Latest news with #LutzPfannenstiel
Reuters
28-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
St. Louis City fire coach Olof Mellberg after 15 matches
May 28 - The tenure of St. Louis City head coach Olof Mellberg has come to an end after 15 matches. The club announced his dismissal Tuesday night. He has been replaced by David Critchley, the head coach of MLS NEXT Pro affiliate St Louis City2, on an interim basis. St. Louis City is 2-8-5 (11 points) and in 14th place in the Western Conference. The club has just 11 goals on the season -- third worst in Major League Soccer -- and has given up 20. "The decision to part ways with Olof goes beyond just results," sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel said. "We've analyzed the team's performance across a number of factors, including the need to execute against a style of play that led to the team's initial success and has been part of our DNA for four years." This is the third MLS season for expansion side St. Louis. The club led the Western Conference with 56 points in its inaugural season and missed the playoffs in 2024. Mellberg, the former Sweden captain and Aston Villa star, replaced Bradley Carnell to become the second head coach in franchise history. Carnell was fired in July. Mellberg, 47, was hired last November, and this is what team president and general manager Diego Gigliani said at the time: "After careful consideration, we're thrilled to welcome Olof as our new head coach and are confident he'll be a great fit for St. Louis City SC." But it apparently wasn't a good fit with Mellberg, who had been coaching clubs in Sweden and Denmark since 2015 before moving to St. Louis. "We understood it would take time for Olof to become acclimated to Major League Soccer and certainly acknowledge injuries made his job difficult, but we simply could not continue down this path," Gigliani said. "We are disappointed that we were not able to find success under Olof. He moved over here from Sweden and worked tirelessly on behalf of the club during his tenure. We wish him nothing but success in his future endeavors." St. Louis next plays Saturday at home against the San Jose Earthquakes. --Field Level Media
New York Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
St. Louis City fires head coach Olof Mellberg, seeks ‘return to a winning culture'
On Tuesday, St. Louis City announced it had fired head coach Olof Mellberg before the midpoint of his first season. The Swede lasted just 15 regular-season games in the job. Mellberg is the third MLS coach to be dismissed in the 2025 season, following Laurent Courtois' firing by CF Montréal and Peter Vermes mutually parting ways with Sporting Kansas City. David Critchley, the head coach of St. Louis' MLS Next Pro affiliate, will serve as interim head coach. Advertisement 'The decision to part ways with Olof goes beyond just results,' sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel said in the club's press release. 'We've analyzed the team's performance across a number of factors, including the need to execute against a style of play that led to the team's initial success and has been part of our DNA for four years. 'As a club, we have certain standards we need to meet and believe a coaching change was necessary to improve our overall performance and return to a winning culture. Our fans deserve a better-performing team, and we intend to give them one.' St. Louis CITY SC part ways with Head Coach Olof Mellberg. 🗞️ — St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 27, 2025 The move is the latest in a series of attempts to reignite a spark under St. Louis City. Pfannenstiel became St. Louis City's first sporting director, joining the club in 2020 to help oversee the process of building out the club's sporting department. Among his most important decisions was naming Bradley Carnell as the club's first head coach, fresh off his impressive stint as interim coach of the New York Red Bulls. Carnell and St. Louis were an instant hit upon debuting in 2023, fueled by a system that took many cues from the Red Bull Football Group's guiding ideology. Under Carnell, St. Louis had the league's most voracious forward press, creating plenty of goals and chances by forcing opponents into turnovers in their own third. The success came despite very little squad stability, as Carnell utilized 32 different starting lineups across the 34-game season. St. Louis City shocked MLS by finishing atop the Western Conference in its first season, winning 17 games and totalling 56 points as many of the conference's usual powers underwent relative down years. Unfortunately, any momentum from this remarkable debut was quickly extinguished, as No. 8-ranked Sporting Kansas City upset St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs, needing just two games of the best-of-three series to eliminate the top seed. Advertisement Despite the strong first impression, Carnell was dismissed midway through 2024 as St. Louis notched just three wins and 10 draws in its first 20 games. After overperforming their expected goals by 18.01 in 2023, the team was narrowly underperforming by -1.4 just over halfway through the year. Technical director John Hackworth oversaw the rest of the year as Pfannenstiel began the search for Carnell's successor, with Mellberg appointed in late November. 'Olof has an incredible work ethic and reputation for being disciplined and detail-oriented,' Pfannenstiel said at the time of Mellberg's hiring. 'His leadership qualities as a captain, both at the highest club level and with his national team, will be key to managing our group. Olof's ability to develop young talent was seen at his Swedish club and we can't wait to see it translate here in St. Louis.' A former center back at Aston Villa, Juventus and Villarreal, Mellberg's coaching CV was highlighted by bringing Brommapojkarna to the top-flight of Sweden, keeping them in the Allsvenskan for three consecutive years (a first in club history), including their record-high finish of 10th in the 2024 season. Mellberg seemed to struggle to make the leap to MLS, though, even while inheriting many of the same players who had started under Carnell. The squad saw few reinforcements ahead of the 2025 season, with two players signed on free transfers, one joining through the MLS SuperDraft and another on loan. At the time of Mellberg's dismissal, St. Louis ranks 28th in the 30-team league. Only three teams have dropped more points from leading positions than St. Louis' ledger of 10. That doesn't count last week's U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 loss to Minnesota United, where the team came back from a 1-0 deficit to lead 2-1 in the 65th minute. Minnesota flipped the result again, with Anthony Markanich scoring two goals in the final five minutes to eliminate the visitors. Advertisement Adding further insult, Markanich was only available for the Loons after they acquired him from St. Louis in August 2024. Minnesota sent St. Louis just $50,000 of allocation money for the left back, the lowest denomination MLS allows teams to trade. Although Mellberg didn't have much time to build a robust sample size, he seemed to want his team to play in a very different style from the 'DNA' Pfannenstiel cited when referring to the 2023 iteration. The team ranks 23rd in PPDA (passes per defensive action, a measure of pressing intensity), affording opponents more time on the ball in dangerous areas. While Carnell's side had a field tilt of 49.5% in 2023 — that is, possession when only counting attacking-third touches — Mellberg's version ranked last in MLS with just 34.5% of attacking touches. Study the team's xG performance since their launch, however, and it's hard to see where this team should have been expected to fare better — including in their emphatic debut. The viz above charts the expected goals St. Louis accrues to the total it concedes; for the majority of their nearly two-and-a-half years of operation, they've played at a deficit in pure chance creation. And so, for a second consecutive season, St. Louis will spend a crucial stretch of the season looking for a new coach. Meanwhile, Carnell has transitioned well to his new job with the Philadelphia Union, who lead an Eastern Conference boasting preseason favorites including the Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati and Inter Miami. With the Union, Carnell has inherited a squad that reached the MLS Cup in 2022. It's a level of recent success that St. Louis seems desperate to attain, but another lost season running coaching interviews will do little to foster the requisite momentum to win in MLS.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MLS Preview: St. Louis City SC
St. Louis City SC's debut season in 2023 was the culmination of many, many years of 'close but no cigar,' 'better luck next time,' and 'you were THIS close' messages from the MLS brass. In 2007 the city was floated as a possible relocation place for Real Salt Lake in that owner's negotiations/threats to build a new stadium. An unsuccessful bid ensued in 2009, the MLS favoring other cities over St. Louis despite approved construction plans for a huge soccer complex. In 2014 there was ANOTHER bid tied to a dual-use stadium for the future club and the NFL Rams franchise. The Rams moved to Los Angeles in 2015, and everyone went back to the drawing board. Finally, after two years of negotiation, the club was officially granted a franchise in late 2019, with their inaugural season scheduled for 2022. Well, along came COVID, which slowed but did not halt the stadium construction. It did, however, push their season starter to 2023. And it was worth the wait. St. Louis City SC didn't just hit the ground running, they barely touched ground before taking flight. Under sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel and coach Bradley Carnell they played a furious, pressing style of dynamic, risk-reward soccer. It was brilliant and exciting. They broke four MLS records for an expansion team, and tied one other (see the Other Facts section for details) in 2023, cruising into the postseason having won the Western Conference. Unfortunately, they were crushed in the first round of the playoffs. City SC are the only female-majority owned team in the MLS. Carolyn Kindle, president of Enterprise Holders, and Jo Ann Taylor, also an Enterprise Holders executive (both are heirs to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car fortune) have the controlling stake. Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of World Wide Technology, is a minority partner. With two seasons under their belt, there's a short list to pick from. Indiana Vassilev (United States) – Midfielder Current record holder for most appearances (75). Roman Bürki (Switzerland) [DP] – Goalkeeper 2023 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year winner. Current team captain. João Klauss (Brazil) – Forward [DP] The club's first Designated Player. Scored the winning goal in their debut match against Austin FC. Top goal scorer for the club (15). Play home games at Energizer Park, capacity 22,423. They have vibrant and rowdy supporters, including: St. Louligans (the oldest supporter group, founded in 2010) St. Louis CITY Punks No Nap City Ultras (composed of parents and mostly young children) STL Santos (for Spanish speakers) Fleur de Noise (a drum corps providing percussion support to chants) Below are the records the team set in 2023 First expansion team to win all five opening games (inclusive of winning four opening games). Most wins by an expansion team (17). First expansion team to win their division in their debut season. Tied – Most goal scorers for an expansion team in their debut season (16) Though not recognized as a formal derby, given their regional proximity there's a rivalry between Sporting Kansas City. After the record-breaking 2023 campaign, 2024 was going to be an uphill battle. They once again started with five undefeated games; the rub was that four of them were draws. After that, the hill turned out to be a cliff, and the squad just couldn't scale it. Coach Carnell was fired on July 1. The team's record was a limp 8W – 13D – 13L for 37 points Finished in.12th place in the Western Conference; 24th overall A mighty, mighty collapse, to say the least St. Louis had a very busy mid-season transfer window during which they cleaned house, so this offseason has been relatively quiet. They have a new coach, Swede Olof Mellberg from IF Brommapojkarna, but only two new faces hit the roster, highlighted below: Timo Baumgartl (Germany) – Defender The 28-year old center back is the product of the Stuttgart academy, but hasn't seen much starting time since 2019 when he transferred to PSV. Conrad Wallem (Norway) – Midfielder He's on loan from Slavia Prague with an option to buy, so that means he should be eager to impress. He's apparently comfortable on the wing in an attack or defensive alignment. Host the Colorado Rapids on Feb. 22nd Sporting Kansas City Seattle Sounders San Jose Earthquakes Real Salt Lake Portland Timbers Minnesota United FC LAFC LA Galaxy Houston Dynamo FC Dallas Colorado Rapids Austin FC
