KANSAS CITY, KS (April 5, 2025) – St. Louis CITY SC fell 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night at Children’s Mercy Park. CITY SC dominated Kansas City up until the first goal but was unable to find the back of the net to salvage a point on the day. Dejan Joveljic opened the scoring in the 71st minute and added his second goal of the night 17 minutes later, in the 88th minute, to secure three points for SKC. St. Louis CITY SC will face Eastern Conference opponents Columbus Crew for the first time in MLS play next Sunday, April 13, at 6:00 p.m. CT at Energizer Park.
Postgame Notes
- Across seven regular season matches, St. Louis has a 3-2-2 record against Sporting KC
April 5, 2025 – Children’s Mercy Park (Kansas City, KS)
Goal-Scoring Plays
SKC: Dejan Joveljic (Manu Garcia, Nemanja Radoja), 71st minute – Devan Joveljic scored with a right footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom central corner.
SKC: Dejan Joveljic, 88th minute – Dejan Joveljic scored with a right footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom central corner.
Scoring Summary
SKC: Dejan Joveljic (Manu Garcia, Nemanja Radoja) 71’
SKC: Dejan Joveljic, 88’
Misconduct Summary
STL: Conrad Wallem (caution), 28’
SKC: Jacob Bartlett (caution), 39’
STL: Tomás Ostrák (caution), 78’
Lineups
SKC: GK John Pulskamp; D Khiry Shelton (Nemanja Radoja, 59’), D Jansen Miller, D Joaquin Fernandez (Dany Rosero, 79’), D Logan Ndenbe; M Jacob Barlett, M Jake Davis, M Manu Garcia; F Daniel Salloi ©, F Dejan Joveljic, F Shapi Suleymanov (Erik Thommy, 79’)
Substitutes not used: GK Ryan Schewe, D Tim Leibold, M Memo Rodriguez, F Mason Toye, F William Agada, F Stephen Afrifa
TOTAL SHOTS: 11; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 4
STL: GK Ben Lundt; D Kyle Hiebert, D Joakim Nilsson (Tomás Ostrák, 26’), D Henry Kessler, D Josh Yaro, D Akil Watts; M Alfredo Morales (Cedric Teuchert, 80’), M Conrad Wallem, M Marcel Hartel ©, M Célio Pompeu (Simon Becher, 65’); F João Klauss
Substitutes not used: GK Christian Olivares, D Joey Zalinsky, D Timo Baumgartl, D Michael Wentzel, M Jake Girdwood-Reich, F Emil Jääskeläinen
TOTAL SHOTS: 11; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 3
Referee: Tori Penso
Assistant Referees: Kathryn Nesbitt, Brooke Mayo, Sergii Demianchuk
VAR: Michael Radchuk
AVAR: Meghan Mullen
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park
Weather: Cloudy, 44 degrees
Postgame Audio: Recording
Postgame Video: Footage (Password: ydnjxE+7) & Josh Yaro
Head Coach Olof Mellberg
On if individual execution was an issue tonight:
Overall, I can’t fault the guys in defending throughout the whole season, also today, we restricted them to barely nothing. And especially here at home during the season, they’ve created some chances. Obviously, scoring goals is one of the most difficult moments in soccer so it’s something we are working hard on and improving, hopefully it will come.
On if there was a noticeable change in play from the first half to the second half:
I think we did well up until the goal. We dominated the game in the second half, up until the goal, we had our chances. So, obviously looking to push from there and then their goal came. It was a big blow for us, obviously it gave them energy and the last 15 to 20 minutes was not good.
On the fan presence for the away game tonight:
It was amazing. And they did extremely well throughout the whole game. Even when we were one, two nil down, they continued to support us. So, for sure, they were amazing today.
Defender Josh Yaro
On Joakim Nilsson’s injury:
I mean, it’s tough as a player. You deal with your fair share of injuries, and you see guys go through injuries. My heart sunk a little bit when I saw him down, and I was hoping it was nothing serious. And I still hope it’s nothing serious; he looks fine, he’s walking. So hopefully it was just out of precaution I would say, but we’ll find out.
On making an early sub for Joakim Nilsson and how that affects the team:
When the game starts, everyone has a feel for it, people get into it, get into a rhythm. And when you have to make a change when you really weren’t expecting to make a change, then that’s kind of always tough to deal with. I think the group adjusted pretty well. Ostrák’s a really good player that I personally really rate. And so again, it was just a change. I don’t really read much into it, and I think Ostrák had his fair share of good moments. So, for us, it’s just a different personality, in the way that things are done, but at the end of the day you are replacing one good player with another good player.
On what he saw from the two goals that Sporting Kansas City scored:
The first goal, to be honest, they had a pretty good entry ball into the midfield, and then, the goal resulted out of that. Then the second goal, we knew that they were going to press. We knew that they were going to be really aggressive, especially when we had the ball in our end. And we saw that in the first half and throughout the game. They got the second goal through the ideal press. Like I said before, it was nothing really surprising, because we got prepped for exactly how they came out. So, at the end of the day, as players, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and go, maybe tonight was a night that we could have done a lot better, because we got prepped exactly how they came out. We had everything we needed to go out and win.
