Tag: St. Louis City SC

St. Louis City SC makes MLS expansion history with fourth straight win

No expansion side has ever started life in MLS like this

No one’s ever started an MLS season like St. Louis City SC.

The league’s 29th team, and 21st expansion side, became the first ever to win the first four competitive games of their existence after rolling to a 3-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes.

That broke a record set (or should we say, invented) by the 2009 Seattle Sounders, who won the first three games as they joined MLS.

A fairly even game at Citypark was broken open by yet another glaring mistake that St. Louis ruthlessly punished. John Nelson’s 34th minute cross wasn’t well-struck, but San Jose center back Rodrigues made a bizarre attempt to chest the ball out of trouble.

That interception missed, and Nicholas Gioacchini pounced. The winger kept his run going to take a touch, then somehow guided the ball past Miguel Trauco and goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski.

It turned out to be all the new kids on the block needed, but Bradley Carnell’s team seems to only have one speed. Late in first-half stoppage time, striker João Klauss tried to bring some flair with a no-look pass towards Rasmus Alm. Klauss missed the mark, sending the ball right into Michael Baldissimo, but the big Brazilian conjured up a goal anyway.

Klauss surged forward, beating Baldissimo and Tommy Thompson to the loose ball before quickly getting a shot away that beat Marcinkowski before the goalkeeper could get set.

By this point, St. Louis had taken things over, and there was time to put an exclamation point on the victory.

As with the Klauss goal, it came down to picking up second balls. St. Louis sent a free kick in that San Jose got the first touch on, but Tomás Ostrák was first to it.

His shot was blocked, setting a pattern into motion. Some strong counter-pressing from there ended with Eduard Löwen seeing his 19-yard shot blocked by Jonathan Mensah. St. Louis was first to the rebound again, and Indiana Vassilev tried the same thing only to again fire a shot that hit Tanner Beason.

Again St. Louis collected the ball, and Ostrák had the patience to take a touch to change his angle before letting loose with yet another shot. Beason got a foot to this one as well, but could only divert the ball further into the corner.

Speaking after the match, Carnell attributed the good start to being “relentless and ruthless.”

“The boys had their most complete performance as of today’s date. Historical night for the club, historical night for the league,” said Carnell. “We have a bunch of guys from all over the world, to come here and commit to something that’s bigger than all of us? It’s humbling… right now, the motto is ‘comfortable, but never satisfied.'”

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St. Louis City SC keeps getting welcome gifts from kindly MLS foes

It’s a friendly league, everyone is so nice

Everyone in MLS is so happy to have St. Louis City SC that they’re lining up to give the expansion side a gift.

That generosity may be the only explanation for the bizarre nature of the goals teams have handed St. Louis in their first two weeks of MLS play.

Last week, it was Austin FC’s Kipp Keller sizing up and delivering a perfect pass to St. Louis midfielder Jared Stroud, who showed his appreciation to his old club by spinning and firing home a fairly late equalizer in a game MLS’s newest team would go on to win 3-2.

This week it was Charlotte FC’s turn, and they made sure that St. Louis would have a happy debut at the newly-opened CityPark.

While Enzo Copetti would score the first-ever goal at the stadium for the visitors, Charlotte quickly made sure to make up for the faux pas by handing out three goals as St. Louis started life in MLS on a winning streak.

First, Jake Nerwinski’s floated cross towards João Klauss ended up looking like easy work for Bill Tuiloma, who won the header…only to bloop the ball backwards, up and over Pablo Sisniega for a 41st minute own goal.

With seconds left in the half, another gift: John Nelson’s cross ended up being swatted by Karol Świderski’s right hand, sending Eduard Löwen to the spot. The German Designated Player took advantage, converting the last kick of the half to give St. Louis a lead.

You’d think two gifts were enough, but Charlotte really wanted to make sure the newbies were comfortable in MLS. As such, they saved the biggest gift for last.

In the 71st minute, with St. Louis up 2-1, Charlotte should have had an easy time progressing the ball. Sisniega waited for Klauss to step to him before passing calmly to Adilson Malanda. It’s a sequence soccer fans are extremely familiar with: a possession-oriented team tries to shuffle up their opponent’s shape enough to move the ball forward.

However, Malanda decided to show some kindness for the expansion team instead, sending the ball directly to Klauss. The Brazilian striker, fresh off of scoring an 86th minute winner last week, got a foot on the ball before turning to chip Sisniega and put a second straight win on ice for St. Louis.

Charlotte’s warmth and affection for their opponents was clear enough at this point that the gift-giving could come to an end, allowing St. Louis fans to celebrate a famous first win.

Following the match, St. Louis boss Bradley Carnell joked that his players were doing a great job of “standing in the right place,” but only before noting that there is something to his forwards lingering up in seemingly offside positions while the opponent tries to set their preferred passing shape up.

The pressure is now on the Portland Timbers to conjure up even more lavish gifts for St. Louis, since that appears to be the hot new trend in MLS.

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St. Louis City won its inaugural game after a bizarre Austin FC mistake

It’s only week one, but we may have the strangest goal of the MLS season already

St. Louis City was not given much of a chance in its first ever MLS game, facing a daunting trip to Western Conference power Austin FC.

But thanks in part to one of the strangest mistakes we’ll ever see on an MLS field, the expansion club shocked Austin FC in a 3-2 win on Saturday night.

After St. Louis took the lead through Tim Parker in the first half, order appeared to be restored after goals from Sebastián Driussi and Jon Gallagher gave Austin a 2-1 advantage in the second half.

But in the 78th minute, Austin FC defender Kipp Keller had possession and turned towards his goal. Right in front of him was Jared Stroud.

Now if this were last season, Keller passing the ball to Stroud would have made perfect sense, as Stroud played for Austin FC. But Stroud is now a member of St. Louis City, which is decidedly not the team that Keller plays for.

And yet.

We’ve seen defenders inadvertently pass backwards to an opponent plenty of times, but it’s usually a blind pass. Here, Keller seems to have simply forgot that Stroud wasn’t his teammate anymore.

Speaking to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the game, Stroud clearly felt for his buddy Keller.

“Kipp’s a good friend of mine,” Stroud said, his voice confirming how bad he felt for Keller. Stroud said Keller looked at him twice – “maybe he recognized me,” he said – and then without looking played it to him. “I feel bad for him. But I was happy to score. It was like, ‘Shoot it.’ I didn’t think twice.” He knew what to do. “I played against that goalie for two years,” he said.

Stroud’s goal was only the beginning of the comeback, with João Klauss scoring a late winner for St. Louis to secure the shock of the early MLS season.

It’s only week one, but we may not see a more surprising result all season long. We almost certainly won’t see a stranger goal.

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The 10 MLS newcomers you need to know for 2023

These aren’t big names today, but they will be soon

MLS kicks off its 28th season on Saturday, and as befits a league that wants to be seen as growing, there’s a long list of fascinating new additions to the player pool.

There’s an element of the unknown with this year’s crop of newcomers. MLS’s winter additions don’t include any big-name European stars. Cristiano Ronaldo heard Sporting Kansas City out but still chose Al Nassr, while Inter Miami’s pursuit of Leo Messi remains a situation where Miami is interested, rather than the other way around. There’s not even a Gareth Bale equivalent at this point, though the summer window tends to be when those players arrive.

However, that’s not to say that MLS had a bad time in the transfer market. Teams are able to sign younger players from leagues that used to be fairly inaccessible. They may not have the global cache of a big name in their mid-30s, but we’re talking about the current Europa League assist leader, a top-tier European prospect under the age of 21, and strikers with very promising track records. Casuals may not know their names today, but they’re going to be a big deal in the coming months.

These are the 10 MLS newcomers to pay closest attention to: