St. Louis CITY vs. Portland Timbers: Keys to Sunday Night Soccer | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

The Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tires show heads back to the Gateway City for Matchday 24, as a struggling St. Louis CITY side – trying to please an old and proud and currently not very happy soccer town! – host a Portland Timbers side trying to solidify their hold on fourth place in the Western Conference (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).

That Timbers team is in the midst of an evolution, as head coach Phil Neville has conjured what looks like the right mix in the right formation and game model, but is now trying to find the right attackers for the right spots. There have been some ups and downs, but it feels like this group is pointed in the right direction.

St. Louis already tried a mid-season reboot after parting ways with head coach Olof Mellberg and installing caretaker manager David Critchley. He got things off to a good start with a late, dramatic – and very, very necessary – win in his first outing, but since then… one draw and four losses in five outings. They are inching closer and closer to the Wooden Spoon, just two seasons after they topped the Western Conference as an expansion team.

These teams have already faced off once on Sunday Night Soccer, just over a month ago in Portland. The Timbers won that one, 2-1.

Let’s set the scene:

Players in focus

St. Louis CITY

Portland Timbers

What's at stake for St. Louis CITY?

While Mellberg made righting the defensive wrongs of the past few years his top priority, that came at the cost of attacking productivity. By the time the calendar hit May, cramming as many center backs as possible into the XI and putting numbers behind the ball was no longer enough, and CITY were taking weekly beatings. Hartel, Klauss and Cedric Teuchert were left to carry the attack and couldn’t; the midfield had no direction without Eduard Löwen; and none of the wingbacks created any sort of meaningful width.

Critchley has reversed much of that since being handed the keys. He’s playing only two center backs at a time, his fullbacks get forward on the overlap, attackers like those mentioned above are given freedom to attack, and some of the promising youngsters Mellberg banished are getting playing time.

But the defense has now fallen apart again. Some of that can be chalked up to the continued absence of Henry Kessler, who’s been the best center back this club’s ever had when healthy. When he’s missing, the entire backline has been a mess and none of the d-mids – a lot of those guys have been hurt, too – have put a band-aid on it.

Win this game and maybe their Audi MLS Cup Playoffs hopes spark to life at least a little bit, and those very savvy fans get something to feel good about. Another loss, though, and it’ll really feel like the ship’s sinking.

Player of the Matchday 19: João Klauss

What's at stake for Portland Timbers?

The Timbers did such a good job throughout the spring, scratching and clawing to keep their heads above water with lots of hard-fought draws sprinkled with the occasional win. They mostly failed to build momentum – it was all very much a grind – but they showed some real resilience.

That gave way to a stretch in which they played in the friendly confines of Providence Park four times in five outings from May 28 to July 3, going 3W-1L-1D (including the aforementioned 2-1 win over St. Louis). We saw more of Da Costa’s growth, as he’s done a lot of the No. 10 things that elevate the play of the guys around him, and some important rotation-related things are being figured out.

We’ve also seen this team begin to accrue some momentum, something I think will be solidified if they can start winning these types of away games with regularity.

By “these types,” I mean “road games against teams that are really, really struggling.” Take care of those stragglers and you give yourself not just a chance at the top four in the conference, but maybe even top one.

Energy Moment of the Matchday 22: David Da Costa

On Andrew Wiebe's radar

St. Louis CITY: What impact will Eduard Löwen have this season?

What happens when arguably your best player is unavailable? The answer to that question is unfolding in real time (and for most of the 2025 season) for St. Louis.

If you aren’t familiar with the “why” behind Löwen’s prolonged absences from the group, watch this video from the German midfielder providing an update on his wife’s fight against Stage IV brain cancer. Life comes before soccer, and we wish Löwen and his wife the best during an unimaginably difficult time.

And yet, soccer is still Löwen’s passion and profession. According to interim manager David Critchley, we may see Löwen for a prolonged period this Sunday. What can he give this CITY side? Well, that’s TBD.

Portland Timbers: Watch Finn Surman while you can…

Sometimes a video is worth a thousand words. I could tell you how much Phil Neville rates the 21-year-old New Zealand international defender… or you could listen to Dario Zuparic put his talent into perspective.

Tactical breakdown

St. Louis CITY

Critchley immediately punted Mellberg’s 3-4-2-1 for a 4-2-3-1, and his players were actually allowed to cross midfield.

That was a nice change, and one that’s held fast even as Critchley has tinkered with a 4-4-2 and a little bit of a 4-3-3. Throughout it all, St. Louis increased their number of passes in the final third by over 50%. They are actually a fun team to watch now.

Basic stuff, and necessary. But it hasn’t led to winning, because the defense has been a mess. I’ll get to that below, but let me just talk a little bit more about what I’m enjoying from the attack:

In practice, that means the fullbacks (it’s been a rotating cast on both sides) play higher, get forward on the overlap so Hartel has someone to combine with, and the forwards – especially Klauss – get service from both underneath and out wide.

There is also, of course, the long ball:

A ton of St. Louis’ goals over the past month have come from long balls and set pieces. They will continue to be dangerous on both.

Ok, now the defense. I’m going to keep it simple here:

Four losses in five. Thirteen goals conceded in that span. Time’s running out.

Portland Timbers

Since early in the season, it’s been a 4-2-3-1 with Da Costa pulling the strings and the wingers stretching the field both vertically and horizontally.

That last bit is important because last year (and the year before, and the year before that), Portland’s Achilles’ heel was their propensity for throwing one or both fullbacks up into the attack without any consideration for rest defense or overall team structure. If you do that, every turnover becomes a five-alarm fire heading in the other direction – and not even Chara could put them all out.

This year, the fullbacks have been deeper while the wingers have provided most of the attacking width. Because of that, they’ve been less prone to getting gassed during opposing transition moments.

In attack, that structure – keeping the fullbacks deep and relying on the wingers to create width and penetration – has allowed them to get the ball in good spots to punish teams in transition:

The problem, though, is that first Jonathan Rodríguez got hurt, and then Antony stepped up – he was awesome through the spring – and then Antony got hurt. And now they’re down to exactly one winger.

So last weekend, that meant they went back to the 3-4-2-1 they’d started the season in, with Da Costa and Santi Moreno starting on the “2” line as half-space merchants, along with a pair of flying wingbacks. It wasn’t… great. But it was actually pretty good, considering all the missing pieces and the lack of reps in that formation, plus young Ian Smith got his first MLS goal in his fourth-ever start.

This is exactly where wingbacks score from in the modern game:

It could be on again this weekend.

Projected lineups

There could be big changes from last week – there probably should be after one point from the last 15 on offer. I don’t think anyone can predict exactly what they’ll be, but I’m going to try to talk Teuchert as a shadow striker under Klauss into existence.

If you get yourself a win, you don’t mess with that formula. So I think we’ll see the 3-4-2-1 again – including Maxime Crépeau over James Pantemis in goal.