St. Louis CITY SC has been on an absolute tear lately. Under first-year head coach Yoann Damet, the fourth-year Major League Soccer side has bounced back from a pair of campaigns without a postseason appearance and a slow start to the regular season to string together a club-record unbeaten run of 15 matches across all competitions.
It’s even more impressive considering St. Louis has parted ways with its three all-time leading scorers since the start of the calendar year. The club traded its first-ever Designated Player, João Klauss, to the LA Galaxy in January, accommodated Marcel Hartel’s request to return to his native Germany on a transfer to Hannover 96 in August, and more recently, traded Eduard Löwen to the San Jose Earthquakes just before the transfer window closed a few weeks ago.
Amid their departures, 27-year-old forward Simon Becher has emerged as a serious attacking presence this season. Born in Topeka, Kan., and raised in Brooklyn, Conn., Becher has been tied to St. Louis long before CITY SC kicked a ball for the first time in 2023. After a sparkling freshman campaign at the College of the Holy Cross in 2018, Becher transferred to Saint Louis University (SLU), where he spent three seasons, earning United Soccer Coaches First Team All-America honors and recognition as a 2021 MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist.
“It’s really special,” Becher said of representing the city of St. Louis. “Having played in St. Louis before, I'm a little bit familiar with the way that the community embraces their sports teams. You look at the [St. Louis] Blues in their Stanley Cup run a couple years back, the way that the [St. Louis] Cardinals have really become synonymous with the city, and now St. Louis CITY SC is tying into the fact that [St. Louis] has been a soccer community for the better part of the last 100 years.
“There's so much history tied in with the [FIFA] World Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. Just the way that the fans come out and support the team makes it feel like playing for the club means you're a part of the community. The team’s not just ours—it's the community’s. It's the way that you see people in the street, and they care about the club. They care about the success of the team. Being able to experience that is really cool. So, having the ability to bring a trophy to this club and give back to the fans a little bit is something that's really important because they pour their hearts and souls into their sports teams in St. Louis, so to embrace that and be a part of it is really cool.”
After three standout seasons at SLU, Becher was drafted by Vancouver Whitecaps FC with the 16th pick of the 2022 MLS SuperDraft. Across two seasons in Vancouver, Becher made a combined 49 appearances for both the first team and the club’s MLS NEXT Pro affiliate, helping the ‘Caps claim their third Canadian Championship crown in the process.
After a season in Denmark with AC Horsens, Becher made the move back to St. Louis, initially on loan from the Danish side in 2024 before joining CITY SC on a permanent basis in 2025.
While on loan in 2024, Becher scored six goals across all competitions. The next year, he posted a three-goal, three-assist campaign in which he primarily featured as a second-half substitute. The forward’s big break came in 2026. After earning the trust of Damet, Becher has constructed a career-best MLS campaign that, so far, has featured seven goals and four assists. During CITY SC’s 15-match unbeaten run, Becher has featured prominently, tallying six goals and three assists.
Of his six goals during that span, five have come in his last five starts, and the most recent goal came against his former side, Vancouver, in a match where St. Louis defeated the Western Conference leaders by two goals at BC Place.
“It was definitely special for me,” Becher said about scoring in Vancouver. “I know a lot of the guys here, I’m close with a lot of them, and it's where I got my start. So, it was definitely special for me to come back and win and score in front of the fans. For me, it’s about just continuing to go. The team’s in a great run of form, so it was a big win for us. It speaks to the confidence of going away to a really hard place to play and having the confidence that we're going to be who we are, not change for anybody and pick up three points here.”
Despite being in such hot scoring form, the 27-year-old forward is still seeking his first Open Cup goal. The forward has made four appearances for CITY SC in the Open Cup over the past couple of seasons, though he got his first taste of professional opposition when suiting up for USL League Two side Reading United AC in the 2019 edition of the tournament, heading down to Kentucky to face USL Championship power Louisville City FC, then led by his future St. Louis coach, John Hackworth.
“For us at Reading, it's the match that you circle on your calendar,” Becher said. “You get to go and play a professional team, and you have an opportunity to beat them. It's just special. It’s a big part of football, being able to play teams in higher divisions in these domestic cups. It was really cool then, and it was something that I remember, having a chance to go out and prove something against a professional team. I think at that time, as a college kid, it was a great experience to see what the next level looks like in a competitive game, and [today] it helps me bring experience when I walk into those games. Sometimes you have to play a team in the USL, and it's a huge game for them, and for us, it's something that we don't take lightly. Again, I think with it being such a big goal of ours this year, it was something that we had a big focus on. So, [it was] cool to have like a full-circle moment there.”
An Open Cup title would represent CITY SC’s first-ever trophy. Two wins away from history, an Open Cup triumph would be especially fitting for a club representing a city steeped in soccer history.
St. Louis lays claim to 10 Open Cup titles across six clubs over the course of nearly seven decades: Ben Millers (1920), Scullin Steel (1922), Stix, Baer and Fuller/St. Louis Central Breweries (1933, 1934, 1935), St. Louis Simpkins-Ford (1948, 1950), St. Louis Kutis SC (1957, 1986) and St. Louis Busch Seniors (1988)—only New York City can claim more Open Cup titles as a city. Fast-forward to today, and St. Louis CITY SC is the first St. Louis-based club to reach the Open Cup Semifinals since the title-winning St. Louis Busch Seniors in 1988.
“We obviously understand the significance of the Open Cup in St. Louis,” Becher explained. “As a domestic trophy, there's a lot of incentive and history behind it to win it. For us, it's really exciting. It was a goal in January. It's not something that we just found ourselves in the Semifinal; it's something we've talked about since we walked in the door, and it's been an aim of ours.
“We've been stepping into every game, regardless of the opponent, ready to compete and ready to win—it's not something that we take lightly. Again, for us, it's a chance to win the first trophy in the club's history and be a part of the history. We speak a lot about writing the history of this club, and with the unbeaten streak, that's something that we're doing. Looking at the Open Cup, it's big for us, big for the city and big for the club. We’re fully focused on that and excited for it. Those are the games in your career you want to play in. It's a big opportunity for us.”
St. Louis will travel to Denver to take on the Colorado Rapids in the U.S. Open Cup Semifinals (Sept. 16, 9:30 p.m. ET / Paramount+, CBS Sports Network) before the streaking side can look ahead to a potential Final on the road—either against the Columbus Crew or Orlando City SC.
