Coming into this past offseason, CITY was in an unknown position. Having missed their stated goal of making the playoffs in 2025, the club was facing an uncertain future. The failure of last season was highlighted (lowlighted?) by the short-circuited tenure of Head Coach Olof Mellberg, who lasted only 15 matches, leading to the dismissal of the only Sporting Director the club had ever known, Lutz Pfannenstiel. Management then turned over the keys to an unproven Corey Wray, someone with plenty of MLS experience but never as the top man in either of his stays at Columbus or Montreal. He, in turn, hired a first-time Head Coach in Yoann Damet, the youngest manager in the league. By any measure, 2026 was supposed to be a building year, where the new front office and coaching staff took their lumps while trying to get the club on track for the future. Through their first nine MLS matches, it certainly looked that way - with only one win and three draws, CITY fans braced for what appeared to be a long season ahead.
On April 29th, however, CITY traveled to scenic Bridgeview, Illinois for the US Open Cup Round of 16 against the Chicago Fire and, thanks to goals from Tomas Totland and Eduard Löwen, staged a come-from-behind victory to advance to the USOC Quarterfinals for the first time in club history. That was the tipping point of the season. Since then, CITY has gone unbeaten in 12 matches across all competitions, including a win over Houston Dynamo that sent them to the US Open Cup Semifinals. CITY has set a club record for an unbeaten streak and has nine wins in league play during this stretch, vaulting them from near the bottom of the table into a solid playoff position - tied with San Jose and FC Dallas on 34 points. You can see the rapid rise up the Western Conference standings in this illustration from Soccer DataVizer:
With the playoffs suddenly in sight, and the club two wins from its first-ever trophy, St. Louis fans have been clamoring for investment to improve the talent base - something that didn't get off to a great start. The club let Cedric Teuchert's contract expire, then came the shocking departure of the best player in club history, Marcel Hartel, back to Germany for family reasons, followed by the surprise trade of fan favorite Eduard Löwen to San Jose. It looked as though CITY was backpedaling right when things were finally looking up for the first time since the first half of 2023, and fans wondered how the club could hope to compete without these three:
The acquisitions of new Designated Player Carlo Holse and Alexandru Mățan were viewed as, at best, lateral moves to replace the trio of outgoing Germans instead of the talent upgrades the fanbase has so desperately craved.
Fast forward to today, September 3rd - the day after the summer transfer window closed. Not only has CITY added Damion Downs, the U-22 USMNT striker on loan from Southampton, and midfield depth piece Charles-Emile Brunet on loan from Nashville SC, but they made the biggest signing in club history: Rafael Navarro from Colorado Rapids, in the largest cash-for-player deal in MLS history. The $12 million-plus transfer is a definitive statement from the front office that they are "going for it" this season. The Navarro signing in particular is a defining moment for the club and this front office - he's widely regarded as one of the best all-around strikers in MLS, he's in his prime at age 26, and he's both a talented player and a leader on the pitch who seems like a perfect personality and stylistic fit for Damet's system. His underlying metrics speak for themselves:
He's also a workhorse - he's played 99% of Colorado's MLS minutes this season - and at altitude for half of them in Colorado - his fitness level should be off the charts in decidedly un-mountainlike St. Louis. In the CITY press release announcing the Navarro signing, Wray described the new #9 as someone who is "not only a proven goalscorer in this league, but he brings so much to the team through his work ethic, pressing, link-up play and overall presence in the attack. His effort on both sides of the ball, combined with his ability to score goals and create opportunities for his teammates, will be a big boost to our group." Club President Diego Gigliani added, "Our ownership group has embraced a desire to be bold, and this signing is another step in that direction. We know our supporters expect us to compete, and we are committed to giving our sporting staff and players the resources they need to do that." This commitment to improving the club for this season and beyond (Navarro signed a four-year extension with St. Louis, and Downs' loan runs through the 2027 Sprint Season) signals that the Wray-Damet plan is ahead of schedule and that the club feels it can compete right now. It's a welcome signal to a fanbase whose support had waned somewhat after several poor seasons following the initial excitement of 2023.
If Holse can be 75% of the player Hartel was, this CITY side is surely more talented now than it was before his departure to Germany. CITY has gone from having one borderline MLS-caliber striker in Simon Becher (who has found his form lately after a terrible start to the season - to the point that Tom Bogert reported clubs were inquiring about his availability) to now having Navarro, Downs, and Becher all up top. That should give Damet the flexibility to deploy two strikers at times, something he hasn't had the depth (or willingness) to do before. Behind the striker (or strikers), Sang-bin Jeong has had a solid year, and Mățan has already shown himself to be a useful jack-of-all-trades in midfield, buzzing around with his seemingly endless energy. Holse should get up to speed soon, and time will tell what Brunet can contribute alongside the star-crossed Tomas Ostrak, who had started to get minutes before getting injured again.
While CITY has clearly addressed its issues in attack, concerns remain about depth elsewhere in the lineup. Miguel Perez is about as "replacement-level" as a replacement player can be behind the excellent Chris Durkin-Daniel Edelman (DURKLEMAN!) combo in the middle of the pitch. There's a lack of real options behind Totland and Wallem out on the wings, as Rafael Santos has clearly fallen out of favor with Damet, and Mykhi Joyner has been noticeably absent from match rosters lately as well (Joyner's rumored move to Seattle was apparently nixed by St. Louis). Michael from ChatCityTactics has lamented this lack of depth on more than one occassion:
Center back is also still a question - despite the steady play of Timo Baumgartl and the surprisingly successful transition to the position by Dante Polvara, Jaziel Orozco and Lukas MacNaughton have been up and down on the right side, and the seeming disappearance of both Fallou Fall and Mbacke Fall has left real questions about depth in the back.
This has been compounded by Damet's unwillingness to rotate his lineup much, if at all - resulting in situations like the one we saw in Kansas, with an exhausted CITY side barely able to scrape out a result against a historically bad Sporting.
But hey, beggars can't be choosers. It's still Year One of the Wray/Damet era, despite the unexpected turnaround. As a fanbase, we've suffered through the back half of 2023, all of forgettable 2024 and 2025, and a rough start to 2026 - only to find ourselves both two wins away from hardware and in playoff position, with new talent hopefully bolstering a side that, with more productive play up top (especially early in the season), would probably have 2 or 3 more wins already. CITY has committed to improving the club now, spending a record amount of money, as friend Matt Baker points out:
And while the work isn't done, the club finally appears to have a direction, a defined style of play (Damet-ball can be beautiful to watch at times), and growing excitement among the fanbase that should set CITY up for an exciting rest of the season, both on the pitch and around Energizer Park. A successful end of the season would mean momentum the club can build on for the Sprint Season, their fifth anniversary in MLS. It's a far cry from the dark days of 2025 and even more incentive to be bold going forward.
