Before a May 17 match at Minnesota United, St. Louis City SC defender Henry Kessler said the team needed to put together a complete 90 minutes in order to break a long winless streak.
The search continues into another week after a 3-0 loss that extended the team’s winless streak to 10 matches. St. Louis will attempt to get back into the win column Saturday night when it travels to suburban Denver for a match with the Colorado Rapids.
St. Louis City (2-7-5, 11 points) is 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference table and hasn’t won in more than two months. The squad is 0-7-3 in that span and even its defense, a staple early in the year, is breaking down more and more.
“We’ve played really good at times,” Kessler said. “We’ve had late leads. We all want to win and when you haven’t won in a while, the frustration comes out.”
St. Louis City coach Olof Mellberg is coming under fire from fans and media for his team’s style of play. It has allowed 17 goals in the last eight fixtures while managing just seven.
While St. Louis City is riding the struggle bus, Colorado (5-5-4, 19 points) snapped a three-match losing streak on May 17 with a 1-0 home win over Real Salt Lake. Djordje Mihailovic scored in the 70th minute with an assist from Cole Bassett.
Colorado coach Chris Armas made a tactical change prior to the match, returning to the 4-2-3-1 formation his team used successfully last year after experimenting with a 4-2-2-2 for six matches. It had the desired effect on defense as his side recorded their first clean sheet since a 2-0 decision over Charlotte FC on March 29.
“We played a professionally tactical game,” Mihailovic said. “We can turn the page after a difficult week and a half. We were patient. We stuck to it. We finally have a complete game.”
St. Louis and Colorado played to a scoreless draw on Feb. 22 in Missouri.
–Field Level Media
