St. Louis CITY SC, welcome to Major League Soccer.
The expansion team created history on Saturday night, defeating Austin FC 3-2 at Q2 Stadium in their first encounter.
The first chapter of the book St. Louis is authoring in its MLS infancy was a resounding, if somewhat unexpected, success.
“Very proud of this group,” said St. Louis CITY SC head coach Bradley Carnell. “Coming here and leaving with three points.” “I don’t believe there are many greater things.”
Q2 Stadium was a cauldron of noise, an atmosphere that St. Louis CITY SC forward Joo Klauss has missed since joining the team as its first Designated Player in March 2022.
Klauss, who was clearly weary by the end of the game, scored the game-winning goal four minutes from time.
“It was one of the important games in my career, it was the first one in MLS as well,” stated Klauss. “Starting with a win and a goal was perfect.”
“What we did today was unbelievable,” remarked the Brazilian.
The visitors struck first, with centre defender Tim Parker heading in Eduard Löwen’s corner kick for the club’s historic first goal. It was the veteran’s third goal in the MLS regular season and his first since 2018.
“It’s an incredible feeling.” I don’t score a lot of goals. So it’s sort of ironic that I scored in the manner that I did tonight,” Parker remarked. “I’m just really, really happy.” I believe it was a mix of all of our hard work and me being in the right place at the right time.”
St. Louis City ties an MLS record with 16 wins in their first season as an expansion team.
(AP) — SAINT PAUL, Minn. St. Louis City beat Minnesota 2-1 on Saturday night, with Joo Klauss scoring in the 64th minute and Njabulo Blom scoring nine minutes later for his first MLS goal.
St. Louis City (16-10-5) tied LAFC’s 2018 expansion club record of 16 wins in their first season.
Minnesota (9-11-10) had won three of its last four games against expansion teams, including a 1-0 win over St. Louis on April 1. Since 2020, the Loons have only conceded three goals in six encounters with expansion teams.
For the first time since losing to Real Salt Lake and Austin in April-May 2021, the Loons have lost consecutive regular-season home matches.
St. Louis City’s Roman Bürki made four saves. Minnesota United’s Dayne St. Clair also made four saves.
Sporting Kansas City will visit St. Louis City on Saturday. On Saturday, Minnesota United will host the San Jose Earthquakes.
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