Fresh off the departure of manager Bradley Carnell, St Louis City will welcome San Jose Earthquakes to CITYPARK on Thursday.
He leaves with the hosts sat 12th in the Major League Soccer Western Conference standings in the midst of a nine-match winless streak, while their opponents are eight points worse off at the bottom of the division and also under interim management after Luchi Gonzalez's exit in late June.
Match preview
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In their second season in the MLS after formation, St Louis City will head into their first-ever game without Bradley Carnell at the helm on Thursday, with his departure confirmed this week after leading them to a first-placed finish in the Western Conference and a run to the final four of the MLS playoffs in their debut campaign last year.
The Missouri outfit experienced a somewhat slower start to the new term, albeit while only suffering a single defeat in their first 11 games while amassing 16 points from their first 11 outings, before suffering a dismal run since mid-May, having failed to add another notch to their wins column in their last nine attempts.
Across those games, Thursday's hosts have picked up just three more points, initially sharing points with Inter Miami and Portland Timbers early last month after three defeats on the bounce, only to again fall short in the following two meetings with Dallas and Colorado Rapids, failing to score in either of those games while conceding five goals.
They then welcomed Atlanta United to CITYPARK and took a share of the points from a 1-1 draw, having gone ahead through Indiana Vassilev, before most recently visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday and falling just short in an eventful contest, having gone two goals up through Njabulo Blom and Eduard Lowen early on, only to fall 4-2 down to a Brian White hat-trick and a Fafa Picault goal, with Nokkvi Thorisson's 93rd-minute finish coming too late to force a comeback.
That result spelled the end of Carnell's tenure in St Louis with the side having dropped to 12th spot in the Western Conference, and now trailing the wildcard places by nine points and the playoff spots by 10, they will look to make a much-needed return to winning ways on Thursday under the temporary stewardship of John Hackworth to begin a move back up the table in the coming weeks.
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They meet a visiting side also aiming for a fresh start after a managerial departure, with San Jose Earthquakes in search for a permanent replacement for Luchi Gonzalez, who departed in late June.
After scraping into the Western Conference's top nine and exiting the playoffs in the wildcard round last year, Thursday's visitors have endured a dismal start to the 2024 MLS campaign, currently bottom of the division having earned just 11 points from their 20 games thus far, winning three of those while suffering a league-high tally of 15 losses thus far.
The most recent of those three triumphs came consecutively in early May, and the Quakes have failed to build on those results since, initially following up a pair of losses with a 1-1 draw against Austin before falling to five straight losses heading into Thursday's trip.
After conceding 11 goals across losses to New York City FC, FC Cincinnati and Portland Timbers, the California outfit visited Los Angeles FC and suffered a 6-2 beating, bringing an end to Gonzalez's spell in the hot seat, and interim boss Ian Russell was unable to inspire an instant turnaround at the weekend, with his first game in charge ending in a 3-0 defeat at home to Los Angeles Galaxy.
Goals from Joseph Paintsil, Dejan Joveljic and Mauricio Cuevas saw San Jose Earthquakes come away empty-handed from that contest, and now rooted to the bottom of the Conference with a six-point gap up to 13th spot and a 17-point deficit up to the top nine, they will set out to end an eight-match wait for a fourth win of the campaign to kick off an upturn in form.
Team News
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St Louis City's captain and first-choice goalkeeper Roman Burki, who received a call-up to the MLS All-Star game, missed their trip to Vancouver Whitecaps last time out, and if the Swiss stopper remains out of action Ben Lundt will continue to deputise between the sticks.
That only compounds their selection concerns, with Tomas Ostrak, Rasmus Alm and Celio Pompeu also set to remain confined to the treatment room, while defender Kyle Hiebert is away on international duty with Canada at the Copa America.
In the expected absence of top scorer Joao Klauss, who is also dealing with an injury issue, Nokkvi Thorisson should again lead the line after finding the net against Vancouver Whitecaps, with support from the dangerous trio of Johnny Klein, Eduard Lowen and Indiana Vassilev.
San Jose Earthquakes are set to remain without goalkeepers Daniel and JT Marcinkowski, both of whom are sidelined by injuries alongside Jamar Ricketts, meaning William Yarbrough will continue between the sticks.
Jeremy Ebobisse will continue to lead their line, having notched up four goals so far this season, while Amahl Pellegrino and Cristian Espinoza are danger men on the wings with the former leading their scoring charts on five goals for the season.
Jackson Yueill and 19-year-old Niko Tsakiris are key men and should continue their partnership in the midfield, while Rodrigues and Daniel Munie will both hope to keep their places in the centre of the defence with competition from Tanner Beason.
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Lundt; Totland, Nerwinski, Markanich, Watts; Durkin, Blom; Klein, Lowen, Vassilev; Thorisson
San Jose Earthquakes possible starting lineup:
Yarbrough; Marie, Munie, Rodrigues, Costa; Tsakiris, Yueill; Pellegrino, Lopez, Espinoza; Ebobisse
We say: St Louis City 2-1 San Jose Earthquakes
St Louis City will hope to feel more impact from a managerial change than their visitors did at the weekend, and we back them to end their rut on home turf against a San Jose Earthquakes side equally lacking any momentum in the MLS.
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Sam Varley
