St Louis City will pay their first-ever visit to Toyota Stadium on Saturday with a chance to reclaim the top spot in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer when they take on Dallas.
On matchday 10, the Toros could only manage a 0-0 draw with Minnesota United, while St Louis are winless in three successive road fixtures, narrowly losing 2-1 last Saturday at the Portland Timbers.
Match preview
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Ten matches into the new MLS campaign and the Toros have dropped slightly from where they were at this stage a year ago, claiming 15 points, four fewer than in 2022.
Last Saturday, Nico Estevez saw his side fail to generate much when in possession, registering just two efforts on target while failing to find the back of the net for the first time since their opening regular season affair against the Loons (1-0).
Dallas have points in four consecutive home fixtures, conceding a goal or fewer in each of those matches, while they have only gone pointless in one of their last 12 regular-season encounters at Toyota Stadium.
While they are built to defend first and foremost, this team have shown the ability to pick themselves up when falling behind, as two of their four victories this season have happened after going behind 1-0, both times at home.
The Toros are unbeaten in their last 14 regular-season encounters in which they have scored the opening goal, a stretch which began in June 2022 when they drew Austin FC 2-2.
We have seen a mixed bag of good and poor performances from this group in 2023, but they have stayed true to their identity through it all, playing out from the back and not being afraid of attacking down the middle when in possession.
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The honeymoon phase is over for Bradley Carnell and his St Louis City side, who are facing some adversity for the first time all season.
In their defeat to the Timbers last weekend, this group looked lost without their Brazilian attacker, doing little to trouble their opponents' backline, registering just one effort on target.
That is very much against their brand as St Louis tend to fire shots from anywhere and everywhere on the field, while 11 players have found the back of the net for them across all competitions this season.
This is a team that does not waste a lot of time when they have the ball, producing an MLS-low 31 sequences of 10+ passes on the year, 101 fewer than the Seattle Sounders, who lead them by a single point in the Western Conference table.
St Louis have just one point from their last two road matches, but they did manage to score multiple times in their first three away games, including an opening day victory in the Texas capital versus the Verde and Black (3-2).
We should have a good idea of what St Louis are made of over the next week as they play three straight matches away from home in all competitions over a seven-day stretch, beginning on Saturday in Frisco.
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Team News
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Alan Velasco will be a question mark for Dallas on Saturday because of a right knee sprain, Tarik Scott will not return this season from his torn ACL, while we saw several changes to the starting 11 last weekend with Sam Junqua, Sebastien Ibeagha, Ema Twumasi, Edwin Cerrillo and Jesus Ferreira replacing Marco Farfan, Nkosi Tafari, Geovane Jesus, Facundo Quignon and Jesus Jimenez.
Maarten Paes collected his second clean sheet of the campaign last weekend, stopping five Minnesota efforts, while Paul Arriola is still seeking his first goal of the campaign after scoring nine in 2022.
In their previous home fixture, the Toros fired just two shots on target but still managed to eke out a 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake, with the goals coming courtesy of Ferreira and Bernard Kamungo.
Klauss, who has five goals and four assists for St Louis so far this year, is not expected to be ready for this weekend as the Brazilian has a quad strain, Njabulo Blom will also be a question mark because of a sore groin, and Joakim Nilsson remains sidelined due to a knee injury.
Celio Pompeu scored his first career MLS goal in their defeat versus the Timbers, while Rasmus Alm now has a goal involvement in four consecutive matches.
Alm scored the last goal for St Louis away from home when they drew the Colorado Rapids 1-1, while seven of the 12 goals conceded by Roman Burki in 2023 have come on the road, with his only away clean sheet occurring in a 4-0 victory versus Real Salt Lake.
Dallas possible starting lineup:
Paes; Twumasi, Ibeagha, Jesus, Farfan; Lletget, Quignon, Pomykal; Jimenez, Ferreira, Arriola
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Nerwinski, Parker, Hiebert, Nelson; Alm, Vassilev, Ostrak, Pompeu; Gioacchini, Lowen
We say: Dallas 1-0 St Louis City
We saw a significant drop in intensity from St Louis without Klauss last weekend, and although this is still a talented group, we do not expect them to create much against a Toros unit that have looked much more compact of late at home.
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Joel Lefevre
