St. Louis CITY SC Go Silent at Home, Fall 0-1 to Austin FC

The perfect sports weekend in St. Louis was nearly complete when St. Louis CITY SC took the pitch this Sunday, with the St. Louis Blues on a 9 game heater, the St. Louis Cardinals taking a serires sweep on opening weekend, and the St. Louis Battlehawks opening their 2025 account with a dominant victory--unfortauntely, CITY were unable to check their box, falling 0-1 to Austin FC on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

St. Louis CITY SC now sit at 8th in the Western Conference standings in the top wildcard slot, with an away rivalry match looming in the distance.

Key Takeaways:

Olof Mellberg might be to blame.  Mellberg opened with one of the more bizarre and question imposing Starting XIs in recent memory, with an extremely defensive lineup on home turf. This resulted in another match with a whole lot of defense; this is fine if you're a lethal counter-attacking team, but St. Louis CITY SC are most certainly not at this current moment--and especially not with the lineup Mellberg put out having no hold up man and no speedsters up front. I am not yet losing faith in Olof Mellberg, though questions are certainly arising on his tactical plan for this St. Louis roster, and the general fan is becoming outraged. It is only a matter of time before they begin to call for his removal if things trend even further downhill, though next weekend's rivalry battle against a Sporting Kansas City side who have opened with a criminally bad 0-1-5 record this season could easily serve as a big time redemption match for Mellberg and St. Louis CITY SC.

The attacking group of Célio Pompeu, João Klauss, Marcel Hartel, Conrad Wallem, and Tomáš Ostrák is extremely threatening. When desperation finally began to set in and an attacking mindset crept into the minds of the St. Louis tactical staff, Mellberg tossed in a trifecta of attackers, which, in mind-blowing fashion, lead to some great attacking efforts. Unfortunately, Austin were able to block most of the threatening shots and did a good job handling the aerial threat in the box. The important note is that they would not have been able to withstand that storm for 90 minutes; surely, if CITY could find ways to open matches up with an attacking mindset, they would be able to break through.

The defense continues to be extremely reliable. Outside of an unfortunate moment for Kyle Hiebert, who otherwise had a fantastic match, the defense negated almost every serious opportunity for Austin FC, again reminding of their dominance in MLS. Ben Lundt was called to the test twice, making key plays both times to keep St. Louis in the match after going down 0-1.

There are not many key takeaways. This may sound counterintuitive, but a major takeaway is that there was not much to take away from this match. Mellberg & Co. clearly had a bad week of preparation, but no players played particularly bad, and the defense was once again very solid. St. Louis have conceded twice in 6 matches, the lowest in MLS, and looked more composed with the ball at their feet today than in past matches. Next weekend's tilt will be a significantly more imporant fixture, where the result and the product on the pitch will likely have major implications on how the remainder of the 2025 campaign will play out.

Betting Recap:

Eric Sontag landed his first hit for St. Louis CITY SC in 2025, with the under never really threatened and, given the cirumstances of the two clubs involved, proving that it was a very intelligent bet.

What's Next:

St. Louis CITY SC take the bus down I-70 to battle rivals Sporting KC at Nebraska Furniture Mart next Saturday, April 5th, at 7:30 pm CST. With SKC's supporter groups publicly calling for the resignation of manager Peter Vermes, it is very possible that the away rivalry feels like home domination over the club struggling most in all of Major League Soccer. For Olof Mellberg and St. Louis, the result will mean much more than just 0-3 points.