that have been crucial for the club since their respective arrivals. A rare afternoon kickoff, with gametime set for around 1:15 pm.
The game will be broadcast on Fox across the country, and is still streaming on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Local radio broadcasts can be found on KYKY 98.1 FM in English and KXOK 102.9 FM in Spanish.
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