Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting St. Louis CITY SC 🔎
Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting St. Louis CITY SC 🔎
St. Louis has been struggling with injuries as we begin the Leagues Cup.
FC Dallas's path to a League Cup crown begins on Saturday night when they travel to battle Western Conference rivals St. Louis CITY SC.
This marks the first time that FC Dallas is on the road for a game in the Leagues Cup, as all four matches in last year’s tournament for FCD were played at Toyota Stadium.
St. Louis enters this year’s tournament with one win in their last 14 league games.
Key Player: Nökkvi Thórisson
Given St. Louis's injury situation at the moment, Thorisson will be the main guy in their attack and will be looking to get things going on Saturday night. He has three goals on the season, all coming within the last six matches.
Key Matchup: Sebastian Lletget vs Eduard Lowen
Since both teams are still dealing with key injuries up and down the field, this one could easily come down to a central midfield battle between two veteran players. Both players have the quality to spark their respective team’s attack in this one.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out: Rasmus Alm (knee), Joao Klauss (knee), Joakim Nilsson (hamstring), Tomáš Ostrák (ankle), Célio Pompeu (lower leg), Chris Durkin (not injury related)
Questionable: Indiana Vassilev (nose)
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
Last time against FC Dallas: The two clubs have met twice in 2024, with FC Dallas earning a 2-0 win at home in Peter Luccin’s debut. The lone meeting in St. Louis was a scoreless draw.
Form going into Leagues Cup: St. Louis snapped a three-game losing streak last weekend when they tied Sporting KC 1-1.
Recent moves: After firing Bradley Carnell, St. Louis made a couple of moves in the summer window, primarily within MLS. First, they traded forward Sam Adeniran to Philadelphia and then, more recently, acquired forward Simon Becher on loan from Danish side AC Horsens.
Potential Lineup:
John Hackworth has continued to use an attacking-minded formation since taking over for Carnell.
Burki, Hiebert, Reid, Parker, Yaro; Blom, Lowen; Vassilev, Watts, Teuchert; Thorisson
Keys To Victory over St. Louis
Handle the press: While St. Louis is going through a bit of a change this season after letting Carnell go and Hackworth taking over as interim manager, they do still press a bit up the field. Given that they only have one win in their last 14 games, this could be a game where St. Louis pushes things even further (despite their injury situation). Dallas will need to play smart out of the back and avoid giving up any costly turnovers in their defensive third.
Feed the Moose: He’s already had a big summer under Peter Luccin, so getting MLS All-Star forward Petar Musa involved early in the match is where FC Dallas needs to go in their attack. Dallas will want to find those outlets in the attack that free Musa up in the penalty area.
Find that spark: I still believe this tournament is a great chance for a younger guy to earn some minutes for FC Dallas. I’m hoping that someone like Tarik Scott can come off the bench late in this game and continue to push the envelope on what he can bring to this club in 2024.
Note: While the regular season has an official injury list for the MLS clubs, this tournament doesn’t appear to have one as of this writing. We’re going to go off the clubs’ game notes for now.