For the second time in two weeks, St Louis City and the Vancouver Whitecaps will meet in an MLS match, this time at CityPark on Saturday.
Last Sunday, St Louis dropped to 12th in the Western Conference with a 4-1 defeat against the Colorado Rapids, six places below the Caps in the table, after the latter settled for a 1-1 draw with CF Montreal.
Match preview
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After a solid start to his coaching tenure, John Hackworth saw his St Louis side knocked down a peg in Colorado, as they struggled to handle the high press throughout the 90 minutes.
Hackworth has a lot of work to do to get this team into a playoff position, with St Louis currently eight points below that line and three teams to surpass.
During the 2023 regular season, this team led the league in home victories (11) but have only claimed four domestically this year, while they can only pick up five more home triumphs at most in 2024.
St Louis have suffered three defeats in MLS this season, just one fewer than they had in their inaugural campaign a year ago.
So far in 2024, St Louis have failed to win five league contests when scoring the opening goal, accounting for 12 points dropped.
Their 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes in their previous home contest was only the second time they had won at CityPark and maintained a clean sheet simultaneously, the previous time being versus New York City FC in early March (2-0).
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It appeared that the Caps were all set to win consecutive MLS away games for the second time in 2024, only to concede an equaliser with 11 minutes remaining.
That was only the third time domestically this season that they had failed to win despite drawing first blood, dropping seven points as a result.
While Vanni Sartini will be disappointed with last weekend's single point, his side still claimed an 18th point away from home in this competition, equalling their entire output from 2023.
As things stand, Vancouver are in a position to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for only the second time in their MLS history, currently sixth in the Western Conference.
Only three points currently separate them from Minnesota United above that playoff line, though there are four teams in between those two in the table.
The Caps have won their previous two encounters with St Louis City, including a 4-3 thriller a couple of weeks ago, but they lost their only previous visit to CityPark last year (3-1).
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Team News
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St Louis were without Klauss and Rasmus Alm last weekend because of knee injuries, while Roman Burki left their previous match with a back issue, though Hackworth is optimistic that he will be available.
Celio Pompeu will not return this season because of a serious leg injury, Tomas Ostrak is also out for the year after undergoing Achilles tendon surgery, while Kyle Hiebert is unavailable as Canada take on Uruguay for third place at the Copa America on Saturday.
John Klein had the only St Louis City goal against the Rapids a week ago, the first-ever strike for the 24-year-old in MLS.
Against Montreal, the Whitecaps were missing Pedro Vite because of a quad knock, while Tristan Blackmon and Damir Kreilach were out with groin strains.
Sam Adekugbe may still be recovering from a calf strain, while Ali Ahmed is out as Canada play for a bronze medal at the Copa America.
Brian White notched the only goal last Saturday, having found the back of the net in three successive MLS matches, and Ryan Gauld now has 17 goal contributions in his last 18 domestic appearances.
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Totland, Yaro, Parker, Reid; Blom, Durkin; Kijima, Klein, Vassilev; Adeniran
Vancouver Whitecaps possible starting lineup:
Takaoka; Laborda, Veselinovic, Utvik; Raposo, Berhalter, Cubas, Schopf; Gauld, White, Picault
We say: St Louis City 2-2 Vancouver Whitecaps
St Louis lead the league in draws this season with 10, and while many of those points have been memorable fixtures, they have yet to be convincing over 90 minutes, while the Caps are having a tough time winning away from home themselves.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
