*St. Louis CITY SC just keeps winning, and Kev picked a pretty interesting week to go on vacation.*
With CITY now *18 matches unbeaten across all competitions*, Duds jumps over from NFNP to fill in for Kev and figure out how a team that struggled early in the season suddenly became one of the hottest clubs in MLS.
Matt breaks down the 3-1 win over Toronto, CITY’s first-ever trip to the U.S. Open Cup Final, the impact of Rafael Navarro, Carlo Holse, Alex Mățan, Simon Becher and the club’s new depth, plus the bigger question: *who deserves the credit for the turnaround, Yoann Damet or Corey Wray?*
We also look ahead to CITY’s first-ever MLS regular-season meeting with Red Bull New York, talk matchday bets, the increasingly crowded run-in, the possibility of finishing at the top of the Western Conference and whether anybody really wants to face this team in the playoffs.
And with Duds providing the casual-fan perspective, the conversation eventually goes much bigger: MLS vs. European soccer, St. Louis youth soccer, expensive club programs and whether America’s *pay-to-play system* is holding back the U.S. player-development pipeline.
*STL Soccer First. Always. *
*NFNPPOD.COM*
