Pfannenstiel on MLS newcomer St. Louis CITY: Lots of TSG Hoffenheim & some Red Bull

Big Bundesliga influence

Lutz Pfannenstiel starts his first season as sporting director of the new MLS team St. Louis CITY SC with great self-confidence. “Traditionally, an expansion team is always bad and takes a year or two to settle in. I also get this echo from everywhere: St. Louis is getting really rough in the first few months. We see it a little differently. Our big goal is that we are immediately competitive and can keep up,” said the 49-year-old former goalkeeper of the “German Press Agency”.

In addition to ex-BVB goalkeeper Roman Bürki (32), the St. Louis squad also includes other professionals with Bundesliga experience, including Eduard Löwen (26; including 1. FC Nürnberg and Hertha BSC), Tomas Ostrak (23; 1. FC Cologne) and the Brazilian João Klauss (TSG Hoffenheim). “We are confident enough to say, when we look at our squad, that we can make life difficult for the competition,” said Pfannenstiel.

In the MLS, teams do not rise and fall, but enter the North American league directly as so-called expansion teams. “US sport is a bit different, there aren’t expansion teams all over the world, that’s unique. We’ve built a whole club from scratch,” said Pfannenstiel ahead of Saturday’s first game against Austin FC, who are entering their third MLS season. “When I came in August 2020, we had nothing at all, no stadium, no training ground. There was a laptop and an I-Pad and lots of good paper presentations. But now day X is coming, ”reported the former sports director of Fortuna Düsseldorf.

During his time as a goalkeeper, Pfannenstiel was a globetrotter and worked as a scout for TSG Hoffenheim for a long time during his career as an official. “We have a philosophy that includes a lot of Hoffenheim and a bit of Red Bull. We are a pressing team, a team that comes with high intensity and a lot of willingness to run. So it’s very different from what you’re used to here in the US,” he said. “You have a lot of Bundesliga in our set-up. It starts with coach Bradley Carnell, who was a Bundesliga player himself, to the outstanding stadium, which is currently the most modern soccer arena in the USA, to a training ground that would be top 5 in the Bundesliga.”

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