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St. Louis City SC’s five-day break, which ended with the resumption of practice Friday afternoon, was only a break in soccer terms.

Lots happened otherwise. Roman Burki got engaged. Timo Baumgartl got married. Chris Durkin became a father.

“No life-changing events for me,â€� said City SC interim ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ David Critchley after the first practice session. “Just a little bit of relaxation for me. I was able to to get away for a few days, disconnect, which just makes me excited to be back again after that.â€�

But did he really not think about the team he’s been running for the past three weeks?

“My mind’s always thinking,� Critchley said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. So physically, I was away from this place for a few days. Mentally, I was just thinking about what we can do to continue to improve and get better.

“It was exciting for them to get away, but for me, I would have liked to have stayed working with them. But that’s just me.�

Major League Soccer has a rare weekend off — this league pushes on, international windows be damned — with the Club World Cup going on, with three MLS clubs participating, but it will be back to work for most teams, including City SC, on Wednesday, when it faces Orlando at Energizer Park.

“It was good energy,� Critchley said. “We wanted to play a lot, a lot of just different small-sided games, trying to make it competitive. … Just getting the legs back under them right now is the objective for Day One. And then we’ll prepare for Orlando as we get into (Saturday’s) training.�

One thing that didn’t happen over the break was anyone becoming fit enough to play. The usual suspects who have missed recent games for City SC all were still absent from the practice field after the five days off, and they were joined by Conrad Wallem, who left the last game after playing just 20 minutes as a second-half sub, with a calf injury, and Tomas Ostrak, who is still being moved along cautiously as he recovers from last season’s injury.

Three of the team’s regular starters, Durkin, Eduard Lowen and Henry Kessler, weren’t on the field at Energizer Park, where the team trained in front of a crowd of season-ticket holders. Also not on the field were Joakim Nilsson and Rasmus Alm, plus Jannes Horn, who isn’t back from a trip to Austria to sign his new contract with Rapid Vienna. Horn will return though, and be eligible for selection for City SC’s two games before his loan runs out June 30.

“We’re getting closer,� Critchley said. “There’s a couple of guys that will hopefully be back soon. We had an update from Chris Durkin, he should be back within the next seven days, so that’s one we can look forward to specifically. And Conrad Wallem wanted to train today. We were just a little cautious with him with the calf muscle from the weekend. Hopefully he’ll be able to feature against Orlando.�

More meetings

Critchley mentioned last week that he was going to have a meeting with Klauss to talk about finishing, and Klauss responded by having the club’s first hat trick just a few days later.

Klauss hasn’t been the only player having trouble finishing, and there are a few others in line for meetings with Critchley. Simon Becher has just one goal this season and he’s 3.7 below his expected goals total, the fourth biggest negative number in the league. Cedric Teuchert has three goals and while he’s pretty much right on his xG number, one of the goals was on a ball that fell to him inches from the goal line and another was a shot he was trying to get out of the way that hit him and ricocheted into the goal.

“They’ll both me on my main agenda this week,â€� Critchley said. “But honestly, I try to get with all the players. I try to just help them. As a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, every time you’re on the field it revolves around the team and 20 players. So those individual meetings are super important for me as a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, so I try to get with the players as often as possible. Hopefully, if I can get Simon and Teuchert on the schedule this week they’ll show up on Wednesday and score some goals.â€�