St. Louis City SC Concludes a Strong Inaugural Season
By: Anthony Tazbaz
Image Credit: Chris Hardy
Season one is almost in the books! What a season it is!
With all 34 regular season matches played, St. Louis City SC concluded MLS Decision Day — the league's last matchday of the season — as the best club in the Western Conference.
Beginning their journey at end of February, St. Louis began their inaugural season in astonishing fashion by winning their first five matches, a first by an expansion club in MLS history.
From that moment, the club never looked back. Despite sub-par US Open Cup and Leagues Cup performances, St. Louis continued their incredible form during the regular season. Their young and inexperienced (in MLS) core did a solid job until this moment, where they can play their final match of the season against 2nd-place Seattle Sounders at considerable ease.
Diving Into the Season
Boasting 17 wins and a total of 56 points, St. Louis also holds the accolade for most victories amongst all teams playing in their expansion season (excluding the pre-shootout era). The club shattered the record — previously held by Los Angeles FC (LAFC) in 2018 (16 wins) — following their 4-1 victory against State rivals Sporting Kansas City on September 30.
St. Louis City will now host the winner of the Western Conference wildcard match (8th vs 9th). This opportunity will demonstrate whether this St. Louis squad is also built for the MLS Cup Playoffs.
Regardless of the performance in the MLS Cup Playoffs, however, clinching first place in the Western Conference during the regular season enabled the Missouri club to qualify for next year's CONCACAF Champions Cup, a rebranded and reformatted CONCACAF Champions League.
Bottom Line
After defeating LAFC's 2018 record for most wins by an expansion club, St. Louis City just feel short of eclipsing LAFC's record for most points accumulated by an expansion club (57 points) following a 2-0 loss on Decision Day. A draw against Seattle in the final regular season match would have equalized the tally, whereas a win would have guaranteed ownership of this accolade.
Despite coming up short in the Supporters' Shield race to FC Cincinnati, who are making serious history themselves, St. Louis will have the opportunity to chase glory on two great occasions before their second season is well underway. This is an incredibly rare and exciting occurrence for new MLS clubs.
St. Louis ultimately took the league and North America by surprise with a historic first season. This should give much hope for San Diego and future MLS clubs to hit the ground running as they leapfrog into arguably North America's most prestigious league today.
Although the squad deserves much praise, head coach Bradley Carnell will certainly be a top candidate for Coach of the Year, if not the winner. His first season coaching in MLS is unmatched, especially considering his entire squad never played together prior to this season. Just let that sink in!
It remains to be seen whether St. Louis will turn into the likes of Los Angeles FC and Atlanta United — two MLS powerhouses — or crash down to Earth (and perhaps lower) and become a perennial mid-table club such as Chicago Fire FC, CF Montréal, or most recently, Charlotte FC.
Stay tuned for the MLS Cup Playoffs beginning at the end of the month!
