Game Information
St. Louis CITY SC (2-8-5, 11 points) vs San Jose Earthquakes (6-6-4, 22 points)
Time: 1:30pm CT Saturday
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
DraftKings Odds
Odds: CITY +105, San Jose +200, Draw +285
Total: 3.5 (over +110, under -140)
CITY Begins Post-Mellberg Era
St. Louis CITY SC hosts the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday afternoon in the first game since the sacking of Olof Mellberg earlier this week.
David Critchley has been called up from CITY2 to serve as the caretaker manager, as we await to see whether the coaching change results in a “new manager bounce” for CITY.
CITY Winless Run Continues
CITY hasn’t won a league game since a 1-0 home victory over Seattle on March 15th. It has been a frustrating run of eight losses and three draws since then.
This game evokes similar memories of last year when the club relieved Bradley Carnell of his coaching duties mid-season. In the very next game, CITY hosted San Jose and posted a 2-0 win on July 3rd.
Earthquakes Play Wild Games
San Jose comes to St. Louis in 7th place in the Western Conference after a 1-0 win at the LA Galaxy this past Wednesday night.
The Earthquakes play an exciting style of soccer where they score a lot of goals, but they give up a lot of goals as well. San Jose leads MLS with 33 goals scored this season (2.06 goals per game), and there has been an average of 3.68 total goals in their games.
My Pick
I was hoping to get a better price on CITY, but no matter what the price is, this is an automatic bet for me.
I am a firm believer in the new manager bounce and expect CITY to win this game.
I mentioned the game last season where CITY experienced the bounce and beat San Jose at home. CITY was also the victim of it earlier this season on April 5th when they lost at Sporting Kansas City 2-0 in the first game after SKC fired their longtime manager Peter Vermes.
This sets up as an ideal spot for CITY in other areas as well, as they didn’t play this week and are getting healthy. Meanwhile the Earthquakes had to play late at night in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and now they have to turn around on short rest and fly to St. Louis to play Saturday afternoon with the game starting at 11:30am Pacific time.
I expect we will see some tired legs from San Jose, and I think CITY will play with tons of energy and be all over the Earthquakes from the start.
I’m not sure what happens after this game, but I expect CITY to put forth their best performance of the season on Saturday.
Pick: St. Louis CITY SC on the moneyline at +105 on DraftKings (bet to -120)
Eric Sontag hosts Domesticated Gamblers every Friday on the Sports Hub STL YouTube channel. Follow him on X @GamblingDads, and click here for his daily picks on all of our St. Louis area sports teams. Picks = betting the game - minus odds betting to win 1 unit, plus odds risking 1 unit. Leans = no strong opinion, not betting the game. Disclaimer