Are there any places in the St.Louis City/County area that will be great places to watch the World Cup coming up? I wasn't sure if there are places with a Jumbotron that plan to have some matches up or certain sport bars that are recommended?
I know of The Pitch near the Energizer Stadium and Amsterdam Tavern. Any other recommendations/events?
Colorado beat San Jose in the USOC today so CITY will have to play the semifinal in Colorado! Should they win that, the final would be away as well, which is the case regardless of this outcome.
Hi all! I am hoping to surprise my husband with a new City jersey for Father's Day, but I honestly don't know which one to get him. He doesn't really ask for things, so he hasn't mentioned having an opinion one way or another on which kind of jersey he would like...
If you all were gifted a jersey, what would you be happy with? Would you like a collared home jersey, or are the non-collared ones cooler?
I plan to gift him the jersey and a couple of home game tickets to take our son, if that matters!
Apologies for the relatively poor quality of the photos. I brought a new lens that's "crappy" on purpose, to give your shots that old disposable film camera look. I was intending to just take some snapshots of myself and my friends, and didn't consider that I'd have a great vantage point for such an epic moment. In any case, I hope you all like them!
https://reddit.com/link/1tiu7f0/video/ktv2n1bn1c2h1/player
Normally I only do video breakdowns of goals, but I had a TON of requests for this play, so here goes.
Houston's Felipe Andrade makes a nice chipped pass over CITY's Dante Polvara - who was pushed a bit too far forward, as the back line wasn't aligned, with Timo trailing and clearly keeping Dynamo #9 Ondrej Lingr onside.
When the ball clears Polvara and he turns to try to recover, he's roughly 18 feet behind a fully sprinting Lingr and about 118 feet from where he would eventually catch him, making an incredible sliding tackle to just get the bottom of his foot on the ball as Lingr releases his shot past a beaten Lundt.
The effort here (from a standing start no less) to turn, recover, catch Lingr, not foul (which would have been a clear DOGSO), AND make the tackle in the 105th minute to save the match is one of, if not THE greatest, defensive plays in the history of the club, especially given the circumstances.
Polvara was a bit out of position, and Timo kept Lingr onside, but the sheer will and determination from the CITY defender to make that play is something CITY fans will remember for a long, long time.
For those curious (like I was), here are CITY's options to qualify for the CONCACAF Champion's Cup through the Open Cup:
As a disclaimer, this is all based off the qualification for this year's competition, and it is all subject to change if CONCACAF wants to change the criteria to let in certain teams over others.
Win the Open Cup
Be the runner up in the Open Cup while the winner qualifies through a different path.
*If both the winner and runner up of the Open Cup qualify through other means, the slot for the US goes to the next best team in MLS standings
CITY will play either San Jose or Colorado in the next round and have to win to have any chance. This is a little unfortunate because San Jose has the best chance of any team left in qualifying through a different path (season standings), so the best hypothetical situation would be to face them in the final. But Colorado is the weakest team on paper, so it could end up being a positive if they beat San Jose.
So if CITY makes it to the final, they will play either Orlando, Columbus, or NYCFC. All 3 teams are playing in the Leagues Cup, and a top 3 finish in this competition takes first precedence for CCC qualification.
MLS Cup champion is next in the qualification hierarchy, and is also the next most likely option for 1 of the 3 teams to qualify. NYCFC is the only team currently in a playoff position, but Orlando is also close. It is unlikely that any team will qualify through the MLS season standings.
tl;dr Root for Colorado and NYCFC in the games tonight, as them winning will increase the chances of CITY qualifying for the CCC (though very slightly and it's still better for CITY to just win it all).
St. Louis CITY SC: Chris Durkin, Daniel Edelman, Lukas MacNaughton, Roman Bürki, Sergio Córdova, Jeong Sang-bin, Tomas Totland, Marcel Hartel, Timo Baumgartl, Conrad Wallem, Dante Polvara
Subs: Simon Becher, Mykhi Joyner, Eduard Löwen, Ben Lundt, Brendan McSorley, Mbacke Fall, Fallou Fall
Houston Dynamo FC: José Artur, Jonathan Bond, Antônio Carlos, Jack McGlynn, Mateusz Bogusz, Sebastián Rodríguez, Ezequiel Ponce, Lawrence Ennali, Felipe Andrade, Agustín Bouzat, Guilherme Santos
Subs: Héctor Herrera, Franco Negri, Erik Sviatchenko, Ibrahim Aliyu, Blake Gillingham, Duane Holmes, Ondřej Lingr
^(Last Updated: May 19, 09:59PM. All data via mlssoccer.com. Match ID: MLS-MAT-000A8K)
St. Louis CITY SC: Chris Durkin, Daniel Edelman, Lukas MacNaughton, Roman Bürki, Sergio Córdova, Jeong Sang-bin, Tomas Totland, Marcel Hartel, Timo Baumgartl, Conrad Wallem, Dante Polvara
Subs: Simon Becher, Mykhi Joyner, Eduard Löwen, Ben Lundt, Brendan McSorley, Mbacke Fall, Fallou Fall
Houston Dynamo FC: José Artur, Jonathan Bond, Antônio Carlos, Jack McGlynn, Mateusz Bogusz, Sebastián Rodríguez, Ezequiel Ponce, Lawrence Ennali, Felipe Andrade, Agustín Bouzat, Guilherme Santos
Subs: Héctor Herrera, Franco Negri, Erik Sviatchenko, Ibrahim Aliyu, Blake Gillingham, Duane Holmes, Ondřej Lingr
^(Last Updated: May 19, 09:59PM. All data via mlssoccer.com. Match ID: MLS-MAT-000A8K)
https://reddit.com/link/1tis448/video/0ejdigevdb2h1/player
Que the Benny Hill music, because this one is ugly. As the Paramount+ broadcast was replaying the Hartel goal, this play happened - they missed it live, because simply kicking the ball out of your own end usually doesn't result whatever this was.
Timo had 3 relatively low risk options with the ball here - play it to his right to Lukas MacNaughton, to his left to Dante Polvara, or to the sideline to Wallem. Instead, he chose to play it right into the teeth of the Houston defense - Durkin and Edelman, both central, were surrounded by 5 Houston defenders - baiting a pass into that area, which Timo unfortunately made.
A split second before the pass, Houston's Agustín Bouzat made an outstanding read to close down on Durkin. You can see him start to sprint just as Timo starts to make his pass. It was really a perfect defensive reaction from the Dynamo midfielder.
Durkin probably only had two realistic options at this point - a ball back to MacNaughton or across the box to Polvara, but a bit of a heavy first touch let Bouzat close the gap to him and disrupt the pass, which squirted between Bürki and Polvara. In hindsight, Bürki should have left it for Polvara, but in the moment you can't fault him for trying to play the ball and avoid giving a corner.
Bürki loses his footing, the ball slips right to Houston's Mateusz Bogusz, and he taps it in to tie the score. This was just an unfortunate sequence started by a bad decision by Timo, a bad touch by Durkin, and a fantastic read by Houston's Agustín Bouzat.
https://reddit.com/link/1tit2we/video/42b1wfbbxb2h1/player
Houston's 2nd goal, off a corner, was somewhat reminiscent of the goal in the DC United match from the weekend - a strike from outside the box that found a way in past Ben Lundt.
Unlike the DC match, CITY did have defenders making an effort to close down on the shooter, in this case Artur, as Hartel reacted to his reception of a pass by moving over to defend - unfortunately arriving just a bit late, as the Dynamo defender struck from about 100 feet out.
As he was preparing to shoot, Ezequiel Ponce (#10) and Felipe Andrade (#36) were moving across the face of goal. From my in-person angle last night, it appeared almost like Lundt expected a header or deflection from the shot and was caught off guard when none occurred.
The shot dipped over Andrade, past Lundt and gave Houston a 2-1 lead at the time. Not a great one to give up, but Lundt rebounded pretty well from this, as we came to find out.
Nice, in depth, article here about Damet, Wray and the switch.
https://reddit.com/link/1tiowic/video/k47czskt6b2h1/player
Let's take a look at the opening goal from last night's roller coaster USOC Quarterfinal against Houston.
On this sequence, Totland had pushed high up the left side into plenty of space, but Chris Durkin’s cross towards him was both under‑hit and off‑target - normally the kind of ball that leads to nothing. Instead, Houston’s Felipe Andrade's poor first touch redirected the ball straight into the path of both Totland and Dynamo goalkeeper Jonathan Bond.
Totland (positioned between the two Houston players) made an attempt to play the ball, but as he tangled with Andrade and Bond, a deflection off the Houston GK popped straight out to the chest of a completely unmarked Marcel Hartel. Hartel was free only because of some truly poor tracking from Dynamo center back Antonio Carlos (#3) - he ball‑watched Durkin’s initial cross, then jogged instead of sprinting to close the gap, leaving Hartel all alone in the box.
Only after Hartel chested the ball down did Carlos make an effort to defend, but he was too far out of position to get to Hartel in time. Marcel ripped home the shot to give CITY an early (but short-lived) 1-0 lead.
Andrade was far too casual in his playing of the cross, Bond was caught in no man's land, and Antonio Carlos didn't position himself correctly to mark St. Louis' most dangerous player. Not great from a Dynamo side that's been quite good defensively this season.
After every match, we should have 5 randomly chosen STH that get to ask questions of the coach at the post-match interview. We don’t have any local reporters with the balls to ask legit questions.
“Wallem has cost goals at both ends of the pitch, he has given up multiple game-winning PKs and he has 2 red cards. Why are you still playing him?”
It is not difficult.
TV/Streaming: No data via mlssoccer.com.
St. Louis CITY SC: OUT: Celio Pompeu (knee), OUT: Tomáš Ostrák (lower leg), OUT: Jaziel Orozco (hamstring), QUESTIONABLE: Marcel Hartel (illness)
Houston Dynamo FC: OUT: Lucas Halter (lower body), OUT: Jimmy Maurer (head)
^(Last Updated: May 19, 04:00AM. All data via mlssoccer.com. Match ID: MLS-MAT-000A8K)