St. Louis City seeking stronger finish at Minnesota United

Minnesota United and St. Louis City will get to know each other rather well when the clubs begin a two-match set on Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.

Amid a stretch of nine matches in 30 days, the Loons (6-3-4, 22 points) also will host St. Louis City (2-6-5, 11 points) in a U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 encounter on Wednesday.

Fresh off a decisive 4-1 victory over Inter Miami, a new-look Minnesota squad saw its two-match winning streak come to a halt with a 2-0 setback to the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday. The congested schedule forced Loons coach Eric Ramsay to make eight changes to his starting lineup, notably inserting Hoyeon Jung and Kieran Chandler into the fold to make the first MLS starts of their respective careers.

"Ultimately, we got an outcome that is frustrating, but perhaps one that -- given the context as a whole -- would perhaps be at least understood, if not expected," Ramsay said.

While Minnesota was blanked in its last match, St. Louis City have been rather generous by conceding 16 goals during their nine-match winless run (0-6-3) in league play.

St. Louis City yielded two goals just six minutes apart late in the second half to settle for a 2-2 draw against rival Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday.

"We have chances to kill the game, but we don't. We don't take our chances, and then we let them come back to one and then the header (to tie)," midfielder Celio Pompeu said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "In my opinion, you just have to be able to learn how to kill games, how to finish -- 3-0, 4-0, it's over. They give up."

Pompeu scored from the top of the penalty area in the 15th minute and Cedric Teuchert added his team-leading third goal of the season in the 44th for St. Louis City.

Minnesota's Tani Oluwaseyi has a club-best five goals -- albeit none since April 6 -- while his four assists are one shy of Joaquin Pereyra for the team lead.