17 Unbeaten, One Cup Final & Josh Sargent Comes Home: CITY Isn't Done Yet

5-Minute Read

There was a point earlier this season when going down 1-0 felt like a death sentence. There was a point when scoring twice felt like asking too much. There was definitely a point when I was wondering whether we were about to spend the entire season talking about what needed to change next year.

That team is gone.

St. Louis CITY SC is now 17 matches unbeaten across all competitions, headed to the first U.S. Open Cup Final in club history, sitting fifth in the Western Conference, and playing with the kind of confidence where I am no longer wondering whether CITY can beat someone. I'm wondering how they're going to do it. And Wednesday night in Colorado might have been the best example yet.

Three Goals. Clean Sheet. Cup Final.

Colorado entered Wednesday's semifinal having turned DICK'S Sporting Goods Park into a fortress. CITY responded by walking into Commerce City and beating them 3-0. Not surviving. Not stealing one late. Three-nothing.

Sangbin Jeong opened the scoring in the 32nd minute after jumping on a Colorado mistake. Simon Becher made it 2-0 in the 52nd off a Conrad Wallem assist. Seven minutes later, Alex Mățan buried his first CITY goal to essentially end the night. Roman Bürki and the defense finished off the clean sheet, with Colorado failing to record a single shot on target in the second half.

And CITY did all of this without Rafael Navarro. Remember that.

The hottest striker on the roster couldn't play because he was cup-tied to Colorado, so CITY went into a semifinal on the road without the guy who had just scored consecutive braces. Then Becher scored. Sangbin scored. Mățan scored. That's what good teams do.

This run has stopped being about one guy getting hot. Someone else keeps showing up. Wallem deserves some credit here too. Yes, I know. I've spent enough time complaining about Conrad Wallem that there is now probably an archive somewhere dedicated exclusively to it.

But six assists in his last seven matches is six assists in his last seven matches. He picked up another one Wednesday on Becher's goal, and CITY says nobody on the roster has more over that stretch. So, if Wallem is in the starting XI Saturday? I'm not pissed.

That might be growth. I'm still watching. Let's not get crazy. But I'm not pissed.

CITY will travel to Columbus on October 21 at 7 p.m. CT with a chance to win the first trophy in club history. I'm already excited for that.

But there are still MLS games to play. And this run is getting too much fun to let it stop now.

Welcome Home, Josh Sargent

Saturday brings a completely different storyline. Josh Sargent is coming home.

Sargent grew up in O'Fallon, Missouri, and Toronto signed the U.S. international from Norwich City earlier this year as a Designated Player. There is an extra CITY connection here too: Toronto had to acquire St. Louis CITY SC's right of first refusal for Sargent, sending CITY $500,000 in guaranteed GAM with the possibility of another $225,000 based on performance incentives.

So, CITY essentially got paid... and now has to stop him.

Sargent and Dániel Sallói enter Saturday tied for Toronto's team lead with seven goals apiece, while Sallói also has nine assists. Sargent recently scored his first professional hat trick in Toronto's 4-4 draw with Chicago, so this isn't just a fun hometown reunion story. He's legitimately the guy CITY needs to keep quiet.

I am genuinely excited to see him play in St. Louis. I also hope he accomplishes absolutely nothing. Welcome home, Josh. Hope you enjoy the stadium. Please don't score.

Toronto Is Better Than 12th Place Sounds

This also isn't a match where CITY should look at the table and assume three points. Toronto comes in 12th in the East at 6-8-11 with 29 points. They're only 2-1-2 over their last five and got thumped 3-0 by Orlando last weekend. They have also managed just two away wins this season.

That all sounds fantastic. Except before Orlando, Toronto had gone seven straight without a loss, and they've earned a result in nine of their last 11 MLS matches. So, they aren't some disaster walking into Energizer Park. They've improved. They have legitimate attacking pieces. And now they're going to get a CITY team coming off an emotional road semifinal with only a few days to recover. That's the danger.

Don't Get Cute With the Lineup

This is where I'm going to contradict myself slightly. Wednesday was enormous. There are tired legs. You absolutely need to manage minutes. But I also don't want to see CITY take its foot completely off the gas because Toronto isn't near the top of the standings.

CITY has climbed from 14th to fifth in the West during this run. The league unbeaten streak itself is now 16 matches at 11-0-5, tied for the longest MLS regular-season unbeaten run of the past decade.

Don't voluntarily kill that momentum. Navarro is rested because he couldn't play Wednesday. Put him back at the 9. I'd expect some combination of Holse, Mățan and Sangbin around him depending on how Damet manages the quick turnaround and Holse's health.

And yes... Wallem can start. There. I said it. Save that sentence. He has earned it.

I'm still cautious because I've watched enough of his CITY tenure to know I'm not suddenly crowning him the greatest wingback in MLS, but he's playing his best soccer right now. Ride it.

Ostrák and Downs are also guys I want involved. With this compressed schedule, those minutes matter. The good news is this roster suddenly feels like it has actual options instead of us desperately trying to figure out which eleven healthy human beings can play soccer. That's progress.

The Most Important Matchup: Stop Sargent

My Saturday game plan isn't complicated. Don't let the hometown story become the story. Toronto is dangerous when Sargent gets touches around the box, and his recent hat trick should have CITY's attention. Baumgartl and whoever joins him in the back line need to make his night miserable. Physical. Crowded. Frustrating. Make somebody else beat you.

If Sargent leaves St. Louis having received a nice ovation before kickoff and spent the next 90 minutes annoyed at CITY defenders, everybody wins.

Well... everybody from St. Louis.

My Gambling Heater Continues

There is another increasingly ridiculous subplot to this run. CITY keeps winning. Which means I keep winning. I'm now up more than $200 over roughly the last couple of weeks betting exclusively on CITY games. I'm not pretending I've suddenly cracked sports gambling. I'm putting down small bets because it makes watching the game more fun.

But the strategy has been working. CITY win. Navarro goal. Sometimes Navarro scores another one. Collect money. Repeat. So yes, I'm going back Saturday. CITY win. And I'm putting something on Navarro to score. Maybe two.

He's coming off consecutive braces, he was forced to sit Wednesday, and now he's walking back into a team that scored three goals without him. That's a pretty good situation for your striker. This is not financial advice. Unless I win again. Then I will temporarily claim it was absolutely financial advice.

It's Going to Be Miserably Hot

St. Louis has decided September is unnecessary. The National Weather Service has a Heat Advisory running through 8 p.m. Saturday, with the daytime high forecast near 99 degrees and heat-index values potentially around 103. Kickoff is 7:30.

Awesome. My wife and I will be there. We'll be hydrated. Probably. We're also trying to find somewhere different downtown for dinner before the match instead of hitting one of the usual spots. And unless the heat completely destroys us, there's a pretty good chance the night ends at Narwhal's. Because nothing says athletic recovery after sitting in 95-degree heat watching other people exercise like a frozen alcoholic beverage.

Keep the Damn Thing Going

This is the part I still can't quite get over. Seventeen unbeaten. CITY hasn't lost since May 3. The current run started with a 1-0 win in Colorado, and Wednesday night they went right back to Colorado and punched their ticket to a Final. They've gone from last in the West to fifth. They're scoring. They're getting production from different players. They suddenly have depth. Navarro looks like the striker CITY has been missing. Mățan just got his first. Wallem is apparently determined to make me issue a formal apology.

And now Energizer Park gets another Saturday night. Toronto will come in wanting to restart its own momentum. Sargent will have family and friends in the building. I'm sure he'd love nothing more than to score in his hometown return. That's a great story. For Sunday. Saturday night? I want another CITY win. Keep Sargent quiet. Get Navarro back on the scoresheet.

Make it 18 unbeaten. And keep this completely ridiculous run alive.

My pick: CITY wins. Navarro scores.

See you at Energizer Park.

Match Info

St. Louis CITY SC vs. Toronto FC
Saturday, September 19
7:30 PM CT
Energizer Park
Apple TV