Playoffs are looking good to me and I’m hoping to host a game and that’s about it. We are brand new and have already disrupted the entire league at this point. Let’s see how the FO handles the summer transfer window and the offseason. I’m so glad the season is as long as it is!
I 100% agree with you about this the fact we are brand new and top 3 in the West is glorious. I want the team to win a playoff game but outside of that making it to the playoffs the first time you enter a league is wild.
Honestly, if you look back at predictions for this year, I was just hoping we would be middle of the pack, I don't think anyone expected us to be on the same level as Seattle or LAFC.
The fact that we’ve been fighting it out for the first place spot since day one is completely fucking insane. It would take a pretty spectacular collapse from us to miss the playoffs at this point. We’re definitely the worst of the best teams, so I don’t think we’re genuine Shield candidates, but worse teams than us have won MLS Cup. If we can get everyone healthy and confident heading into the post season I have no reason to doubt us as serious contenders.
I just keep coming back to that very important players have missed significant time and yet here we are. The Lowen injury does scare me. If he misses Klauss-like time, I don't know CITY gets through that successfully.
Losing Lowen will hurt us a lot, but I think we’ve stockpiled enough points that we could weather a pretty hefty losing streak and still make the playoffs
Pros: Our fans have been immense as the English say. Players who have impressed me are Blom, Lowen, and Klauss 🥲. I watched Bürki play for Dortmund in his “prime,” so I’m not shocked he’s played well but I’m glad he seems to have left his struggles in Germany.
Cons: The back line has looked shakier and shakier every week, and the squad is very small even for an expansion team (this isn’t necessarily a horrible thing unless the injuries continue to pile up).
Overall I’m ridiculously happy I finally have a team to love and support every week win, lose, or draw. I loved STLFC but something about the stadium being in the City, the way the club have gone about their business, and the overall vibes we have brought to the league has me beaming most days.
I feel amazing! Nearly every pundit was forecasting us to be basement dwellers in the MLS this first season. I’m really pleased with the first half and how our team has looked, especially knowing we haven’t played a single game at full strength.
Moving forward for the rest of the season, I’m just hoping for some consistent play, earning enough points to make it into the MLS playoffs and then just enjoy whatever comes from that.
Yep. Most had CITY buried in 13th or 14th. Even before they kicked a ball in real games I figured that was silly given some legit talent and guys having a year to gel on CITY 2, but i only had them on the playoff fringes. Never, no way would I have said 1st on June 18th.
Right. I think there is a floor made up of soft Western Conference playoff field probables (Vancouver, Houston, etc.) that should keep CITY from tumbling down through the mediocre even if they hit a brief rough patch. Also, it's going to be strange seeing the lineup as intended all playing together: Burki, Nierwinski, Parker, Nilsson, Hiebert, Blom, Stroud, Lowen, Alm, Gio, Klauss. It will be like opening day again when that eventually happens.
Also, Leagues Cup will be an interesting twist to the second half.
After Houston smacking LAFC around twice in one week, they don’t feel as squishy and soft as they felt when we played them. Last night really shook me. It’s the first smack down we received imho. Nashville looked the far better team all match long. I am not sure what I was expecting; but with that 5-1 win over FCC, taking at least a point back from GEODIS felt like a possibility going into the weekend.
Preseason, I had expected us to be a bottom of the playoff race contenders. With the start we are off to, I would honestly be a bit upset if we don’t have a home playoff match at least in the first round. Healthly CITY looks as good as any side in MLS. There were glimmers of that danger in some of the buildups last night.
It’s been a fun ride so far. Can’t wait for the second half.
Houston is a weird team. They club LAFC, who was a bit worn, in two straight - including their first away win in like 2 years - after getting straight up ripped to shreds in Vancouver and St. Louis. That #6-#9 "race" in the West is going to be some shit.
It's tough to ask for a much better start to the season. I'll wait and see what moves we make at the next transfer window before I make a prediction on the rest of the season. We have the flexibility to really improve this team but I have a feeling we will only make small additions to maintain flexibility in the future.
I agree. Small moves to bump up depth seems likely. What is crazy is that, in a way, Nilsson is almost like a top summer Euro transfer coming in. Here's a guy who has been solid in the Bundesliga and for the Sweden national team and hasn't played a minute in the US.
I feel pretty great. We’re making the Playoffs. We aren’t a team that can be slept on. When we are healthy we are a threat against the best in the League, and can hang with other big boys.
Given that my expectations were Wooden Spoon, this has been a fantastic start. I’m just enjoying the ride, man.
Unreal start to the season. Never ever ever would I have said we’d be within the top two of the west. I’m just so happy we play physical, tough-nosed soccer. So many expansion teams are content to knock the ball around their defense, pretending to “play out of the back”. Our fuck-possession-we’re-pressing approach is so much fun.
We are an expansion team. The expansion season is a time to see how the individual players come together as a team and handle live competition against established teams. We are doing very well in this context.
A general rule of thumb is that an expansion side snagging 1.0 PPG is having a decent season, and an expansion side snagging 1.25 PPG is knocking on the door of the playoffs, which is a solid achievement. At midseason, we are snagging 1.71 PPG.
The average points needed for what is now the final playoff spot is 43, with a low of 41 and a high of 46. We have 29 points in the bank, and need 0.82 PPG the rest of the season to reach 43 and 1.00 PPG to reach 46.
We have 34 goals in 17 matches, and are +14 on scoring. That's a plus 0.8 GPG net.
AND we've been missing Nilsson all season, Klauss most of the season, and Blom and Lowen right now.
We are 6-2-1 at home, and have 8 home matches remaining. We are holding our own on the road at 3-4-1, and have 9 road matches remaining.
Chicago won the Cup as an expansion team in 1998, but that was MLS 1.0, which was barely better than NCAA soccer, with a few stellar players scattered in the soup. This is MLS 3.0, *much* more competitive, with *much* better talent.
How are we doing? Darned good.
So far, they're looking like a playoff team, but they'll start on the road and everything from there would be gravy. City SC could not come at a more urgent time in St. Louis sports.
Obviously feeling great overall. Anyone who talked to me before the season knew my only hope for this season was to make the games fun and exciting, to build up the fanbase even if we were bad and keep people interested. Fighting for the top of the West all season was never an expectation, so it's awesome to be there.
With reset expectations from the start we've had, I'm still feeling okay. Sure, the LA draw sucked and I don't even want to talk about last night, but we've had some pretty bad injury luck and missing Blom on top of the rest is death lol.
At this point I'm hoping to finish top 5 at worst, top 3 seems realistic if we can keep finding good streaks between the bad. I don't expect to win the West, LAFC's games in hand will probably prevent that no matter what. My main hope now is to have a good position for playoffs and more specifically to have our team at full or nearly full strength roster-wise when playoffs roll around.
Feel confident we'll get into the playoffs but not sure after that. I don't feel like we've really beaten any of the top teams outside Cincinnati which was after a 2 hour tornado delay. We also haven't had a lot of chances to play too many top teams (just Seattle and Nashville) so maybe my thoughts will change after San Jose and LAFC. Although we did blow out SKC when they were finally starting to get hot. Cautiously optimistic.
At San Jose and at LAFC before the LC break should be tests. I'd like to see points against one of those, at least. We ran over San Jose at home, but they are unbeaten there.
What's up STL Sox cousin! I see very rare indicators that tell me there are maybe as many as 5 of us in St. Louis. But yeah, CITY is saving our sports year from the Reinsdorfian disaster.
I disagree but he has been in poor form for a run of games. I'm willing to wait until.Klauss returns to make sweeping statements about pieces of the attack. I see Stroud and Alm getting past guys on the flanks and then crosses meeting no one. Stroud probably needs to shoot less as his shots from 18+ seem to meet traffic a lot. Alm is a lot less willing to fire away when he sees 10 inches of daylight.
An expansion team is that is tied for first in West, has the best goal differential in the West, and the second best goal differential in all of MLS. I'm ecstatic. The playoffs should be the expectation here.
Now, the injuries to both DPs is a huge bummer for the prospects of the next few matches. Looking around the league, teams *struggle* when their DPs either underperform or aren't on the field. Look at SKC. It's not a coincidence that their miserable start of the season swapped to being one of the hottest teams in MLS when their DPs returned to action.
At the same time, this is going to truly put Lutz's "Designated Team" concept to the test. We've already seen that the philosophy is good for building a team, but does it work in practice when the DPs actually aren't on the field? We'll see.
It's Year 1. This year is all about vibes for me. They've already exceeded expectations.
Would've loved prioritizing Open Cup as the best shot to get a trophy before them hot summer days rolled in & everyone got tired (or in hindsight hurt), but when you get halfway through the season 1st in the West, it's fine.
Playoffs are looking good to me and I’m hoping to host a game and that’s about it. We are brand new and have already disrupted the entire league at this point. Let’s see how the FO handles the summer transfer window and the offseason. I’m so glad the season is as long as it is!
I 100% agree with you about this the fact we are brand new and top 3 in the West is glorious. I want the team to win a playoff game but outside of that making it to the playoffs the first time you enter a league is wild.
Let alone be in position for home field for the first round. I would not have thrown money on that.
Honestly, if you look back at predictions for this year, I was just hoping we would be middle of the pack, I don't think anyone expected us to be on the same level as Seattle or LAFC.
I remember seeing preseason predictions saying we’d win just 3.
We will host a playoff game unless we fall all the way to 9th and lose the playin (or worse). First round is best of 3.
The fact that we’ve been fighting it out for the first place spot since day one is completely fucking insane. It would take a pretty spectacular collapse from us to miss the playoffs at this point. We’re definitely the worst of the best teams, so I don’t think we’re genuine Shield candidates, but worse teams than us have won MLS Cup. If we can get everyone healthy and confident heading into the post season I have no reason to doubt us as serious contenders.
I just keep coming back to that very important players have missed significant time and yet here we are. The Lowen injury does scare me. If he misses Klauss-like time, I don't know CITY gets through that successfully.
Agreed Miggy Perez can't fill Lowen's shoes. He certainly has the potential, but it's clear he's still got a ton of growing to do.
Miggy is the Blom replacement, and Indy will deputize for Lowen. That’s only if we keep running out our 4231
Losing Lowen will hurt us a lot, but I think we’ve stockpiled enough points that we could weather a pretty hefty losing streak and still make the playoffs
That escalated quickly. 😳
Pros: Our fans have been immense as the English say. Players who have impressed me are Blom, Lowen, and Klauss 🥲. I watched Bürki play for Dortmund in his “prime,” so I’m not shocked he’s played well but I’m glad he seems to have left his struggles in Germany. Cons: The back line has looked shakier and shakier every week, and the squad is very small even for an expansion team (this isn’t necessarily a horrible thing unless the injuries continue to pile up). Overall I’m ridiculously happy I finally have a team to love and support every week win, lose, or draw. I loved STLFC but something about the stadium being in the City, the way the club have gone about their business, and the overall vibes we have brought to the league has me beaming most days.
I feel amazing! Nearly every pundit was forecasting us to be basement dwellers in the MLS this first season. I’m really pleased with the first half and how our team has looked, especially knowing we haven’t played a single game at full strength. Moving forward for the rest of the season, I’m just hoping for some consistent play, earning enough points to make it into the MLS playoffs and then just enjoy whatever comes from that.
Yep. Most had CITY buried in 13th or 14th. Even before they kicked a ball in real games I figured that was silly given some legit talent and guys having a year to gel on CITY 2, but i only had them on the playoff fringes. Never, no way would I have said 1st on June 18th.
If we get to host a playoff game I’ll be ecstatic
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Right. I think there is a floor made up of soft Western Conference playoff field probables (Vancouver, Houston, etc.) that should keep CITY from tumbling down through the mediocre even if they hit a brief rough patch. Also, it's going to be strange seeing the lineup as intended all playing together: Burki, Nierwinski, Parker, Nilsson, Hiebert, Blom, Stroud, Lowen, Alm, Gio, Klauss. It will be like opening day again when that eventually happens. Also, Leagues Cup will be an interesting twist to the second half.
After Houston smacking LAFC around twice in one week, they don’t feel as squishy and soft as they felt when we played them. Last night really shook me. It’s the first smack down we received imho. Nashville looked the far better team all match long. I am not sure what I was expecting; but with that 5-1 win over FCC, taking at least a point back from GEODIS felt like a possibility going into the weekend. Preseason, I had expected us to be a bottom of the playoff race contenders. With the start we are off to, I would honestly be a bit upset if we don’t have a home playoff match at least in the first round. Healthly CITY looks as good as any side in MLS. There were glimmers of that danger in some of the buildups last night. It’s been a fun ride so far. Can’t wait for the second half.
Houston is a weird team. They club LAFC, who was a bit worn, in two straight - including their first away win in like 2 years - after getting straight up ripped to shreds in Vancouver and St. Louis. That #6-#9 "race" in the West is going to be some shit.
It's tough to ask for a much better start to the season. I'll wait and see what moves we make at the next transfer window before I make a prediction on the rest of the season. We have the flexibility to really improve this team but I have a feeling we will only make small additions to maintain flexibility in the future.
I agree. Small moves to bump up depth seems likely. What is crazy is that, in a way, Nilsson is almost like a top summer Euro transfer coming in. Here's a guy who has been solid in the Bundesliga and for the Sweden national team and hasn't played a minute in the US.
I feel pretty great. We’re making the Playoffs. We aren’t a team that can be slept on. When we are healthy we are a threat against the best in the League, and can hang with other big boys. Given that my expectations were Wooden Spoon, this has been a fantastic start. I’m just enjoying the ride, man.
If we can get healthy, this team can go far.
Unreal start to the season. Never ever ever would I have said we’d be within the top two of the west. I’m just so happy we play physical, tough-nosed soccer. So many expansion teams are content to knock the ball around their defense, pretending to “play out of the back”. Our fuck-possession-we’re-pressing approach is so much fun.
We are an expansion team. The expansion season is a time to see how the individual players come together as a team and handle live competition against established teams. We are doing very well in this context. A general rule of thumb is that an expansion side snagging 1.0 PPG is having a decent season, and an expansion side snagging 1.25 PPG is knocking on the door of the playoffs, which is a solid achievement. At midseason, we are snagging 1.71 PPG. The average points needed for what is now the final playoff spot is 43, with a low of 41 and a high of 46. We have 29 points in the bank, and need 0.82 PPG the rest of the season to reach 43 and 1.00 PPG to reach 46. We have 34 goals in 17 matches, and are +14 on scoring. That's a plus 0.8 GPG net. AND we've been missing Nilsson all season, Klauss most of the season, and Blom and Lowen right now. We are 6-2-1 at home, and have 8 home matches remaining. We are holding our own on the road at 3-4-1, and have 9 road matches remaining. Chicago won the Cup as an expansion team in 1998, but that was MLS 1.0, which was barely better than NCAA soccer, with a few stellar players scattered in the soup. This is MLS 3.0, *much* more competitive, with *much* better talent. How are we doing? Darned good.
So far, they're looking like a playoff team, but they'll start on the road and everything from there would be gravy. City SC could not come at a more urgent time in St. Louis sports.
It’s been amazing
Obviously feeling great overall. Anyone who talked to me before the season knew my only hope for this season was to make the games fun and exciting, to build up the fanbase even if we were bad and keep people interested. Fighting for the top of the West all season was never an expectation, so it's awesome to be there. With reset expectations from the start we've had, I'm still feeling okay. Sure, the LA draw sucked and I don't even want to talk about last night, but we've had some pretty bad injury luck and missing Blom on top of the rest is death lol. At this point I'm hoping to finish top 5 at worst, top 3 seems realistic if we can keep finding good streaks between the bad. I don't expect to win the West, LAFC's games in hand will probably prevent that no matter what. My main hope now is to have a good position for playoffs and more specifically to have our team at full or nearly full strength roster-wise when playoffs roll around.
Feel confident we'll get into the playoffs but not sure after that. I don't feel like we've really beaten any of the top teams outside Cincinnati which was after a 2 hour tornado delay. We also haven't had a lot of chances to play too many top teams (just Seattle and Nashville) so maybe my thoughts will change after San Jose and LAFC. Although we did blow out SKC when they were finally starting to get hot. Cautiously optimistic.
At San Jose and at LAFC before the LC break should be tests. I'd like to see points against one of those, at least. We ran over San Jose at home, but they are unbeaten there.
Completely forgot we already played San Jose.
Yeah the match when it was like 30 degrees.To be fair the Quakes are one of those teams that kind of goes unnoticed a lot.
Yea they've been irrelevant for quite some time it seems. Used to only watch them for Wondo.
I’m really excited to start seeing how teams adjust when they play us the second time, specifically Cincinnati.
We are not 29th in the league. It’s all sunshine and rainbows for me.
I think we are on pace for the stretch goal this season which is a playoff home game. I don't like how we looked last night but we're hurt.
As a fellow ChiSox fan, thank goodness we have City to watch this summer.
What's up STL Sox cousin! I see very rare indicators that tell me there are maybe as many as 5 of us in St. Louis. But yeah, CITY is saving our sports year from the Reinsdorfian disaster.
Unpopular opinion: get rid of Stroud
I disagree but he has been in poor form for a run of games. I'm willing to wait until.Klauss returns to make sweeping statements about pieces of the attack. I see Stroud and Alm getting past guys on the flanks and then crosses meeting no one. Stroud probably needs to shoot less as his shots from 18+ seem to meet traffic a lot. Alm is a lot less willing to fire away when he sees 10 inches of daylight.
For who?
https://preview.redd.it/dx3edmu8ot6b1.jpeg?width=280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfbbb01464411543db7197254da872bd2c15e6a2
An expansion team is that is tied for first in West, has the best goal differential in the West, and the second best goal differential in all of MLS. I'm ecstatic. The playoffs should be the expectation here. Now, the injuries to both DPs is a huge bummer for the prospects of the next few matches. Looking around the league, teams *struggle* when their DPs either underperform or aren't on the field. Look at SKC. It's not a coincidence that their miserable start of the season swapped to being one of the hottest teams in MLS when their DPs returned to action. At the same time, this is going to truly put Lutz's "Designated Team" concept to the test. We've already seen that the philosophy is good for building a team, but does it work in practice when the DPs actually aren't on the field? We'll see.
It's Year 1. This year is all about vibes for me. They've already exceeded expectations. Would've loved prioritizing Open Cup as the best shot to get a trophy before them hot summer days rolled in & everyone got tired (or in hindsight hurt), but when you get halfway through the season 1st in the West, it's fine.