Ask Nashville SC coach Gary Smith about St. Louis City SC, a familiar thought comes to mind: being a better MLS expansion team than the opposition expects.
“There were teams I’m sure that played against us three-and-a-half years ago that took us lightly because we were an expansion side,” Smith said. “And maybe early on, there are some teams that are looking back and wishing they hadn’t attacked the game as they did. But credit to St. Louis, they’ve started the season off with an explosion.”
St. Louis is this year’s expansion team, holding the best record (9-5-2, 29 points) in the Western Conference halfway through 2023, good for fifth in the league. That’s not the start Inter Miami CF (12 points), Austin FC (16 points), Nashville (15 points) or Charlotte FC (20 points) claimed in their first 17 games in respective club history. Nashville hosts St. Louis for the first time Saturday (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass), a matchup in which the “expansion team” moniker doesn’t apply like before.
“I suspect that, having looked at them quite a bit, we’re gonna get a very similar type of performance and game I would think to (New York) Red Bulls, Philly (Union),” Smith said. “Teams that are very, very positive. Lots and lots of energy, aggressive in their mindset, with and without the ball.”
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Nashville SC previously:Here’s how Nashville SC kept its unbeaten streak alive at Toronto FC.
How St. Louis City SC is different
St. Louis sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel lives by the high-press and “gegenpressing” trade, which translates in Pfannenstiel’s native German to immediately pressing the opposition after losing the ball. It’s a system coach Bradley Carnell is familiar with, having played in the German Bundesliga and coaching at Red Bulls for five seasons.
Plus, St. Louis is, “very positive: their penalty box entries, crosses — the players that they commit to attack are substantial,” Smith added.
Smith name-dropped St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki, center forward João Klauss and midfielder Eduard Löwen as key cogs in getting St. Louis to the top of the West. Add that to MLS veterans Tim Parker and Jake Nerwinski in defense. Carnell told the St. Louis Times-Dispatch that Löwen (quad) could be questionable for Saturday.
But in the absence of Klauss (quad) — who scored five goals in St. Louis’ first five games — since late April, 22-year-old rising U.S. men’s national team forward Niko Gioacchini has provided the scoring: one goal every other game since May 20.
How Nashville SC should respond
Joe Willis said Nashville will have to be wary of his hometown team’s high-press and bodies they throw inside his penalty box. But he’s confident in Nashville’s versatility.
“If we have time and space to keep the ball, we have guys who are confident on the ball, confident to make line-breaking passes and build out that way,” he said. “But if that’s not working for us, then we also have guys who can find those channel balls, can find Teal (Bunbury) up top to hold it up for us.”
To make the expansion team contrast greater, Nashville (seventh) and Miami (10th) were the last clubs to clinch playoff berths in 2020 (expanded playoff). St. Louis might be next.
“I’m sure the (St. Louis) group’s confident,” Smith said. I would certainly think they’re looking at year one…being in the playoffs and thinking to themselves, ‘you know what, we’ve got a good foundation here’, and they’d be absolutely right about that.”
For stories about Nashville SC or Soccer in Tennessee, contact Drake Hills at [email protected]. Follow Drake on Twitter at @LiveLifeDrake. Connect with Drake on Instagram at @drakehillssoccer and on Facebook.