Offense remains the issue as City SC goes into game with Austin at Energizer Park

Five games into the season, St. Louis City SC has scored four goals, which is more than only three teams in Major League Soccer. Three of those goals came in one game, and two of them have come off set pieces: one off a corner kick that the Galaxy misplayed to gift City SC with a goal and one on a beautiful free kick by Eduard Lowen. That leaves just two goals coming in the run of play.

That City SC is tied for fourth in the Western Conference is because of its iron-clad defense, which has allowed only one goal, but if this team wants to separate itself from its competition, scoring goals would be a good place to start. The next chance comes at 1:15 p.m. Sunday at Energizer Park against Austin FC, a team that is very much a mirror image of City SC.

Within the club, the explanation for the struggles by a group that scored at a pretty good clip at the end of last season is consistent: If the team was better on the ball and didn’t turn it over so quickly, it would have more possession which would lead to getting the ball further up the field and eventually getting the ball into dangerous positions and keeping it there and eventually scoring goals. But with the ball often getting turned over after one or two touches, City SC has found itself spending the better part of the 90 minutes playing defense.

“I think we’re in a learning phase,” said midfielder Conrad Wallem. “I think there are not big details that need to be switched and tweaked and improved for it to look a lot better offensively as well. We have a solid base, and we just need to build on that and try to be more effective and better with the ball.”

“I think you can see week for week,” midfielder Marcel Hartel said standing just off the practice field after a session, “we have quality on the pitch and training and here we do it great. We create a lot of chances in training. So we have to bring it on the field on the weekend. I think this is the most important, that we bring our quality, especially with the ball, more on the field, that we create more chances, that we have much more ball possession in our game and to play, I think, better with the ball.”

City SC’s passing percentage of 77.5 is 28th in the league, and the number of passes it has completed is 29th. Playing the ball long doesn’t help. Its completion rate there of 36.2 percent ranks 26th in the league.

“I think the most part we have to do better is the easy mistakes we do with the ball,” said Hartel, who has been serving as captain while Roman Burki is out with a fracture in his hand. “I think we lost too many balls very easy, even on only one pass, we will not connect with our teammates and think this is especially in these moments where we have easy mistakes, since we have to do much better.”

“It’s an issue,” Wallem said. “But the thing is, it’s small details to (make it) look a lot better. If we string a couple of passes together when we win the ball, we would also have a lot more ball possession. So, in my opinion, it’s not much that needs to be improved. It is just small details when we win the ball, and so we can keep the ball and build attacks more than we have been doing in the past.

“Something has to click. If we get a little bit more precision and confidence on the ball when we have it, it also affects the whole team, if some guys here and there show more composure and then keep the ball and then it builds confidence with each time we do it well. So we just need to try to build on it and get some good actions early in the game.”

City SC’s expected goal total has been under 1.0 in three of its five games and less than .5 in two of them. Its xG for the season is only 6.21, 23rd in the league, and its shots on target are tied for 22nd with 19. With so few chances created in most games, it cranks up the pressure to finish when the team does get those chances.

Against Austin, City SC will definitely be without Lowen, who is suspended for the game after getting a red card against Philadelphia last week. Coach Olof Mellberg said Friday that Lowen has been given “some time off for personal reasons” and he wasn’t sure of when he would be back. With a Sunday game, City SC won’t practice again until Wednesday. City SC could be without forward Cedric Teuchert, who has a sore hamstring. “When it happened, we thought it was a strain,” Mellberg said. “He thought so himself, but it wasn’t, but he’s still in doubt for Sunday.”

Lowen’s most likely replacement is Alfredo Morales, who has subbed into Lowen’s spot in four of the first five games, but the team could also look at Tomas Ostrak or even Wallem. If Teuchert can’t go, that would open up room for Klauss, who has played only 19 minutes over the past two games and is looking to snap a goal-less streak that dates to May.

The way the team’s defense has played, City SC will always be in games. It just needs the goals to set itself apart.

“I think we have a great start, we have eight points,” Hartel said. “We only concede one goal. So our defense is very good so far, and now we have to bring our offensive quality up. And if we show our offense quality, I think we are a very, very good team.”