St. Louis City SC Hosts Colorado In 2025 MLS Season Opener

ST. LOUIS - The MLS offseason is quite long when your team doesn’t make the playoffs.

Roughly four months after St. Louis City SC’s season came to a close last November, the boys in all-caps CITY Red host the Colorado Rapids at the newly renamed Energizer Park Saturday night.

While this is the first competitive game for City, the Rapids come into town having played the first leg of a two-legged CONCACAF Champions Cup tie against LAFC on Tuesday night. The Rapids, perhaps aided by the frigid single-digit temperatures at their home in suburban Denver, pulled off a 2-1 upset over LAFC, who started a strong lineup including Olviier Giroud, Denis Bouanga, and Hugo Lloris.

The Rapids were lifted by their star man and U.S. international, Djordje Mihailovic, who netted a second-half brace of spot kicks by way of a penalty and a gorgeous free kick from just outside the LAFC box.

“The free kick is terrific. I’m glad [Mihailovic] gets rewarded for that,” said Colorado Rapids head coach Chris Armas following their win Tuesday night. “He spends a lot of time on that stuff after training.”

The Rapids added some quality to the team that was bounced out of the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs last fall, which takes some weight off of Mihailovic’s shoulders.

They’ve brought in Josh Atencio from Seattle and Theodore Ku-DiPietro from DC United to bolster their midfield depth, which may be tested Saturday night against City. With the second leg of their Champions Cup tie coming up next Tuesday, it would be understandable if Colorado rotated their lineup a bit to be full-strength for their trip to LA.

St. Louis City, knowing a cold front would move through the midwest and turn their training fields into a frozen tundra downtown, opted to spend their week training in Coachella Valley following their participation in the preseason Coachella Valley Invitational. And could you blame them?

Nothing is set in stone with St. Louis City after preseason, and that was made very apparent on Thursday when Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport first reported that the team had dealt its talismanic midfielder Indiana Vassilev to the Philadelphia Union. In Philly, Vassilev will reunite with former City and current Union head coach Bradley Carnell.

To say Vassilev has been a fan and media favorite would be a big understatement. He became a beloved member of the early City squad, known for cracking jokes around training, keeping everyone light and loose. An almost-veteran presence, despite being just 24 years old.

The return for Vassilev is a rather hefty million dollars in GAM, or general allocation money in MLS-speak. Vassilev’s value has hit a recent high following his January callup to the U.S. National Team, getting minutes under new USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino.

“We thank Indy for everything he gave to the city of St. Louis and the crest,” Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel said in a press release Friday. “It’s never easy to move on from players we invested in but it is part of the business and we’re proud to have helped Indy develop over these years. Our aim now is to come out stronger from this trade by reinvesting as soon as possible to bolster the team.”

Notably, Vassilev was quite shaken by Bradley Carnell’s firing last season. Vassilev had formed a great bond with the former City head coach, and was open in press conferences following Carnell’s firing that it was affecting him.

According to MLS analyst and St. Louis soccer legend Taylor Twellman, Vassilev reportedly told the team he wanted to leave. This was likely in search of regular first team action, which, with St. Louis City’s signings both last summer and this winter, seemed more and more unlikely under new City boss Olof Mellberg.

Vassilev made 63 appearances in CITY Red over two years in St. Louis. He came to City in the 2022 MLS Expansion Draft, where he was left unprotected by Inter Miami.

One midfielder leaves, and another joins the fold: Alfredo Morales, who had been playing with City in preseason on a trialist basis, put pen to paper officially on Friday morning to sign a one-year deal with the club, with an option for 2025.

Morales has the kind of experience City Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel is known to love. Born in Berlin, Morales started his career in the Hertha Berlin youth setup before graduating to the first team. He made over 220 appearances between the first and second tiers of German soccer before joining MLS and New York City Football Club in 2021.

Following a three-year stint in NYC, Alfredo Morales swapped coasts in 2024, joining the San Jose Earthquakes and making 23 appearances for the San Jose team that languished at the bottom of the Western Conference.

“We’re excited to welcome Alfredo to St. Louis City SC,” said Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel in a Friday press release. “He brings a wealth of experience both domestically and internationally, having played in top leagues in Europe and with the U.S. Men’s National Team. His technical qualities, leadership, and ability to control the midfield will be a great asset to our squad.”

As Lutz mentions, Morales is a former member of the U.S. National Team, having 16 caps over a handful of years, including the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Morales likely figures as a depth piece given St. Louis City’s depth in midfield, but has the experience to step in when needed.

He may be needed Saturday night, given the status of Chris Durkin, who was a full participant in City’s matchday -1 training session Friday afternoon but did not play in preseason due to a nagging knee injury.

Celio Pompeu and Tomas Ostrak were recovering from much more severe injuries, but have been active participants in preseason and looked to be running like their old selves. Both figure to be in the matchday squad Saturday night, which will likely look different than fans have grown accustomed to over the past two seasons.

Gone is the back four, with two centerbacks and two wingbacks. Olof Mellberg has largely implemented a 3-5-2, three centerbacks (Joakim Nilsson, Timo Baumgartl, Henry Kessler), wingbacks (Tomas Totland and Jannes Horn) that are pushed into midfield in attack to support the midfielders (Chris Durkin, Eduard Löwen, and Marcel Hartel) to support two strikers (Joao Klauss and/or Cedric Teuchert and/or Simon Becher) in some combination.

“Last season we played against LAFC in a 3-5-2,” said Marcel Hartel during Friday’s pre-match press conference. We also trained in the formation last season. A lot of guys have played in this system. I’ve played in this system before in my career, it's nothing so special or new, it’s very easy for everyone [on the team] to understand how we want to play in the new system.”

“I want all of my players to be box-to-box players,” Said Olof Mellberg on Friday regarding his tactical philosophy. “I think that is key, and we’ve been working a lot, moving between blocks to be a dynamic team. I want to see everyone working hard, and if we work hard we’re going to have a lot of the ball and have a lot of energy going forward [in attack].”

There’s less reliance on Roman Bürki’s distribution from the back, and ideally a bit more comfort on the ball, and a bit more control of the chaos. City pledges that they’ll still be an exciting, high-pressing team, but they’ll likely look quite different under Olof Mellberg’s formation and guidance.

“It’s not rocket science, it’s a lot of hard work,” said Mellberg in Friday’s pre-match press conference. “We’ve done the work physically in the beginning, and recently more tactically.”

We’ll have to wait until 7:30 Saturday night to truly see what Olof Mellberg’s St. Louis City will look like on the field in true competitive action.

The game is streaming on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, with local radio broadcasts available on KYKY Y98.1 FM in English, and KXOK 102.9 FM in Spanish.

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