The first paragraph is reserved for reviewing the previous season, but obviously St. Louis CITY SC are headed into their inaugural MLS season in 2023. They have begun building something that could become special. STL will play their home matches at CITYPARK in the heart of St. Louis, with a passionate atmosphere of fans. On March 4th, the team will host their first ever MLS match at the new venue when they take on Charlotte FC. It's also exciting to imagine a potential St. Louis and Sporting Kansas City derby down the line, as the stadiums are rather close as far as MLS standards go. Though, the trip from Liverpool to London covers most of the Premier League teams, and it is about the same length as St. Louis to Kansas City. The United States is a big country, in case you didn't realize. Anyway, it's always exciting to watch how an MLS expansion side goes about constructing a roster from the bottom up.
It's difficult to know exactly where to start with a team that acquired every single one of their players somewhat recently, so we'll start with a brief overview of the roster. Starting with the DPs, they have two. One is Brazilian forward Joao Klauss, who spent time in the Bundesliga and Belgium. The other is midfielder Eduard Lowen, a German transferring from the Bundesliga's VFL Bochum. In goal, they will deploy long-time Borrusia Dortmund starter Roman Burki. Now moving into their MLS Expansion Draft night, they made five selections, along with two trades. They picked F Nicholas Gioacchini from Orlando, D Jon Bell from New England, M Indiana Vassilev from Miami, D John Neslon of Cincinnati, and last Jake Lacava from the Red Bulls, whom they traded to Inter Miami immediately for $150K GAM. They also traded for Tim Parker, a veteran CB from the Houston Dynamo, in exchange for $500K in GAM. Some of the other notable internationals on the roster include South African Njabulo Blom, Swedish winger Rasmus Alm, and Czech attacking midfielder Tomas Ostrak. Within MLS moves, they also added Jared Stroud from Austin FC, Sam Adeniran from Seattle, Jake Nerwinski from Vancouver, and Aziel Jackson from Minnesota United. This is far from the entire roster, but it's a lot to take in all at once. Putting it into a lineup form will make it easier to comprehend.
Roman Burki will start in net. There are still position battles mostly everywhere else, but this is the most likely lineup with all things considered. At center back, Tim Parker should be locked in, next to either Kyle Hiebert or former Philadelphia Union defender Joshua Yaro. Injured at the moment is Swedish CB Joakim Nilsson, who may be the starter when he returns. Left back is also up in the air, it will be between John Nelson and Bosnian Selmir Pidro. Jake Nerwinski seems to be the certain right back. At the #6, it will be former Kaizer Chief Njabulo Blom. The DP midfielder Lowen will play the box-to-box role next to him, with Tomas Ostrak at the attacking midfield spot. Aziel Jackson is the best form of AM depth, as well as Indiana Vassilev, who they view more as a central midfielder rather than the winger he was in Miami. On the wings, it will probably be Alm and Stroud. Up top, their other DP in Klauss has the spot to himself, with Nico Gioacchini in reserve. There is no good way to analyze the roster makeup until we all see them play a few games with our own two eyes. Will St. Louis continue to early success stories of MLS expansion sides, or will they look more like FC Cincinnati's first years? Only time will tell.
Projected XI:
GK: Burki
DEF: Nelson, Parker, Hiebert, Nerwinski
MID: Blom, Lowen, Ostrak
FWD: Stroud, Alm, Klauss
Off-Season (Roster) Grade: B-
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