St Louis CITY SC Preseason Recap

It is officially opening week for St. Louis CITY SC, with the first match slated for Saturday, February 22nd at 7:30 pm CST at Energizer Park against Colorado Rapids. The team is staying in Coachella Valley to train given the weather conditions in St. Louis, and will return home later in the week for the opener. Coach Olof Mellberg, Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel, and a handful of players traveled back to St. Louis for today’s CITY Live event in Chesterfield.

St. Louis began preseason in Florida with a 0-1 loss against the New England Revolution in their first match under Mellberg. They rebounded with a 1-0 victory over 2024 MLS Finalist New York Red Bulls before heading out to the Coachella Valley Invitational, the fixture’s lone goal coming off the boot of forward Cedric Teuchert.

At Coachella, CITY opened with a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake, with the goal coming from Conrad Wallem in his first shift wearing the crest. Next up was Austin FC, who CITY also took to a 1-1 draw off a gorgeous Pomepu-Vassilev combination which found Totland on the back door for the late equalizer.

The final broadcasted match at Coachella was against New York City FC, where St. Louis’s Simon Becher bagged a brace following a Marcel Hartel opener to secure a 3-1 victory. Finally, CITY concluded with a closed door scrimmage against San Jose Earthquakes, which ended in a 2-1 victory for the boys in CITY Red.

Overall, St. Louis CITY SC emerge from preseason with a 3-1-2 record, which would equate to a collection of 11 of a possible 18 points in regular season play. While the loss to a New England side that are expected to struggle in 2025 is not ideal, picking up victories over 2024 MLS Finalist New York Red Bulls, a playoff caliber Eastern Conference NYCFC team, and a San Jose Earthquakes club who have completely revamped and reinvested in their club with pickups like forward Chicho Arango and legendary MLS and U.S. Men’s National Team coach Bruce Arena are all exciting results. Draws with 2024 playoff team RSL and an Austin side who have also heavily revamped their roster and are expected to be a serious force in the Western Conference in 2025 are also encouraging.

Across all six preseason matches, we got to see a glimpse of “CITY 2.0” as coined by Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel; a team that retains the same identity of being a high pressing and hard working team, but now also working with the ball and introducing a lot of fluidity on the pitch.

In the Coachella Valley Invitational, fans were finally able to feast their eyes on Mellberg’s CITY in real time. As expected, the coach loves a 3-back formation. Fluidity is the name of the game for St. Louis and is a term that will be tossed around all season long. It can best be described as a system in which players have their base positions, but have freedom to interchange with one another, catching the opponent off guard with creative and sometimes unorthodox plays. It is most successful when utilized by teams with excellent chemistry, as anticipating the moves of your teammates is absolutely essential to keep proper spacing on the pitch when there are a lot of moving parts.

A prime example of this was centerback Joakim Nilsson making a deep run into the corner against Austin to stretch the opposing defense and advance into the final third, while midfielder Eduard Löwen dropped deep to cover Nilsson’s defensive region. St. Louis’s formation will likely look like a 3-5-2 the majortiy of the time while in organized defending, but may look more like a 3-4-3 when in possession.

Also importantly, St. Louisans were able to see the new blood in action; particularly, 2025 MLS SuperDraft picks Emil Jääskeläinen and Joey Zalinsky, and new signings Timo Baumgartl and Conrad Wallem. Jääskeläinen (forward) got good minutes as the front office evaluates whether or not they will offer the Finn a first team contract. If they did so, they would likely need to acquire an international roster slot in an MLS trade.

Timo Baumgartl got a lot of minutes on the back line; there is a lot of competition there, with Jannes Horn, Henry Kessler, Kyle Hiebert, Josh Yaro, Joakim Nilsson, and Jake Girdwood-Reich all rostered. Not to mention Tomas Totland, who appeared in the midfield in Coachella, and Jayden Reid, who will return in April from a broken foot.

Utility man Conrad Wallem also saw a lot of minutes, most of which at left midfield. I could easily see him slotting in on the left or right depending on the formation and personnel available; I still believe that is a signing that has gone under the radar across the league and will turn out very positively for St. Louis.

Utility man Akil Watts also got a lot of minutes and looked very promising in his development, slotting into the midfield for Chris Durkin, who has been nursing a knee injury.

Tomáš Ostrák and Célio Pompeu, both of whom had tragic season ending injuries in 2024, are also activated and got a lot of time on the pitch, both claiming to be 100% ready for next weekend.

You can feel the energy in St. Louis as fans itch to get into the newly named Energizer Park--and with preseason concluded, the time is nearly upon us.