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Early Thoughts on City 2025

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There are few things harder to keep track of than an MLS side in their off-season, at least for me. Despite the fact it takes place roughly during the time the MLB Hot Stove season is in full swing, it is nowhere near as easy to follow along with as baseball. Part of it is how disconnected MLS is with the international soccer calendar. St. Louis City SC is still digesting the moves it made last summer even though those players have already played important games for the club. It is all weird and disjointed, and I always feel like I am playing catch-up.

Happily, the moves made in the off-season this year were not numerous. 

German Timo Baumgartl comes over from Europe as an option at center back, which is good because that was a position that was a little rocky for City last season. Given his own troubles over the last few seasons (cancer and uneven play in the aftermath of that), a spell with City can give Baumgartl a chance to have a re-set. Given his pedigree and the fact City signed him on a free it is a risk well worth taking. 

Conrad Wallem, a Norwegian player coming to City on loan from a club in Chechia, is also something of a reclamation project. It seems that Wallem has positional flexibility, but that he will be well suited to play as a winger for City. I have some hope he can play a bit like Jared Stroud. I always felt like City lost a lot of chemistry when they moved on from Stroud, so I would like to see some of that style of player put back into the squad. 

Overall, it seems like the approach from City is to hope for better health going into the 2025 season, that and a full integration of the pieces they added in the Summer of 2024. I'm on board with that. 

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