Sunday evening football presented by Continental Tires Show returns to the Gateway City for the day of the match 24, as on the side of the city of St. Louis in difficulty – trying to please an old and not very happy football city! – Organize a team from Portland Timbers by trying to consolidate their grip on fourth place in the Western Conference (7 p.m. and | MLS season Pass, Apple TV +).
This Timbers team is in the middle of an evolution, because the head coach Phil Neville spoke about what looks like the right mixture in the good training and good game model, but now tries to find the right attackers for the right places. There were ups and downs, but it seems that this group is pointed out in the right direction.
St. Louis has already tried a restart of mid-season after having separated from head coach Olof Mellberg and installation of goalkeeper David Crichley. He took things in good start with a late, dramatic – and very, very necessary – victory – during his first outing, but since then … a draw and four defeats in five outings. They are getting closer and closer to the wooden spoon, only two seasons after exceeding the Western Conference as an expansion team.
These teams have already faced football once on Sunday evening, just over a month ago in Portland. The Timbers won this one, 2-1.
While Mellberg has raised the defensive wrongs of recent years, his absolute priority, which has had the price of productivity attack. As the calendar struck in May, pile as much central back as possible in the XI and put figures behind the ball was no longer sufficient, and City took weekly blows. Hartel, Klauss and Cedric Teuchert were left to bring the attack and could not; The midfielder had no steering without Eduard Löwen; And none of the wings created a sort of significant width.
Critichley has reversed a large part of this since the keys were given. He plays only two central backs at the same time, his back-back advances over overlapping, attackers like those mentioned above have the freedom to attack, and some of the promising young people that Mellberg Banized get the playing time.
But the defense fell again. Part of this can be repressed in the continuous absence of Henry Kessler, who was the best center of this never healthy club. When it is missing, the whole bottom line was in disorder and none of the D -MIDS – many of these guys were also injured – did not put a dressing on it.
Win this match and maybe their Audi Cup qualifiers MLS hope at least a little, and these very wise fans feel good. Another loss, however, and it will really look like the shipwreck.
The Tibers have done such a good job throughout spring, scratching and scribbling to keep their heads out of the water with many hard -disputed prints sprinkled with an occasional victory. They failed to take momentum – it was a bit of a grind – but they showed real resilience.
This gave way to a section in which they played within the friendly limits of Providence Park four times in five outings from May 28 to July 3, ranging from 3W-1D (including the 2-1 victory aforementioned on Saint-Louis). We have seen more of the growth of Da Costa, because it has done many things n ° 10 that raise the game of guys around it, and certain important things related to rotation are determined.
We have also seen this team start to accumulate a certain momentum, which, I think, will be solidified if they can start winning this type of game outside with regularity.
By “these types”, I mean “matches on the road against teams that are really, really in difficulty”. Take care of these trains and you not only give yourself a chance in the first four of the conference, but perhaps even the top.
St. Louis City: What impact will Eduard Löwen have this season?
What happens when your best player is probably not available? The answer to this question takes place in real time (and for most of the 2025 season) for Saint-Louis.
If you are not familiar with the “why” behind the prolonged absences of Löwen from the group, watch this video from the German midfielder offering an update on his wife’s fight against stadium brain cancer. Life comes before football, and we want Löwen and his wife to the best during an unimaginably difficult period.
And yet, football is always the passion and profession of Löwen. According to the acting manager David Crichley, we can see Löwen for an extended period this Sunday. What can he give to this city? Well, it’s TBD.
Portland Timbers: Look at Finn Surman while you can …
Sometimes a video is worth a thousand words. I could tell you how Phil Neville assesses the 21-year-old New Zealand defender … or you could listen to Dario Zuparic put his talent in perspective.
Critichley immediately sanded Mellberg’s 3-4-2-1 for a 4-2-3-1, and his players were in fact allowed to cross the midfielder.
It was a good change, and which is quickly held even if Critichley tinkered with a 4-4-2 and a little of 4-3-3. Throughout all this, St. Louis increased their number of passes in the last third by more than 50%. They are actually a fun team to look at now.
Basic, and necessary stuff. But that did not lead to winning, because the defense was in disorder. I will come back below, but let me talk a little more about what I appreciate about the attack:
- There was a more concerted effort to build with the Ballon of the Deep Central midfielder, which puts everything, large switches, to the balls above, with third line passes in the half-spaces in play; And…
- Hartel is the guy who obtains a ton of these third line passes, and he has an elite capacity to play the final ball of the left half space.
In practice, this means that the rear (it is a rotary casting casting on both sides) play above, advances over overlapping, so Hartel to someone with whom to combine, and the attackers – especially Klauss – obtain a service at a time below and outside.
There is also, of course, the long ball:
A ton of Saint-Louis goals during the last month came long balls and rooms. They will continue to be dangerous on both.
Ok, now the defense. I will stay simple here:
- They are beaten on the sets.
- There is a disconnection between the midfielder and the back line when they press. This seems structural, because the front line does not seem to know exactly what type of opponent is built from the bottom line they want to prevent.
- This leaves the CBS of St. Louis in positions where they must win battles in the open field in 1V1 situations. Which … they didn’t do it.
Four losses in five. Thirteen goals conceded during this period. Time runs out.
Since the start of the season, this has been a 4-2-3-1 with Da Costa pulling the strings and wingers who extend the field vertically and horizontally.
This last song is important because last year (and the previous year, and the previous year), the Portland Achille heel was their propensity to launch one or both rear in the attack without any consideration for the defense of rest or the overall structure of the team. If you do this, each turnover becomes a five alarms fire in the other direction – and even Chara could not turn them all.
This year, the rear is deeper while the wingers provided most of the width of attack. For this reason, they were less inclined to be treated during the opposite transition moments.
In attack, this structure – keep the backwards deep and rely on the wingers to create a width and penetration – allowed them to put the ball into good places to punish the teams in transition:
The problem, however, is that the first Jonathan Rodríguez was injured, then Antony intensified – he was great in the spring – then Antony injured himself. And now they are at an exact winger.
So, last weekend, it meant that they returned to 3-4-2-1 in which they had started the season, with Da Costa and Santi Moreno starting on the line “2” as half-space merchants, as well as a pair of flying follies. It was not… great. But it was actually quite good, given all the missing pieces and the lack of representatives in this training, and the young Ian Smith obtained his first MLS goal in his fourth departure.
This is exactly where WingBacks score in modern game:
It could be this weekend again.
There could be great changes compared to last week – there should probably be after a point compared to the last 15. I do not think that anyone can predict exactly what it will be, but I will try to talk about teuchert as a key shadow under Klauss.
If you get a victory, you don’t play with this formula. I therefore think that we will see the 3-4-2-1-including Maxime Crépeau on James Pantemis in order.
