St. Louis City v Seattle Sounders: Hosts banking on ´best goalkeeper in MLS´

St. Louis City will bank on Roman Burki when they face the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, with Cedric Teuchert describing the former Borussia Dortmund man as the best goalkeeper in MLS.

Olof Mellberg’s team sit sixth in the Western Conference standings with five points from three matches, having not conceded a goal in MLS under the Swede.

After starting the season with back-to-back goalless draws, they earned an eye-catching 3-0 win over the defending MLS Cup champions, the LA Galaxy, last time out.

Experienced shot-stopper Burki made eight saves in that match, prompting Teuchert – who had a goal and an assist – to heap praise on his team-mate.

“He’s very important for us. He made three or four really good saves to keep us in that game and that’s why he’s the best goalkeeper in the league,” Teuchert said of Burki.

“When we are good in defence, we are always going to score goals because we have big players in the offense. I think when we keep clean sheets, we’ll win a lot of games.”

Mellberg, meanwhile, hopes to see St. Louis continue their attacking upturn, saying: “I think the first two games have built confidence.

“Thanks to some good individual defending and especially to Roman, we were able to get another clean sheet.

“One-on-one, two-on-one, two-on-two scenarios, I was very pleased with the way we looked in shape. We added a bit more quality, especially in the third phase, with some great finishes.”

St. Louis’ backline will have to be wary next time out, though, with Seattle earning their first win of 2025 in eye-catching fashion last week.

They trounced Los Angeles FC 5-2 at Lumen Field, with five different players on target, as they moved up to four points from their opening three games.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

St. Louis City – Cedric Teuchert

Teuchert recorded a goal and an assist in St Louis’ win last Sunday.

He has been involved in 11 (six goals, five assists) of the 22 regular-season goals his team have scored since his debut last July.

Seattle Sounders – Albert Rusnak

Rusnak and Cristian Roldan each had a goal and two assists off the bench last Saturday as the Sounders became the first team in MLS history to have two substitutes record three goal contributions in a single match.

Rusnak is up to three assists for the season, with only Luis Suarez (four) recording more, while his 12 chances created in 2025 are a league-high tally.

MATCH PREDICTION – SEATTLE SOUNDERS WIN

St. Louis have opened the season with three straight clean sheets, the first run of three consecutive shutouts in their club history.

Only two teams, the New York Red Bulls in 2007 and Vancouver Whitecaps in 2012, have kept clean sheets in each of their first four games of a regular season.

However, they may struggle to keep the Sounders out.

Five different Sounders players scored their five goals in their win over Los Angeles last Saturday.

It was the third time five different Sounders players have scored in a match with Jordan Morris finding the net in each of those (also in 2016 versus FC Dallas, and in 2020 against San Jose).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

St. Louis City – 33.1%

Seattle Sounders – 41.1%

Draw – 25.6%