St. Louis City SC closed out the Coachella Valley Invitational with their most complete performance of the preseason en route to a 3-1 win over New York City FC on Wednesday afternoon. Much like other matches, it was a somewhat rotated side to open action with the starting line up composed of: Ben Lundt, Tomas Totland, Josh Yaro, Jannes Horn, Timo Baumgartl, Kyle Hiebert, Edu Löwen, Indiana Vassilev, Akil Watts, Marcel Hartel, and João Klauss. St. Louis was dominant early, creating several opportunities and a couple of corners inside the first five minutes. The early pressure paid off in the in the 9th minute as Hartel converted from just outside the six-yard box following a cutback pass from Watts. City’s bright start continued as Hartel played a cross onto the foot of Klauss who was unable to slide it past Tomás Romero just minutes later.
Romero’s save seemed to spark some life into New York City FC as they began to grow into the game. A long spell of pressure from the Pigeons yielded a handful of dangerous opportunities; including an effort from Mounsef Bakrar that rattled the crossbar in the 25th minute. New York continued to probe and had another dangerous opportunity turned away by Klauss who cleared a cross into the City box off the line in the 34th minute.
St. Louis would find their offensive stride again as the first half continued as Tomas Totland’s runs from deep positions caused New York some issues defensively. On one of those occasions, Totland was able to play a low cross back to Klauss whose effort was deflected behind for a corner. Despite that surge, the scoreline remained 1-0 at the break with nearly whole sale changes coming at the half.
Mellberg’s side started the second half with a refreshed XI with Christian Oilivares, Michael Wentzel, Joey Zalinsky, Cam Cilley, Tomáš Ostrák, Célio Pompeu, Rasmus Alm, Simon Becher and trialst Alfredo Morales coming on as substitutes. The second half started much slower as both clubs attempted to probe for the next goal before City found their footing with Becher proving to be an issue for the New York defense. The St. Louis substitute missed a pair of chances before he was able to get on the end of a cross from Morales to make it 2-0 in the 68th minute.
The Pigeons would push back following the second St. Louis goal; netting a goal of their own after a poor turnover by City in their defensive end but the New York opener was called off after Alonso Martínez was deemed to be offside. St. Louis responded by adding to the scoreline as Morales played Pompeu into the offensive third with a wonderful through pass before the Brazilian laid the ball back to Becher who completed his brace with a cool finish in the 79th minute.
New York would manage to spoil the clean sheet late as Birk Risa curled a free kick past Olivares in the 86th minute to end the scoring on the afternoon. St. Louis improves to 2-1-2 in the preseason ahead of their final exhibition match with San Jose on Saturday.
City opens the MLS regular season on February 22nd when they welcome Colorado Rapids to Energizer Park.
Taking his passion for soccer and St. Louis to the next level, Jeremy aims to provide analytical coverage of all this St. Louis City SC.
