WHAt you need to know: st. louis city sc
Welcome back to What You Need To Know, a preview for Austin FC fans to check in on their next opponent.
Oh, what a match to miss being in the South End for.
As you all know, Austin FC beat the San Jose Earthquakes 4-3 last Saturday thanks to a 101’ winner from Sebastian Driussi. That was the second straight win at Q2 for Austin and they climbed up into a playoff spot. With Austin FC on the upswing, they travel to ‘The Gateway to the West’ and CITY PARK to take on St Louis CITY for a rare afternoon match for Austin.
History vs. Austin FC:
Austin is 0-2-1 (W-T-L) against St Louis all time, including a 2-2 draw at Q2 on March 9. Their only other visit to CITY PARK was a 6-3 loss for Austin FC (I’m not linking these highlights).
Recent Matches:
St Louis drew 0-0 at home to FC Dallas on April 6. They’re 1-5-1 on the season, which is the same number of draws they had in all of 2023.
Players to Watch:
Klauss
The forward is back fully healthy for CITY and has always caused issues for Austin. He’s a target forward whose hold-up play allows their other attackers to pass and move around the box. Even if he’s not the one scoring goals (and he’s fully capable of that), his effect on their team is important as Julio Cascante and Brandon Hines-Ike try to bounce back from a rough match against San Jose.
Tim Parker
The former Houston Dynamo Centerback came to St Louis as part of the 2023 Expansion Draft and has helped to solidify their back line. However, Austin FC was able to exploit his lack of pace in the match here in March, forcing him to take a tactical yellow, and he could have been sent off after another foul that should have drawn a yellow. Austin could try and target him with speed on the break and force him to defend in space.
Chris Durkin
Durkin is the key to their midfield and does a lot of the work when St Louis’ press is broken. He leads all non-defenders in passes and leads the team in tackles. He’ll be tasked with the responsibility of Sebastian Driussi and Alex Ring (or whoever else plays in the advanced midfield roles) to keep Austin from progressing forward.
Keys to the Match:
Game Theory at Play
Because these teams played a mere month ago, the game plan for both is fresh in their mind. Austin was content to play solid defense and look for opportunities to counter, which worked well until Wolff opted to bunker down completely in their own half. Austin now has Driussi back, so will we see Wolff use a similar game plan or play differently now that his team is mostly full-strength? How will St Louis try to counter this outside of throwing on more strikers?
Outside of City Limits
Austin FC hasn’t won a road match since July 8 of 2023 (@ Minnesota United) and is 3-6-10 on the road since the beginning of last season. They’ve also never beaten St Louis in three tries and CITY is the last Western Conference team Austin FC hasn’t defeated. If they want to maintain a playoff spot they’re going to need to start banking some road points because the home-friendly start of the season ends soon.
Defensive Woes
Austin FC gave up a multitude of chances against San Jose last weekend and are still last in MLS in xGA. There is no easy fix as it’s a combination of the system, individual errors, and lack of effort to get 50/50 balls or clear rebounds after an initial Stuver save. Even though Martin Paes was able to keep St Louis from scoring last week with a handful of great saves (enough to make the MLS Team of the Matchday) they generated a number of good chances. Austin has to be more mindful defensively if they want to get a result this weekend.
WRITTEN BY SCOTT SPECHT
