Soccer
The Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tires show heads back to the Gateway City for Matchday 24, as a struggling St. Louis CITY side – trying to please an old and proud and currently not very happy soccer town! – host a Portland Timbers side trying to solidify their hold on fourth place in the Western Conference (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).
That Timbers team is in the midst of an evolution, as head coach Phil Neville has conjured what looks like the right mix in the right formation and game model, but is now trying to find the right attackers for the right spots. There have been some ups and downs, but it feels like this group is pointed in the right direction.
St. Louis already tried a mid-season reboot after parting ways with head coach Olof Mellberg and installing caretaker manager David Critchley. He got things off to a good start with a late, dramatic – and very, very necessary – win in his first outing, but since then… one draw and four losses in five outings. They are inching closer and closer to the Wooden Spoon, just two seasons after they topped the Western Conference as an expansion team.
These teams have already faced off once on Sunday Night Soccer, just over a month ago in Portland. The Timbers won that one, 2-1.
Let’s set the scene:
St. Louis CITY
- Goalkeeper Roman Bürki was the unquestioned hero of this team’s first two years, and the best ‘keeper in the league. He missed a ton of time in the spring with a broken hand, but has been back since mid-May and has been doing his best to keep this ship afloat.
- Are we getting a João Klauss redemption arc? The big DP No. 9 has scored six goals in his past six games after netting six in his previous 43. Too good to be true? Probably. We’ve seen him go on hot streaks before – all five of his 2024 goals came in a seven-game stretch.
- Marcel Hartel had to be the midfield orchestrator under Mellberg, but has shifted back into his preferred role as a natural chance creator since Critchley took over. So, it’s no surprise that the entire attack (not just Klauss) has been more productive since the change.
Portland Timbers
- DP No. 10 David Da Costa cost a lot of money and had big shoes to fill when he was brought in this winter to replace Evander. While he hasn’t been quite as electric as Evander in attack, he’s been better against the ball, and as last weekend showed, he can be a match-winner.
- If young David Ayala – somehow he’s still just 22 – is as good as Neville says, then he’ll have a lot to say about where the Timbers finish in the West race. And while I’m not quite as bullish as Neville (I don’t think he’s the best central midfielder in the league), there are definitely moments when you can see the argument.
- The saying is “Father Time wins all battles,” but the old man hasn’t been able to run down Diego Chara just yet. He turned 39 earlier this year and is still elite at covering ground, winning the ball and immediately playing attackers like Da Costa into advantage. Simply one of the greatest players ever to lace ‘em up in this league of ours.
While Mellberg made righting the defensive wrongs of the past few years his top priority, that came at the cost of attacking productivity. By the time the calendar hit May, cramming as many center backs as possible into the XI and putting numbers behind the ball was no longer enough, and CITY were taking weekly beatings. Hartel, Klauss and Cedric Teuchert were left to carry the attack and couldn’t; the midfield had no direction without Eduard Löwen; and none of the wingbacks created any sort of meaningful width.
Critchley has reversed much of that since being handed the keys. He’s playing only two center backs at a time, his fullbacks get forward on the overlap, attackers like those mentioned above are given freedom to attack, and some of the promising youngsters Mellberg banished are getting playing time.
But the defense has now fallen apart again. Some of that can be chalked up to the continued absence of Henry Kessler, who’s been the best center back this club’s ever had when healthy. When he’s missing, the entire backline has been a mess and none of the d-mids – a lot of those guys have been hurt, too – have put a band-aid on it.
Win this game and maybe their Audi MLS Cup Playoffs hopes spark to life at least a little bit, and those very savvy fans get something to feel good about. Another loss, though, and it’ll really feel like the ship’s sinking.
The Timbers did such a good job throughout the spring, scratching and clawing to keep their heads above water with lots of hard-fought draws sprinkled with the occasional win. They mostly failed to build momentum – it was all very much a grind – but they showed some real resilience.
That gave way to a stretch in which they played in the friendly confines of Providence Park four times in five outings from May 28 to July 3, going 3W-1L-1D (including the aforementioned 2-1 win over St. Louis). We saw more of Da Costa’s growth, as he’s done a lot of the No. 10 things that elevate the play of the guys around him, and some important rotation-related things are being figured out.
We’ve also seen this team begin to accrue some momentum, something I think will be solidified if they can start winning these types of away games with regularity.
By “these types,” I mean “road games against teams that are really, really struggling.” Take care of those stragglers and you give yourself not just a chance at the top four in the conference, but maybe even top one.
St. Louis CITY: What impact will Eduard Löwen have this season?
What happens when arguably your best player is unavailable? The answer to that question is unfolding in real time (and for most of the 2025 season) for St. Louis.
If you aren’t familiar with the “why” behind Löwen’s prolonged absences from the group, watch this video from the German midfielder providing an update on his wife’s fight against Stage IV brain cancer. Life comes before soccer, and we wish Löwen and his wife the best during an unimaginably difficult time.
And yet, soccer is still Löwen’s passion and profession. According to interim manager David Critchley, we may see Löwen for a prolonged period this Sunday. What can he give this CITY side? Well, that’s TBD.
Biggest news at @stlCITYsc training & per David Critchley is that Edu Löwen trained & should see minutes on Sunday
If the med staff thinks he can go at least 45′ he may start & per Critch, one big benefit to having Löwen is Hartel playing higher up the field. #AllForCITY
— Matt Baker (@MattBakerSTL) July 9, 2025
Portland Timbers: Watch Finn Surman while you can…
Sometimes a video is worth a thousand words. I could tell you how much Phil Neville rates the 21-year-old New Zealand international defender… or you could listen to Dario Zuparic put his talent into perspective.
Timbers CB Dario Zuparic said Finn Surman has potential to be a “Premier League player.”
“I’ve been playing professional soccer for almost 15 years… He (Surman) has potential to be a great CB not just in this league, but the world.” pic.twitter.com/8qeBZGbTGq
— Adam Susman (@Adam_Susman) July 8, 2025
St. Louis CITY
Critchley immediately punted Mellberg’s 3-4-2-1 for a 4-2-3-1, and his players were actually allowed to cross midfield.
That was a nice change, and one that’s held fast even as Critchley has tinkered with a 4-4-2 and a little bit of a 4-3-3. Throughout it all, St. Louis increased their number of passes in the final third by over 50%. They are actually a fun team to watch now.
Basic stuff, and necessary. But it hasn’t led to winning, because the defense has been a mess. I’ll get to that below, but let me just talk a little bit more about what I’m enjoying from the attack:
- There’s been a more concerted effort to build with the ball from deep central midfield, which puts everything from big switches, to balls over the top, to third-line passes into the half-spaces into play; and…
- Hartel’s the guy getting on a ton of those third-line passes, and he has an elite ability to play the final ball from the left half-space.
In practice, that means the fullbacks (it’s been a rotating cast on both sides) play higher, get forward on the overlap so Hartel has someone to combine with, and the forwards – especially Klauss – get service from both underneath and out wide.
There is also, of course, the long ball:
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 31, 2025
A ton of St. Louis’ goals over the past month have come from long balls and set pieces. They will continue to be dangerous on both.
Ok, now the defense. I’m going to keep it simple here:
- They are getting beaten up on set pieces.
- There is a disconnect between the midfield and backline when they press. This looks structural, because the front line doesn’t seem to know exactly what kind of opposing builds from the backline they want to prevent.
- That leaves St. Louis’ CBs in positions where they have to win open-field battles in 1v1 situations. Which… they haven’t.
Four losses in five. Thirteen goals conceded in that span. Time’s running out.
Portland Timbers
Since early in the season, it’s been a 4-2-3-1 with Da Costa pulling the strings and the wingers stretching the field both vertically and horizontally.
That last bit is important because last year (and the year before, and the year before that), Portland’s Achilles’ heel was their propensity for throwing one or both fullbacks up into the attack without any consideration for rest defense or overall team structure. If you do that, every turnover becomes a five-alarm fire heading in the other direction – and not even Chara could put them all out.
This year, the fullbacks have been deeper while the wingers have provided most of the attacking width. Because of that, they’ve been less prone to getting gassed during opposing transition moments.
In attack, that structure – keeping the fullbacks deep and relying on the wingers to create width and penetration – has allowed them to get the ball in good spots to punish teams in transition:
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 23, 2025
The problem, though, is that first Jonathan Rodríguez got hurt, and then Antony stepped up – he was awesome through the spring – and then Antony got hurt. And now they’re down to exactly one winger.
So last weekend, that meant they went back to the 3-4-2-1 they’d started the season in, with Da Costa and Santi Moreno starting on the “2” line as half-space merchants, along with a pair of flying wingbacks. It wasn’t… great. But it was actually pretty good, considering all the missing pieces and the lack of reps in that formation, plus young Ian Smith got his first MLS goal in his fourth-ever start.
This is exactly where wingbacks score from in the modern game:
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 6, 2025
It could be on again this weekend.
There could be big changes from last week – there probably should be after one point from the last 15 on offer. I don’t think anyone can predict exactly what they’ll be, but I’m going to try to talk Teuchert as a shadow striker under Klauss into existence.
If you get yourself a win, you don’t mess with that formula. So I think we’ll see the 3-4-2-1 again – including Maxime Crépeau over James Pantemis in goal.
Read MoreNancie Grumbles