St. Louis CITY SC (15-10-5) v. Minnesota United FC (9-10-10) Saturday, September 23, 2023, 7:30 p.m. CT Allianz Field AppleTV+ MLS Season Pass Statistics: St. Louis CITY: 50 Points, 56 GF, 38 GA, net +18, Form WWWWWLLWDLLWWWLDLLWWWLWWLWLDDD, Road 5-7-3 Minnesota United FC, 37 Points, 37 GF, 38 GA, net -1, Form WDWDWLLLDLLWWDLDLDWLWDWDWDDLL, Home 3-3-8 Quick turnaround from LAFC for our third match and second road trip in eight days. It’s always difficult for any team to get back up after an emotional match. Our huge home draw with LAFC deprived them of their best chance to catch us. The match saw Blom take a knock and several players leave everything on the pitch. Alm is still listed as questionable, and some reports say he will not be available again until mid-October. Another tough test against a possible playoff team. Minnesota gave us our first loss, 1-0 at CITYPARK on April 1. The lone goal was a PK by Luis Amarilla, who has since been transferred to Mazatlan FC in the M League. Minnesota recently acquired Caden Clark, but he won’t be eligible until after this MLS season. Minnesota is a bit of an MLS outlier, with a 3-3-8 home and 6-7-2 road record. They are coming off an implosion on the road, blowing a 3-1 halftime lead over the Galaxy in a 3-4 loss. This could be a classic trap match. Discuss.
PRO's assignments for this match: St. Louis CITY SC at Minnesota United FC REF: Victor Rivas AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Ben Pilgrim 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Greg Dopka AVAR: Claudiu Badea Rivas was center ref for our 2-1 win over Portland at Providence Park on March 12 and our 1-1- home draw against the LA Galaxy on June 11.
I'm wondering what Minnesota's state of mind is. Will they be pissed off about what happened in Carson Wednesday night and take it out on St. Louis, or will they still be shell-shocked? I think City should try to jump on them as early as possible to test them out. Whether or not that's in Coach Carnell's game plan is another matter. Seattle is off this weekend, so it would be nice if St. Louis can snag 3 points here to put some distance between City and the Sounders.
Player Availability and DISCO Reports: St. Louis CITY SC Out: none Questionable: Rasmus Alm Penned: none YC Caution List (1 away from suspension): Lucas Bartlett Minnesota United FC Out: Kervin Arriaga, Ryen Jiba, Robin Lod Questionable:none Penned: Ethan Barlow (RC) YC Caution List (1 away from suspension): none
Isn't that the truth. This one's a hard match to predict. Both teams are coming off emotional matches. They're desperate after imploding and we're just exhausted after our match. They are also pretty banged up and depleted from Barlow's red in their match. Both teams are coming off three matches in eight days. We do fairly well on the road and they struggle to get more than a point at home. I fully agree, setting the tone early is vital. I'm encouraged that Blom isn't on the questionable or out list after his knock. That suggests subbing him out was more precautionary. I could see him on the bench tonight and an early sub if needed. BC's lineup might be interesting. I'm betting that Indy has locked a start for tonight after his fantastic match against LAFC. Minnesota's a year away from having a strong contender. They lost Amarilla to an ankle injury, and then he was transferred to Mazatlan. He absolutely killed us in the first match. Next season, Minnesota will have Caden Clark. 'Nuff said. We need a point tonight, but really want the three that would absolutely start to close the door on the rest of the conference. The tension's building for tonight's match.
Yikes. Starting XIs St. Louis CITY SC Burki-Nerwinski-Yaro-Bell-Hiebert-Blom-Vassilev-Stroud-Pompeu-Ostrak-Gioacchini Subs: Lundt-Watts-Thorisson-Markanich-Lowen-Klauss-Jackson-Alm-Adeniran Minnesota United FC St. Clair-Tapias-Boxall-Valentin-Taylor-Trapp-Gregus-Dotson-Hlongwane-Song Bin-Pukki Subs: Irwin-Dick-Arriaga-Dibassy-Kallman-Padelford-Garcia-Tajouri-Shradi-Fragapane Well, we have Alm on the bench.
Massive 3 points on the road. BC rotates and we keep winning (reminds me of San Jose). A win next week over SKC could get us guaranteed top 4, and we can smell that Western Conference Championship and with it a spot in the CCL.
As I track it now, if we get 3 points at home against SKC, that would put us on 56. LAFC and SEA can get to 57 if they win all remaining games, and VAN can get to 56. HOU and RSL can get to 55, and everyone else is below them. Tiebreakers not withstanding, SEA and VAN play each other as does LAFC and VAN, so there are dropped points there. So, as I look at it, beat SKC, worst case scenario is 3rd. But that would require 2 of LAFC, SEA, and VAN to take maximum points. Any dropped points, and they can no longer catch us. We could win the West as early as Sunday (LAFC v RSL). SEA kicks off the same time we do in Nashville, and VAN has a gimme game against COL that kicks off an hour after us. As much as I would love to clinch it on home soil, I don't feel like waiting until SEA on the last day of the season, so here's to Kroenke, Nashville, and RSL to help us over the line after we take care of business next weekend.
Spot on. We pretty much have locked down all the top tiebreakers in the conference, so they have to beat us. The Columbus-FCD draw was perfect for us. We're not only competing for first in the West but having more points than anybody except Cincinnati in the East. If we make it to the MLS Cup match and Cincy gets knocked out, that would make us the higher seed and we would host the Cup. That's our incentive to snag every possible point the rest of the way. I'd love to see CITYPARK rock out for the Cup! Right now, Orlando, Philadelphia, and New England have two games in hand and Columbus has one, so we really need to keep winning.
That was an amazing (and satisfying) win in St. Paul. STL gets revenge on the first team to hand them a loss at City Park. For as good as Dayne St. Clair can be between the sticks for Minnesota, he had little chance to stop those shots by Joao Klauss and Njabulo Blom, and the set-ups for each goal was text-book perfect. Kudos to the fans for sticking it out in a steady rain. The St. Louis fans that showed up were quite vocal, especially when Blom scored the go-ahead goal, which proved to be the game-winner.
Orlando's home draw yesterday was big two-point hit on their chances to beat us on points. They have a match in hand, but play Montreal (home), Nashville (road), New England (home), and Toronto (road) in those four. The first two are above the playoff line, the third clinched a playoff spot, and late October Decision Day match in Toronto isn't a gimme.
That WAS fun. Minnesota could also be a decent rivalry match for us. St. Paul and St. Louis are connected by the Avenue of the Saints. Not a bad hook for a rivalry name.