St. Louis City v Houston Dynamo: Critchley proud of hosts’ passion despite poor form

Interim St. Louis City coach David Critchley has praised his side’s passion and commitment ahead of their clash with the Houston Dynamo.

Critchley’s side are enduring a frustrating run, with just one win and four losses in their last five outings.

Their most recent setback came at the hands of new MLS arrival Thomas Muller, who scored a 104th-minute penalty to mark his debut goal for the Vancouver Whitecaps, handing St. Louis a 3-2 defeat last weekend at BC Place.

This followed a similarly disappointing loss to the Chicago Fire two weeks earlier, when Brian Gutierrez’s 87th-minute winner left St. Louis empty-handed once again.

Despite the results, Critchley remains proud of his players’ efforts and insists they have done enough to win matches.

“We came into this game today at 14th in the league,” Critchley said in his post-match press conference.

“To watch these guys perform like they did, it’s massive amounts of being proud and being happy.

“You know, we go ahead and get ourselves in a great position away from home against a very, very tough opponent. We did enough to win the football game.”

Critchley also highlighted his side’s impressive physical metrics this season, saying: “You know, we're looking at some of the data right now, just the physical data, and I think it’s one of the top three for our best-ever recorded data in a game.

“So that just shows the commitment, the passion, the effort, everything that these guys have put into it.

“They deserved so much more than a loss and I'm super proud of them.”

St. Louis now find themselves 14th in the Western Conference on 21 points through 27 matches as they prepare to host fellow underachievers Houston at Energizer Park.

Houston are 12th in the West with 29 points through 27 matches and were handed a 2-1 loss by San Jose Earthquakes in their last outing, extending their MLS winless streak to six matches.

Cristian Arango and Ian Harkes netted either side of the break, with Antonio Carlos’ 72nd-minute goal proving insufficient to spur the Dynamo to a comeback.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

St. Louis City – Joao Klauss

Klauss was on target in St. Louis’ 3-2 loss to Vancouver, moving to nine MLS goals this season. Eduard Lowen also found the back of the net against the Whitecaps.

Klauss (24) and Lowen (15) are the top two scorers in St. Louis’ MLS history, but Saturday’s loss was just the third instance of both players getting on the scoresheet in the same match.

Houston Dynamo – Antonio Carlos

Carlos scored his first goal of the season in the Dynamo’s defeat to San Jose last Saturday.

He is the fifth different defender to score a goal for Houston in 2025, as only San Jose and Philadelphia (six each) have had more different defenders find the net this season.

MATCH PREDICTION: ST. LOUIS WIN

St. Louis City approach Sunday’s affair as favourites, with the hosts expected to make full use of their home advantage.

They have won all three of their home matches against the Dynamo, including winning each of the two regular-season meetings at Energizer Park by a 3-0 scoreline.

Houston, meanwhile, come into the match in dismal form. Their winless run in all competitions extended to nine matches (D3 L6) with their 2-1 loss to the Earthquakes.

The Dynamo have only two wins in their last 14 matches, though they will be buoyed by the fact that one of those came against St. Louis City (1-0 on June 28).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

St. Louis City – 41.5%

Draw – 26.7%

Houston Dynamo – 31.8%