St Louis City set out in search of a third back-to-back home victory when they go head to head with Minnesota United at CityPark in MLS on Saturday night.
The Black and Blue will head into the weekend seeking to pick up consecutive wins for the first time since May and move within two points of the automatic playoff places.
Match preview
© Imago
St Louis City failed to secure consecutive MLS wins for the first time since October 2023 as they could only salvage a 2-2 draw against New England Revolution at the Gillette Stadium last weekend.
After falling behind to Henry Kessler's 23rd-minute strike, New England Revolution upped the ante as Luca Langoni and Carles Gil hit the target to turn the game on its head, but Simon Becher netted in the 73rd minute to hand the visitors a hard-fought point.
This followed a 2-0 victory over Los Angeles Galaxy at CityPark on September 1, when Cedric Teuchert and Marcel Hartel scored either side of the half-time break to snap the Missouri outfit's five-game winless run in the league.
While interim coach John Hackworth will be impressed by his side's spirited display against the Revs, they now find themselves eight points adrift of the Western Conference play-in places with a little over one month of the regular season left.
St Louis have picked up just five wins from their 28 MLS matches while losing 10 and claiming 13 draws to collect 28 points and sit 13th in the conference standings, level on points with 12th-placed Sporting Kansas City.
© Imago
Minnesota United, on the other hand, picked up three huge points in their push for post-season football when they secured a 2-1 victory over San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park last time out.
Ousseni Bouda struck three minutes after the half-hour mark to cancel Bongokuhle Hlongwane's ninth-minute opener and pull San Jose level, but Hlongwane grabbed his second of the game in the 63rd minute to fire the Black and Blue to victory.
Minnesota have now won two of their last three league matches — with a narrow 3-2 loss against Seattle Sounders sandwiched between the two victories — having picked up just two points from the previous nine games preceding this run.
With 36 points from 27 matches, Eric Ramsay's side are currently ninth in the Western Conference standings, two points above 10th-placed Dallas just outside the play-in places and five points off Houston Dynamo in the coveted seventh place.
While Minnesota will be looking to pick up back-to-back wins for the first time since May, they have struggled to impose themselves away from home, where they are on a run of just one win in their last nine games across all competitions.
Team News
© Reuters
St Louis City will take to the pitch without the services of Joakim Nilsson and Czech midfielder Tomas Ostrak, who have been sidelined through hamstring and ankle injuries respectively.
Brazilian midfielder Cwlio Pompeu has been out of action since coming off with a foot injury in June's game against Dallas and the 24-year-old will play no part in Saturday's clash.
Becher has hit the ground running at St Louis and the 25-year-old, who has four goals in his first five matches since his move from Horsen in July, should lead the hosts' attack once again.
With his brace against San Jose, Hlongwane now has 13 goal contributions under his belt in the league and the South Africa international should lead the Minnesota attack, alongside summer signing Kelvin Yeboah.
At the defensive end of the pitch, Ramsay should stick with the back five of Sang-bin Jeong, Jefferson Diaz, Michael Boxall, Miguel Tapias and Joseph Rosales, while Robin Lod, Wil Trapp and Hassani Dotson should retain their roles in the centre of the park.
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Totland, Kessler, Hiebert, Reid; Durkin, Lowen; Thorisson, Teuchert, Hartel; Becher
Minnesota United possible starting lineup:
St. Clair; Jeong, Diaz, Boxall, Tapias, Rosales; Lod, Trapp, Dotson; Yeboah, Hlongwane
We say: St Louis City 2-1 Minnesota United
With their playoff dreams potentially hinging on Saturday's results, we expect St Louis to go all out in search of maximum points at CityPark. Minnesota have struggled for results on their travels and we fancy Hackworth's men to come out on top, albeit by a slender margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
