After big first season, City SC gives coach Bradley Carnell an extension to the end of 2025

City SC head coach Bradley Carnell takes the field to start practice on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, at the club’s training facility in downtown St. Louis. Carnell was given a contract extension Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, through the end of 2025.

Laurie Skrivan, Post-Dispatch

In a move that City SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel described as a “no-brainer,” the team has extended the contract of coach Bradley Carnell, who guided the team to one of the best showings ever by a Major League Soccer expansion team.

Carnell’s contract, which was to expire after this season, now runs through 2025. In addition, the new contract replaces his original contract for this season.

“That represents the commitment on both sides,” team president and general manager Diego Gigliani said Wednesday. “We see him day to day, we already saw what Lutz and the group saw in him when he was hired. He didn’t have a lot of head coach experience before coming, but they all saw in him some great potential and he’s definitely proven that last year. There was going to be interest for sure, and we sat down together and we all felt this was the right thing to do. Bradley is super-committed to this project and is happy here, his family is here; we also felt with just one year, we had seen enough to want to commit to a longer term with him.”

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It’s a bit of job security for Carnell in a world that doesn’t afford much. Carnell is already 14th in seniority with his current club among 29 MLS coaches, though some of that is because the club hired him a full year before the team played its first game. Coaching to the end of 2025 would mean three full seasons for the team on the field; at present, only seven coaches in the league have been with their current teams that long.

“I want to say thank you to Lutz, Diego, Carolyn (Kindle) and the ownership group for believing in me to help lead this project and continue from a successful Year 1,” Carnell said in a statement released by the team. “I am excited to continue working with the STL group. My family and I love the St. Louis area and can’t wait to build on top of the strong foundation that was built.”

City SC went 17-12-5 in its first season, setting a mark for the most wins by an expansion team outside the league’s shootout era. The team finished with 56 points, one point off the record for points by an expansion team. The club also was the first team to win a regular-season conference title and be a No. 1 seed in the playoffs in its first season. Carnell placed second in voting for coach of the year.

This is Carnell’s first job as a full-time professional head coach. He was an interim coach with the New York Red Bulls in 2020 with a 6-3-5 record.

“I think it’s not just players or coaches or sporting directors — I think everyone lives to grow and lives to get better and has a certain development,” Pfannenstiel said. “Bradley did a fantastic job, but I think the person who is most willing to improve and working so hard every day on the details, that’s Bradley. He’s driven; he’s crazy about the details when it comes to his coaching, also when it comes to developing the personality, I think that’s what Bradley stands for. That was a big strength for us last season.

“It was a no-brainer, it was not a big surprise that happened, and I think it’s a win-win situation for everybody. We all can get better, we all can make the next steps together, and I believe in having a certain consistency, not just with players but also with the staff around the players, which is coaches, physios, doctors, trainers, whatever you call the whole group, I believe to keep that group as long as possible together will make us better in the long run.”

Leagues Cup groups set

City SC was placed in a group with Dallas of MLS and Juarez of Liga MX for Leagues Cup, the summer tournament between clubs in the region’s two largest leagues.

The tournament based the groupings on seeding and geography this season. Under the tournament’s new system, clubs were seeded based on last season’s standings, and City SC is the No. 5 seed (technically seventh but two of the teams ahead of it get first-round byes and aren’t seeded because they won their respective leagues). Dallas is No. 19 and comes out of the second tier of teams, and Juarez is 41st and one of the lowest-seeded Mexican teams in the tournament. In last season’s tournament, City SC drew Club America, which is the No. 1 overall team in this year’s tournament.

The schedule for the tournament, which starts July 26, hasn’t been announced yet. Last season, City SC lost its two first-round games and didn’t advance in the tournament.

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