There’s a hometown connection between St. Louis’ hockey team and new soccer team.
I follow both the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis City SC.
I see a connection between the Blues and City SC, much like the one between the Blues and the Cardinals After all, they’re both based in St. Louis, and they appear to be friendly with each other.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has published an article titled: With help from the Blues, City SC lands Swedish defender Nilsson.
The article mentioned how Lutz Pfannenstiel, sporting director for City SC, wanted to recruit Swedish defender Joakim Nilsson to help him continue his soccer career in the MLS and in St. Louis. As a result, Pfannenstiel got some help from then-Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist and retired Blues forward Alexander Steen to tell Nilsson about the St. Louis sports experience. Everything worked out in the end as Pfannenstiel ended up signing Nilsson to City SC.
While it remains unclear how much success will be in Nilsson’s future, it’s nice to see him in St. Louis. He was signed through the 2026 MLS season. He’s a good, if not great, international defender with a lot of experience, along with a natural leadership quality on and off the field.
Pfannenstiel told the Post-Dispatch: “When it comes to playing, he’s a true leader … He’s very Scandanavian in his approach, very calm, he’s very very grounded, a hard-working strong player with a good voice on and off the field. A guy which will be a leader in the changing room but also on the field. His way of defending, great left foot, good in the buildup, strong in the air, very very good defending 1 v. 1. Basically all the boxes we looked for in a center back he had.”
The City SC will play their home games at Centene Stadium. Even if you’re not a soccer fan, you should attend a home game or at least watch one of their games when their first season begins. One game is a quick way to get hooked into being a soccer fan.