Year One: St. Louis CITY SC

In 2023, St. Louis CITY Soccer Club completed an inaugural season that was unparalleled in the history of Major League Soccer. CITY’s exciting, fast, and high-pressure style yielded goals and victories in bunches, won a regular-season conference championship, and thrilled sellout crowds at every MLS home game. Year one saw CITY win the most games by an expansion team in MLS history, emerge as the first MLS expansion team to capture its regular season conference championship, and become the first MLS expansion team to win its first five games. Playing in perhaps the best soccer facility in the United States, CITY created a match-day experience unlike any other in St. Louis sports for the 22,423 fans who filled CITYPARK for every game. Relive that remarkable first season in Year One: St. Louis CITY SC. Learn about the birth and buildup of CITY; enjoy game summaries, pictures, and player statistics; and relive all of the thrilling international matches held at CITYPARK. Year One is an incredible story about an unforgettable season. Author and St. Louis native Dave Lange has chronicled St. Louis soccer for local and national media outlets since the 1970s. In Year One: St. Louis CITY SC, join him as he covers the highs and lows of St. Louis’s newest sports franchise in its inaugural season.

Dave Lange has chronicled St. Louis soccer since the 1970s for local and national media outlets. He is the author of the only comprehensive history of soccer in St. Louis—Soccer Made in St. Louis: A History of the Game in America’s First Soccer Capital (Reedy Press). He also wrote or coauthored Practice Makes Perfect: A Guide to Fun Training Sessions for 6-10 Year Olds; Cherishing Childhood: The First 100 Years of Community School; Webster University: A Century of Defining Moments; and Taming Troubled Waters: Dr. Henry Givens Jr. and the Transformation of Harris-Stowe State University. He also contributed a chapter to Soccer Frontiers: The Global Game in the United States, 1863–1913. Lange coached youth soccer and holds a USSF National D coaching license and a coaching certificate from the Royal Dutch Football Association. He is senior lecturer at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and adjunct full professor at Webster University.