Unbeaten in their last three matches, St Louis City entertain the challenge of DC United at City Park on Sunday in round five of the 2024 MLS campaign.
On the other hand, the away side make the journey to Missouri aiming to get back to winning ways off the back of a first defeat in four matches last time out.
Match preview
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St Louis City had to make do with a point from their encounter against Los Angeles Galaxy, which ended in a 3-3 stalemate at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday.
After trailing 1-0 and 2-1 to strikes from Dejan Joveljic and Joseph Paintsil, Bradley Carnell's men hit back through Tomas Ostrak and Joakim Nilsson before turning the game around thanks to a John McCarthy own goal, only for Maya Yoshida to level matters in stoppage time.
Consequently, St Louis City have now dropped down to fifth place in the Western Conference of the MLS table, albeit only one point off second.
Having lost just one of their last eight matches on home turf, Sunday's hosts will be confident of picking up another positive result in front of their fans.
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DC United were on the receiving end of a comprehensive 3-1 defeat against Inter Miami when the sides went head-to-head at Audi Field on Saturday.
Troy Lesesne's men took the lead early on through Jared Stroud before Leonardo Campana's leveller and a Luis Suarez brace turned the clash around.
With five points picked up from four matches so far, the Black-and-Red sit ninth in the Eastern Conference standings, one point clear of the teams just outside the playoff places.
Awaiting them next is a first-ever meeting against an opposing outfit who are featuring in only their second top-flight season, having debuted last year.
Winless in 11 straight away matches leading up to this weekend's affair, Sunday's visitors have it all to do as they seek to turn their away fortunes around.
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Team News
Pedro Santos was sent off in the final knockings of DC United's defeat to Inter Miami, ruling the defender out of this weekend's game.
Steven Birnbaum and Tyler Miller also miss for the visitors, while Russell Canouse remains a major doubt and is still without an appearance this year.
Twenty-four-year-old Njabulo Blom is still out of contention for St Louis City through a knee injury as Aaron Herrera and Matti Peltola miss out due to international duty.
Joakim Nilsson finally opened his account for the hosts at the 13th time of asking last time out and will be looking to pick up where he left off.
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Markanich, Nilsson, Yaro, Totland; Pompeu, Ostrak, Durkin, Vassilev; Jackson, Klauss
DC United possible starting lineup:
Bono; Akinmboni, Bartlett, McVey, Antley; Rodriguez, Klich, Pirani, Stroud; Dajome, Benteke
We say: St Louis City 2-0 DC United
St Louis City's home record of late coupled with DC United's recent struggles on the road makes the hosts huge favourites to come out on top here. We fully expect them to get the job done in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
