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St. Louis City SC added another international player to its roster with the signing Czech midfielder Tomas Ostrak, who was playing in Germany for FC Koln. Ostrak’s signing came after the team signed Selmir Pidro, a defender from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One minute after coming on midway through the second half of St. Louis City2’s game on Sunday, midfielder Tomas Ostrak took a pass from teammate Klauss at the top of the penalty area and drove the ball in for the first goal by one of City’s international group of players.
“It was beautiful,” Ostrak said. “It was exciting I scored this first goal and I’m happy that it happened so fast.”
From Ostrak’s point of view, the goal was pretty simple. Klauss did all the hard work and then set him up with a perfect pass for Ostrak to drive into the lower left corner of the goal.
If only everything was that simple. Ostrak, a Czech who has been playing in Germany, has been in St. Louis not quite a month and while he’s feeling comfortable here, he’s also finding it complicated.
“I think it’s a little bit more complicated than in Europe,” he said Friday, sitting at a picnic table under a tree outside City2’s temporary home at the Lou Fusz facility in Earth City. “Like, I need a social security number, I need a car, car is so hard to get, bank accounts. Everything like this. Also like visa, I should do that. I work here for the St. Louis like a professional player, so there are many, many things to do, but now I’m like here for the three months to …” Here he pulls out his phone to translate something into English. “... get used to. So that’s the point here.”
That was one of sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel’s plans with the early signings of his international players, to have them come to America early in the process and get settled. Find the car and the place to live and get the paperwork taken care of. And also for the new faces — and everyone will be a new face — to play and train together. By the time the players head home for the holidays, to reconnect for training camp in January, they will have been training together for three months.
“Of course, because now I got the apartment also and I need to still work on my apartment to feel more comfortable,” Ostrak said. “More things to buy and it’s taking time and I think this three months it’s really good to get used to this place and everything around with America because it’s another country. … Completely new everything.”
Ostrak has played 42 minutes so far over two games as City2 has been cautious with his minutes. This is still the preseason for him, and he knows he’s not ready for 90 minutes, though 45 minutes may not be out of the question. City2 coach John Hackworth was mum about the team’s plans for their game Sunday at San Jose, where they could possibly clinch a playoff spot.
“He’s a good player,” Hackworth said. “Like, he’s quality. As a coach, you bring a player like that on to the field in the second half, it’s nice. … With all of the guys that here and getting them through this kind of preseason acclimated to our community, to our club, to our principles of play, getting him more and more minutes is an objective ... but for sure, that’s what we want to try to continue to do.”
Ostrak has already played more minutes in two games with City2 than he did all of last season with his German club, FC Koln, where he got in just five Bundesliga games and played just 31 minutes. That was one of the things that led him to come to America.
“I just want to play and in the my last team where I played it was a little bit hard and I wanted to make some new decisions and a new goal,” he said. “And I think (City coach) Bradley Carnell can help me and everyone in this club can help me to get better player. … I spoke with the Lutz and Bradley and they introduced this club and the project they want to do and yeah, it was really interesting. And I feel like, I want to be the part of this project and because the MLS is getting every year better and better. And it’s a really interesting league, a good league, and I had a good feeling that it’s a good choice for me to play there and get better in this league.”
City acquiring midfielder from Austin after seasonSt. Louis City has added another player for its inaugural season, though an announcement isn’t expected for a while. City has a deal in place to acquire midfielder Jared Stroud from Austin FC of Major League Soccer after the current season ends. The deal was originally reported by the website transfermarkt.us and has been confirmed by the Post-Dispatch.
Stroud is a winger who was in the New York Red Bulls organization when Carnell was there. He was named to the USL Championships all-league first team in 2019 with Red Bulls II and started 11 games with Red Bulls in 2020. He joined Austin in 2021, starting 13 games and appearing in 22, with one goal and four assists. He hasn’t played much this season, playing just 41 minutes over five games.
Stroud, 26, is from New Jersey, which would make him the first American player to join the team, and he played college soccer at Cornell.
Heard goes to U.S. campCity academy player Aaron Heard has been called in the United States under-17 camp that began Thursday in Chula Vista, California, and runs through Wednesday. Heard, from Fairfax, Virginia, has played in six games with City2 this season.
“That’s another big story for us, another callup for Aaron,” said Hackworth. “We’re just proud of him and hope he continues to take full advantage of those.”
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Tom Timmermann is a Blues beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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St. Louis City SC added another international player to its roster with the signing Czech midfielder Tomas Ostrak, who was playing in Germany for FC Koln. Ostrak’s signing came after the team signed Selmir Pidro, a defender from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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