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The injury situation that dragged down St. Louis City SC in 2024 has not given them any kind of immunity in 2025.

City SC will be without star goalkeeper Roman Burki for about a month after he fractured a bone in his left hand in practice last Friday, and it will also be without right back Tomas Totland, one of its most dependable players last season, for a month with a pulled hamstring. Burki and Totland were first and second on the team in minutes played last season.

At a time of the year where City SC has no midweek games, a month would mean four missed games for Burki. No surgery was needed, so it’s just a matter of waiting for the bone to heal.

“We’re just trying to do as much as we can during this period so he can come back as quickly as possible,� coach Olof Mellberg said, “but we have to be a little careful also because it is a fracture and any blow to that hand again will be dangerous. Have to be a little bit cautious as well with how we treat him in this period.�

The injury to Burki, who was one of the top goalkeepers in Major League Soccer in his first two seasons and had just been named the league’s player of the match day for his eight-save performance against the Los Angeles Galaxy, gives the starting spot to Ben Lundt, who is in his third season as Burki’s backup but hasn’t seen much playing time because Burki has been in the lineup almost every game.

For Lundt, who was born in Berlin and came to America to play college soccer at Akron, this is his sixth season in the league and he has appeared in just five games in that span. City SC’s 1-0 win over Seattle, in which he had to make just one save, was his first MLS shutout.

“For sure, our overall defending has been really good,� Mellberg said. “It was really, really good in the last game. We’ve conceded very little so credit to the guys and the way they helped Ben in that. He dealt with the few occasions they threatened in a good way, so that was a nice clean sheet for him.�

Christian Olivares will move up to the No. 2 spot and Colin Welsh, the team’s third-round pick in the draft who is signed with City2 will join the team in practice.

Totland was hurt in the 65th minute, pulling up and grabbing his left hamstring after trying to make a run on a City SC attack. He sat down on the grass in the penalty area and play was stopped so he could get treatment. He was quickly subbed out of the game. He watched the end of practice Tuesday from the sideline, wearing sandals.

In the few games Totland didn’t play in last season, he was replaced by either Akil Watts or Jake Nerwinski. Nerwinski is no longer with the club and Watts, who moved into Totland’s spot after he was subbed out Saturday, is the likely successor.

“We have players who can fill in there,� Mellberg said. “It’s not a position where we have a lot of players unfortunately in that way. Also unfortunate because Tomas has done real well as a quality player for us, so it’s not ideal but we’ll find a way.�

Also missing from practice Tuesday was defender/midfielder Conrad Wallem. Mellberg said Wallem had a tight calf but would probably rejoin full practice Thursday and should be available for the weekend.

But not all the injury news was bad. City SC got center back Joakim Nilsson back after he missed the first three games with a knee injury and midfielder Tomas Ostrak, who made his first appearance since an ankle injury last May.

“It’s nice to get Joakim back,� Mellberg said. “He did really well in preseason so really unfortunate to get that injury. We’ll see if and how we can use him on the weekend. A little bit the same with Tomas. You could see he was struggling the first five, 10 minutes with his fitness not having played many minutes in a long time. So nice to see him back as well.�

No Klauss

City SC started just one forward against Seattle, Cedric Teuchert, and when he came out, Simon Becher went in. That meant that Klauss didn’t appear in a game for the first time with City SC in a game in which he was on the roster.

“We’re looking at every game individually and how we can get the most out of our players in that position,� Mellberg said. “In this game, we could really use Cedi from start and with what the game looked like, we thought it was a good change with Simon, so we’ll see for next game what that setup looks like and how they’re doing in training and make a decision accordingly.�

Mellberg has gone though different options up top in each game. The first game had Klauss and Becher starting, the second game, just Becher, the third game, just Klauss, and in the fourth game, neither.

Notes

Mellberg got his first yellow card in America in the 98th minute when he protested too much about an out of bounds call that gave the ball to Seattle. “I’ve had a few yellows and reds as well,� he said. “I probably overreacted too much in that moment.� … Eduard Lowen made the league’s team of the match day and Henry Kessler made the bench. … The MLS All-Star Game will be played July 23 in Austin, Texas, and this year’s opponent will be an all-star team from Mexico’s Liga MX. This will be the fourth time MLS and Liga MX all-stars have met; Mexico’s win last season was its first victory. MLS won in 2021 and 2022.