Match Preview | St. Louis CITY SC Hosts Portland Timbers at CITYPARK

St. Louis CITY SC, playing their third match in seven days, will host Portland Timbers this Saturday, at CITYPARK. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CST, and the match will be televised on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and broadcasted by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).

CITY SC recorded a dominant 5-1 win over Union Omaha in their first-ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match at CITYPARK. Goals from Aziel Jackson (2), Akil Watts, Eduard Löwen and an own goal from Omaha’s Joe Gallardo sent CITY SC well on their way to their first-ever U.S Open Cup win. Célio Pompeu recorded three assists in the match and was involved in some way in all of CITY SC’s five goals. CITY SC’s match against Union Omaha was played in front of a sold-out crowd (22,423), breaking the record for any U.S. Open Cup Third Round attendance, and becoming the 10th highest attendance in any round of the Open Cup.

In their last MLS match against Colorado Rapids, St. Louis CITY SC played to a 1-1 draw at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado. After a tough start to the match, CITY SC opened the scoring in the 57th minute through midfielder Rasmus Alm, who scored his second goal of the season. Colorado's Michael Barrios leveled the game in stoppage time. Roman Bürki had a sensational night between the posts, recording a career-high and league-best 12 saves in the match. With his outstanding performance, Bürki now has the fourth-most saves (34) in the league, while also owning a 77.3 save percentage and two clean sheets.

Offensively, CITY SC boasts one of the best attacks in the league, scoring a league-high 21 goals and owning the most on target scoring attempts (51) in league play. CITY SC is also third behind Columbus (18) and Atlanta (18) in assists totals, with 17. CITY SC has six players with multiple goals in league play - João Klauss (5 goals), Niko Gioacchini (3 goals), Löwen (2 goals), Jared Stroud (3 goals) and Rasmus Alm (2 goals), which is the most of any MLS team so far this season.

St. Louis CITY SC has scored 11 goals in their four MLS home games, scoring three or more goals in three of those matches. That is the most goals scored by an expansion team through their first four home games, besting Atlanta United (10 goals in 2017). CITY SC has only trailed 28 of 450 minutes at CITYPARK, scoring 16 goals and allowing just four, with a record of 4-1 across all competitions. Prior to the match earlier in the season, the Timbers lost only once in seven home matches against expansion teams.

Portland currently sits in 10th place in the Western conference standings with a record of 2-5-2, with an away record of 1-3-0. In their last two matches, the Timbers recorded a huge 4-1 win in the Cascadia derby against longtime rivals Seattle Sounders before falling 2-1 away to FC Cincinnati. In their loss to FC Cincinnati, the Timbers outshot their opponent by a 14-13 margin. Portland had been outshot in each of its last nine away MLS games prior to that game.