At this point, he might as well be Saint Lowen, patron saint of passing.
Eduard Lowen (pronounced Lou-ven), is the venerable midfielder for St. Louis City SC, who has enraptured onlookers with his divine distribution of the ball. And it’s not just his passing, but his overall command of the ball, the offense, the flow of the game, the everything. He is a soccer maestro. And Saint Lowen is St. Louis.
“He’s been a real treat to watch,” said St. Louisan Brad Davis, who played for the U.S. in the 2014 World Cup and scored 57 goals in his Major League Soccer career. “He’s just smooth. Silky. Obviously a very experienced player, never seems to be out of his element. Knows when to speed the game up, knows when to slow it down. He’s willing to do the dirty work defensively, always seems to be in the right spots. Unbelievable delivery on set pieces, which is a huge thing. I feel like the team has an opportunity every time he steps over the ball.”
For the season, Lowen has the most assists tallied (five) on City SC, as well as the most successful tackles (24). And he’s scored the second-most goals (four) for St. Louis, which has played at least two fewer game than most teams, yet sits in second in the Western Conference.
And in the last game, Saint Lowen performed a miracle.
He unleashed a looping free kick that eluded the leaping goalie. The goal was scored from 44.7 yards out — the second-longest free kick goal in MLS since 2015, per the analytics company Opta.
“It was stunning,” teammate Indiana Vassilev said.
The kick — from the left side of the field via Lowen’s right foot — was artistic. To paraphrase a popular line, “Hang it in the Lowen.”
But there were these other sublime moments, too.
For instance, the lofted left-footed ball from midfield, which was placed perfectly for Celio Pompeu near the goal line (and resulted in St. Louis earning a corner kick).
Or the one-touch lead pass to a streaking Jake Nerwinski down the right wing … or the one-touch cut-back to evade Vancouver’s Petro Vite … or the one-touch pirouette around Vancouver’s Sebastian Berhalter to create dribbling space.
“I was the center midfielder much of my career, so I like watching Lowen — he’s got all the tools,” said Ty Keough, a former St. Louis Steamers standout and local soccer stalwart. “He sees the whole field, he can spray passes around, switch the point of attack. That’s the stuff I enjoy.”
Lowen has also worked earnestly on growing relationships with his teammates. On the field, there is harmonious movement among midfielders Lowen and Vassilev. Lowen also feeds off of Njabulo Blom, whose crackling tackles and spacing at the holding midfield spot help unlock Lowen. And Lowen, 26, has befriended Miguel Perez, the 18-year-old teammate who just graduated from Pattonville High and just scored his first MLS goal.
“When I train with him, I think he teaches me a lot — and I listen to him a lot on the field,” Perez said. “And then when we’re off the field, we have talks on certain things. He’s he plays an important role for me and in the team.”
Lowen is listed at 6-feet-2 and 201 pounds, and still, as Vassilev said, “I don’t know if people can see it on TV or at the game, but he’s a very big body. Like, he’s very strong on the ball. He’s got a lot of agility, too. So he’s able to put his body in between the ball and the player. And he gets out of situations that you really shouldn’t get out of. He brings us a lot of calm on the ball most the time. …
“It’s easy to build relationships with I think players who understand the game really well. And he’s definitely somebody who understands the game really well. …
“I hope he doesn’t hear this interview — I’ve been giving him too many compliments.”
The good news is that Eduard Lowen is not settled. He believes he can be better. So does Bradley Carnell, the City SC coach. Notably, defensively.
“I challenge Edu all the time,” Carnell said. “As much as we see great things with Edu on the ball — I challenge him against the ball, as well. Edu is a difference-maker with the ball; can I assist him and guide him to be a difference-maker against the ball? Because if he can get that right, he’s a real candidate in this league to achieve great things.
“And again, that’s the constant chat between Edu and myself and the constant guidance I give him, because he’s a great person, a great teammate, willing to learn and listen. So sometimes we challenge each other, which is really good. It’s healthy conversations and it’s healthy challenges. But you can see just by his stature, his dominating performance, his touches on the ball, bringing others into games and bringing final plays forwards — that’s why we got Edu Lowen.”