St. Louis City aims to get momentum back vs. San Diego FC

St. Louis City will try to regain the momentum it had during an earlier MLS record-tying unbeaten streak in Saturday's home finale against a San Diego FC side that was eliminated from playoff contention in midweek.

St. Louis (14-9-9, 51 points) went 19 league matches and 21 games total without a loss before narrowly falling 3-2 at Minnesota on Oct. 17.

First-year manager Yoann Damet's group followed that by winning the U.S. Open Cup on penalties after a 0-0 draw at Columbus in the final.

But two more league losses followed, including a 3-2 home loss against Portland on Wednesday. Damet believes the issue is a loss of form as much as a lack of training time; Saturday will be St. Louis' seventh match in 21 days.

"Of course, the results are disappointing, the past three league results," Damet said. "But at the same time, I think it's also the product of the context we've been dealing with. We still need to train. We still need to get better. When you don't get those opportunities and you've got one or two days to prepare, it makes things harder a little bit."

St. Louis still enters the weekend in third in the Western Conference and assured of a playoff spot. After scoring his ninth goal since being traded from Colorado in early September against Portland, Rafael Navarro is seeking to become the first player in MLS history to reach double digits with two teams in the same season.

San Diego (8-13-11, 35 points) was officially eliminated Wednesday with a 4-1 loss at Vancouver, a stinging fate after finishing first in the 2025 West regular-season standings.

Mikey Varas' group is winless in its last 10 (0-5-5) entering its last two games.

Anders Dreyer has had another exceptional season with 14 goals and 12 assists. Congolese star veteran Cedric Bakambu has impressed since his free transfer from Real Betis this summer. But conventional logic suggests nearly everyone else is playing for a 2027 roster spot over these final 180 minutes.

"From a big-picture standpoint, some guys will get some opportunities in this game, because we need to find out what we've got, and some guys haven't had as many opportunities as others," Varas said. "As a group, we have to improve. We have to improve over these two games. And we have to leave this 2026 season closer to what we want to be than we are today."

--Field Level Media