St. Louis CITY SC (17-11-5, 56 points) returns to CITYPARK to host Seattle Sounders FC (13-9-11, 50 points) for their final match of the regular season on Saturday, October 21. The match kicks off at 8:00 p.m. CT and will be streamed for free on MLS Season Pass and can be heard by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).
St. Louis heads into their final regular season match after breaking and setting expansion team records on many occasions. St. Louis kicked off the season with a bang, becoming the first expansion team to start their debut season with a 5-0-0 record. CITY SC were also the quickest expansion team to record 25 points, doing so in 13 games.
St. Louis became the first expansion club in MLS history (excluding the shootout era) to win 17 regular season games in their inaugural season and joins LAFC (2018), Atlanta (2019) and Chicago Fire (1998) as one of four expansion teams to score at least 60 goals in their first year.
After clinching the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, CITY SC became the first expansion team in MLS history to earn the top seed in their conference in their debut season. St. Louis has also clinched a spot in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup.
With a win against Seattle on Saturday, CITY SC will move to 59 points on the season, which would elevate the team above LAFC (57 points) for the most points by an expansion team.
St. Louis has picked up 35 points and scored 41 goals in 16 home matches this season. St. Louis CITY SC’s 11 home wins of the season ties Atlanta United for the most by an expansion team in their inaugural season (excluding the shootout era).
St. Louis’ Niko Gioacchini and João Klauss lead the team in scoring with 10 goals each. CITY SC’s other striker Sam Adeniran is currently on eight goals, followed by Eduard Löwen with six. Adeniran’s (0.77) and Klauss’ (0.73) goals per 90 minutes are second and third, respectively, among players in the league with at least eight goals. Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis leads the league in that category with 0.79 goals per 90 minutes.
CITY SC talisman Löwen leads the team with 14 assists this season, which is tied for third in the league with Carlos Gil, three behind Atlanta’s Thiago Almada. Löwen is tied with Miguel Almiron (Atlanta United, 2017) and Jerzy Podbrozny (Chicago Fire, 1998) for the most assists by a player on an expansion team in MLS history. CITY SC’s next best assist-providers are Jared Stroud and Indiana Vassilev who have five assists each. Löwen has recorded three assists in a game on two occasions this season (against Austin FC and Sporting KC), the most by any player in the league. Löwen has 20 goal contributions (six goals, 14 assists) this season.
Roman Bürki has been pivotal to CITY SC’s success throughout the season. St. Louis’ captain has recorded eight clean sheets and made 120 saves with save percentage of 75. On September 2, Bürki tallied four saves against Sporting KC to earn his 100th save of the season and became the first goalkeeper to break the 100-save mark this season. The only goalkeeper in MLS history to record 100 saves quicker than Bürki while on an expansion team was Brad Guzan (Chivas USA, 2005).
The match will mark Seattle Sounders’ first trip to CITYPARK, after winning the first matchup at Providence Park on April 8. The Sounders enter the match on an eight-match unbeaten streak. Seattle has a 6-5-5 record on the road this season, scoring 20 goals with a minus-one goal differential. Jordan Morris leads Seattle with 10 goals with Nicolas Lodeiro leading the assists chart with 10.
