St. Louis Have Gotten Exactly What They Were Promised
Lutz declared that at CITY "the team would be the star"
Few soccer writers or MLS pundits predicted St Louis City SC would win their first game. Absolutely no sober human being suggested they might tear through their first four league opponents en route to a record-breaking, best-ever start for a new club in the league.
And yet here we are, watching magic unfold, witnessing a band of unlikely newcomers from the Midwest climb atop the league and stare down at the rest of us. City has a perfect twelve points from four matches.
The one strange thing that fans and locals did know—at least those paying close attention during the two-year, pandemic-prolonged buildup to the club’s launch—was that the nascent soccer powerhouse’s sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel declared in repeated interviews that he would not pursue high-priced soccer stars.
This ran against MLS expansion club orthodoxy.
“We don’t need DPs”
In one discussion back in November 2022 on Extra Time, podcast host Andrew Wiebe put it to Pfannenstiel directly whether he was going to fill his third DP slot. City already had two DPs on its roster, and the expansion draft was about to take place. It was accepted wisdom across the league that you can’t get far with just the expansion draft when building a new MLS club.
“We’re not going to pursue a third DP,” replied Pfannenstiel flatly.
Wiebe pressed him. Even though other clubs have?
Pfannenstiel went on to add that they wouldn’t have brought in any DPs at all, but they needed to account in the books for the transfer fees paid to acquire the rights to attacker Joao Klauss and goalkeeper Roman Burki.
We don’t have high-payed stars, and we don’t want to, Pfannenstiel explained. “It’s a team sport.”
Listen to this moment in the interview here:
It wasn’t a one-day, flash-in-the-pan sentiment either.
In another interview, Pfannenstiel hit the same notes. Matter-of-factly he explained that the club wasn’t going to sign big names.
We don’t need DPs. In my world, there are no Designated Players... We believe in DT – Designated Team! Eleven players must make a difference, not one or two.
I remarked at the time that you often hear these kinds of statements with new clubs, and they signal either:
a great guiding philosophy, or
a veiled excuse in advance for ownership unwilling to spend enough to bring in real talent.
I said only the product on the field would ultimately prove which it is.
Soccer Capitals Are Different
Generally, fans of MLS expansion clubs assume the latter. New fans don’t have a club yet, so they have no reason to know which strategy ownership is pursuing, and there is little reason to assume deep financial pockets are willing to splash cash until they actually do so.
As for MLS ownership groups, they historically don’t expect to be able to draw fans to their new stadium without Big Name Stars.™ Marketing gurus doubtless tell the new club’s ownership as they’re trying to build a new brand that they must have at least two Big Names Stars.™ If they’re not able to bring in such names, they should expect half-empty stadiums, few victories, and media apathy.
It turns out, St. Louis is different. We all should have known.
St. Louis is one of America’s longtime “soccer capitals.” According to some the city is in fact the historical heart of the sport in this country. Whether that’s the case or not, it’s certainly clear that St. Louis soccer fans are a little different from those in other cities. Moreover, as it turns out, the ownership of this new club knew this, or at least were willing to send the marketing gurus packing and let Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel make his own decisions on how to build a team.
So was Lutz’s “the team is the star” talking point a genuine team strategy or an excuse for parsimonious ownership? I said at the time that the product on the field would prove which it is.
Now we know.
No Egos, No A———s
Defender Johnny Nelson specifically credits Pfannenstiel and Head Coach Bradley Carnell for building an unselfish team from the ground up. “What they have done really well is they put together a team with no egos,” Nelson explained. “No a-------, honestly.”
The team is the star. No a—s. An unselfish team working for each other. And they’re firing on all cylinders, at least so far. They clearly have enough talent both to score goals and prevent other teams from scoring many, as they lead the league—or nearly so—in both categories.
Watching the domination last weekend of San Jose, it was clear throughout the match that this unselfish team plays for each other and works hard. Joao Klauss, the cyclone of muscle and guile in central attack, plays almost like a defensive midfielder when City don’t have the ball, coming back into midfield to nip possession and start a counter-attack. He passes the ball quickly to teammates Eduard Lowen, Jared Stroud and Rasmus Alm, who work it around with similar selflessness.
When Klauss came off in the 65th minute and gave way to Samuel Adeniran, it was clear all over again, but in reverse. Adeniran made several selfish plays in a row (shooting and dribbling when he should have passed), and while they weren’t awful plays his attitude and approach stood out precisely because the rest of the team doesn't play that way. The exception proved the rule. In that moment, you could tell the philosophy actually permeates the team.
The team is the star.
St. Louis got exactly what they were promised.