St. Louis City SC found their finishing boots as the club posted its’ first win of 2025 in Carson, California on Sunday night. Three different players found the back of the net and goalkeeper Roman Bürki made a number of key saves as the City handed Los Angeles Galaxy a 3-0 defeat at home.
Both sides came into the match seeking their first victory of the campaign. The defending MLS Cup champions, having lost three in a row across all competitions, were looking to bounce back on their home ground; while the visitors from St. Louis were hoping to score their first goal of the season. The first half made it evident that both clubs were up for the game as there were chances on both ends of the pitch. City created a few opportunities in the opening minutes before the defending MLS Cup winners grew into the game; firing six shots towards the St. Louis’ goal over a ten minute span. Bürki was up for the early test, however as he turned aside each Galaxy shot, earning praise form Mellberg after the match. “What an amazing game”, he reflected. “He kept us in the game. They looked really dangerous at time, but thanks to some good individual defending and especially to Roman we were able to get another clean sheet.”
The hosts may have been held off the scoresheet but St. Louis was able to find the breakthrough as Cedric Teuchert got onto the end of a loose ball in the box following a City corner to put his team ahead. “It was one of the easiest goals of my career,” he said after the match. “Sometimes we need goals like this. I’m very happy to score the first goal for our team this season.”
St. Louis would hold the 1-0 advantage into the break and it didn’t take long for City to find their second goal with Marcel Hartel adding his name to the score sheet in the 49th minute. Hartel’s goal was the result of some really good interplay between João Klauss, Teuchert and Hartel in the build up as Hartel intercepted the ball near midfield and played a pass to Klauss. Klauss one touched it back to Hartel who sprung Teuchert on a run down the left channel and then sprinted forward. Teuchert held it up long enough to lay a soft pass into space where Hartel was able to beat Maya Yoshida and then blast it past Novak Mićović to make it 2-0. “We enjoy playing together,” Teuchert said. “The coach said to us to feel free in the offense but stay compact in the defense and today I think we showed it.”
To their credit, the Galaxy didn’t back down after conceding a second goal. The hosts continued to push for a path back into the match, firing 15 shots towards goal in the second half, forcing Bürki into 5 more saves. Despite the push from the hosts, it was St. Louis’ changes that made the difference with Simon Becher adding a goal in the 84th minute after coming on in place of Klauss in the 61st.
St. Louis would see out the final minutes and stoppage time to seal the victory; which Mellberg believes was reflective of the team’s performance as a whole. “[It is] really, really nice obviously, the first goals as well. I thought we deserved the win today,” he said after the match. “I liked our positioning. I thought we looked really dangerous,” he continued. “We had one-v-one situations, two-v-one, two-v-two, so really happy with the way we looked formation-wise. [We] added a little bit more quality today, especially in the final third, some great finishing for the goals.”
City’s defense was also on display as they combined with Bürki to post a third consecutive clean sheet to start the season. The feat makes City the 5th team in MLS history to not concede a goal over a three game stretch to start a season. “It was so nice to see and I think the first two games have built confidence,” Mellberg said. “I think it’s a lot to do also with the first couple of games that they feel confident defending.”
City improves to 1-0-2 on the season and jump to 6th in the Western Conference with the victory. They will look to continue building on this momentum when Seattle comes to Energizer Park next week.
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.
