Game Information
St. Louis CITY SC vs Aston Villa - International Friendly
Time: 7:30pm CT Wednesday
How to watch: KTVI-TV (FOX 2 in St. Louis)
DraftKings Odds
Odds: Villa -225, CITY +400, Draw +390
Total: 3.5 (over -140, under +100)
CITY Meets Aston Villa From The EPL
St. Louis CITY SC welcomes English Premier League club Aston Villa to Energizer Park for an international friendly this evening.
It’s very exciting to see an EPL club visit St. Louis, but what makes it even more exciting? Being able to gamble on it! Let’s dive in.
CITY Treating It As An Exhibition
CITY is likely welcoming a break from MLS play where they have won only 2 of their last 20 matches. And for this one-off game, I don’t think their recent form is very relevant.
Manager David Critchley said leading up to tonight’s match, “To win the game is not the end outcome for us. We want to put on a good product on the field for the fans, but it’s about giving opportunity to a lot of these guys as well.”
Critchley is expected to deploy at least 22 players from the roster tonight, including new addition Fallou Fall. So it certainly appears Critchley is treating this as an exhibition with winning the game not being the top priority.
Villa Brings Plenty Of Pedigree To St. Louis
Aston Villa has been a very quality team in Europe over the last couple seasons. They are coming off a 2024-2025 campaign where they finished 6th in the English Premier League and made it to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League before narrowly falling to the eventual champion Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa is winless in three preseason games so far as they prepare to begin their EPL season on August 16th. They had a pair of defeats against lower level clubs, but that was with mainly youth prospects playing. With several of their regulars back in the lineup, Villa looked much better in a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt from the Bundesliga this past weekend.
My Pick
Reading between the tea leaves, it appears CITY’s priorities tonight are to give plenty of players valuable experience and put on a good show for the fans in what has been a frustrating season. That suggests to me they are going to want to do whatever they can to score a goal - but that very well could lead to gaps in the defense that Aston Villa can exploit.
This selection has some juice, but I think the best way to attack this game is to take Aston Villa to win and the game to go over 2.5 goals. I think CITY could contribute to the scoring, and I definitely see Villa scoring at least twice. And even if CITY gets shut out, Villa scoring at least 3 goals on their own to cash this bet is very much in play.
Pick: Aston Villa to win and over 2.5 goals in the game at -150 on DraftKings (would not bet higher odds than that)
Eric Sontag hosts Domesticated Gamblers every Friday on the STL Sports Central 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