St. Louis CITY SC Embarrassed 1-4 in Seattle

St. Louis CITY SC got ripped apart in the second half at Lumen Field. It was bad. Ugly. Hideous. Putrid. An inexcusable performance. But, the alarm bells are not going off--in fact, they have exactly two weeks left to stop themselves from going off. Should CITY lay another few eggs in these upcoming key matchups, we will be at DEFCON 1. Let's break it all down.

Scoring Recap:

SEA 0 - 1 STL, 29' | Marcel Hartel buried his second goal of the season on a PK earned by Cedric Teuchert in what was an extremely soft call in my eyes. This would stand as CITY's only goal in the fixture.

SEA 1 - 1 STL, 33' | Albert Rusnák tied the match off what I deem a makeup call on yet another extremely soft PK call. This moment tilted the pitch in favor of Seattle, and while the half ended in a tie match, it was all Seattle from there on out.

SEA 2 - 1 STL, 61' | Obed Vargas found himself in the CITY box from a nice one-two combination and scored with a lucky deflection off of Timo Baumgartl's shot-block attempt. This would become the game winner.

SEA 3 - 1 STL, 81' | Danny Musovski bagged the third off a centering feed and some poor defending from Timo Baumgartl and Joakim Nilsson. Ben Lundt got a piece of it, but it ultimately made its way past the German netminder.

SEA 4 - 1 STL, 90+1' | Nouhou Tolo scored his first goal in three years in stoppage time, finishing top bins on a painfully bad defensive sequence from St. Louis involving Simon Becher failing to make a routine tackle, Akil Watts standing ball watching, and an overall sleepy and terrible team goal against from CITY.

Key Takeaways:

The back line desperately needs help. Missing Henry Kessler, Tomas Totland, and Joakim Nilsson (as a starter), plus their backing voice in Roman Bürki, is extremely painful. St. Louis had only conceded 8 goals prior to this match, but let four go through, despite a handful of quality saves from Ben Lundt, who was completely hung out to dry numerous times and made a few saves early to keep CITY in it when it was still winnable, plus a few saves late even when the match was no longer recoverable. Kyle Hiebert and Josh Yaro are playing their tails off, but they just don't have the quality to put out consistent, quality performances without someone like Kessler to ground them.

Xande Silva made his debut and was immediately impactful with the ball at his feet. In fact, he ended up with more touches than Cedric Teuchert, despite playing a third of the minutes. His pace is undeniable when surrounded by a relatively slow CITY side. Him, Pompeu (who surprisingly didn't play against Seattle, Wallem, and Hartel could make for some serious progressive footy with the ball at their feet. That will be a storyline to watch as this month goes on. In general, the attack was not good in Seattle, but CITY did generate a handful of quality opportunities. Most of them came in the first 25-ish minutes, during which St. Louis actually looked pretty good.

Eduard Löwen is back. The German, now sporting a buzz cut, picked up a few minutes at the end of the match, primarily because St. Louis were tired and legitimately did not have a single other option in the midfield. Injuries have been one nasty snake bite. The midfield really, really needs his presence. He and Morales both being available will be a breath of relief.

Looking Ahead:

The troops are almost here. Roman Bürki, Eduard Löwen, Jay Reid, and Jake Girdwood-Reich are all healthy or right on the cusp of a return and will likely be available by next weekend. Alfredo Morales is now available after serving his one match red card suspension. That is the GK1 and captain, the best midfielder and set-piece taker and a key leader, a young wingback prospect, a U-22 depth player in the midfield or at centerback, and a depth midfielder all returning to the squad in about a week's time. With Kessler and Totland hopefully not far behind, and Jannes Horn and Joakim Nilsson already back, things may look very different by next weekend. Jay Reid getting minutes at LWB could also allow Conrad Wallem to slide to RWB in Totland's absence and Jannes Horn to play his comfort LWB, with Kyle Hiebert the likely bench candidate.

St. Louis CITY SC will take on USL League One side Union Omaha in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday. Take a look at some of Rocc's thoughts on that match. Personally, I am very excited to see some of the youngsters get significant minutes. Could prove to be an inspiring match for the club and the fans alike. After that, they will return to Energizer Park to host San Diego FC, in what I am now deeming a must-win match. After that? Sporting KC at home. That is as must-win as it gets. In my eyes, failure to beat Union Omaha and secure at least four points between SDFC and SKC at home would be deemed a massive failure, and the alarm bells would be going rampant. The clock is ticking.

Anyways. Let's Go Blues!