Austin FC vs. St. Louis CITY SC
Off the pitch, eMLS Cup presented by TikTok goes down this weekend as part of SXSW 2024. On it, Austin FC are still looking for their first win of 2024 after last year’s steep drop from 2022 Western Conference finalists to the bottom five in the 2023 Supporters’ Shield table.
Sporting director Rodolfo Borrell has yet to make a major splash in the transfer market since joining in June 2023, but maybe more moves are coming in the summer transfer window? For now, they’ll rely on the talent of US U-20 star Owen Wolff and 2022 Landon Donovan MLS MVP finalist Sebastián Driussi, though the latter is dealing with a hamstring issue that kept him out of the club’s first two matches.
The story of St. Louis‘ season so far is Sam Adeniran (two goals in two matches), who’s stepped up in the absence of Nicholas Gioacchini (transferred to Italian club Como in the offseason) and a scoring drought from DP striker João Klauss. You can read more about Adeniran’s globetrotting journey to St. Louis in Charlie Boehm’s excellent feature.
For the nerds: Austin FC’s 2023 dropoff came after greatly exceeding their expected goal differential in 2022. St. Louis’ excellent 2023 season featured a similarly remarkable overperformance of their advanced stats. Bradley Carnell’s side are eager to prove that last year, unlike Austin’s 2022, was no aberration.