Pre-match Preview: CITY SC to face Minnesota United on the road

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Matrix Midwest) - St. Louis CITY SC will head on the road this weekend to face Minnesota United FC for its second match of the week.

This will be the first meeting between the two sides, with the overall series at 3-1 in favor of Minnesota.

This past Wednesday, CITY SC shared points with Sporting KC in the I-70 Derby.

It was a match that saw St. Louis squander a two-goal advantage in the second half, allowing two SKC scores within the final 20 minutes of play.

St. Louis is still in a three-way tie for 13th in the Western Conference with 11 points. Now, CITY will face a club that it has historically struggled against, in a venue it has yet to travel to this season.

First Time Facing The Loons

Minnesota United is tied for fifth in MLS in total points and is currently tied for the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference.

The Loons are coming off a 2-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo, ending a three-match winning streak that included a 4-1 victory over Inter Miami.

Senior forward Tani Oluwaseyi leads Minnesota’s attack, with five goals and four assists across 12 matches. He is also in the top 10 among all MLS players in on-target scoring attempts. He’s a guy Minnesota likes to get into a position to score, and has been capitalizing on those opportunities.

Kelvin Yeboah, the club’s second-leading scorer, made his first start in the loss to Houston since going down with an injury several weeks ago. At this time, it is likely he will be available and in form, come kick-off against St. Louis.

As a team, Minnesota is well-rounded. The Loons are tied for third in fewest goals conceded in the league (13) and have one of the highest goal differentials in the Western Conference (6).

There is one area where this team struggles, but it happens to be where St. Louis’s opponents tend to thrive. Despite being among one of the top teams in assists, Minnesota has had issues with its distribution of the ball. The Loons are dead last in MLS in completed es and ing percentage. Its 3,074 completed es are nearly 900 fewer than the next-best club. But it’s clear that the team is able to make the es that matter - the ones that translate to goals. This is something St. Louis has struggled with.

CITY is slowly piecing back together its roster. Roman Bürki and Henry Kessler appeared in the club’s last match. And Jay Reid and Tomáš Ostrák have each been seen either on the pitch or in warm-ups in the last couple of matches. As of Thursday, this leaves Chris Durkin, Rasmus Alm, Alfredo Morales, and Tomas Totland as the remaining few who have yet to recover from their setbacks. And Eduard Löwen continues to be out due to personal reasons.

It is, without a doubt, evident that this team is able to produce more in the final third when Célio Pompeu is on the pitch. And, in combination with other confident ball possessors like Ostrák, Conrad Wallem, and Xande Silva, the club seems to have a more attractive and high-octane attack.

With Kessler returning, along with other defensive pieces right behind him, CITY can hopefully find a way to establish its defensive dominance. The club has allowed eight goals in its last three matches, all while scoring half as many. The No. 8 through No. 14 teams in the Western Conference all have a goal differential of -5 or more. Austin FC, the No. 8 team, has the fewest goals in the conference (9). Yet, it has six more points than CITY. And only a few extra goals separate St. Louis from most of the other teams in that grouping.

Minnesota likely won’t be the club that allows a significant jump for CITY SC’s goal counter, but there are chinks in its armor. St. Louis just has to take things one match at a time. The hill to playoff contention is still not a very steep one at the moment. But time is running out.

“We just need to try to pick up as many points as we can now,” Coach Olof Mellberg said Thursday. “So, we’re just looking ahead to Saturday and looking forward to that one.”

Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. this Saturday at Allianz Field.

For more on St. Louis CITY SC, click here.

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