St. Louis CITY SC came up just short in a 2-1 defeat to Columbus Crew on Saturday night at Energizer Park. St. Louis jumped ahead early on through a header from João Klauss, marking the first goal for the forward this season. Despite controlling play for much of the remaining half, CITY SC conceded the equalizer in first half stoppage time. Columbus netted the game-winning goal shortly after the halftime break. St. Louis CITY SC will return to action at Energizer Park next week, hosting Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Postgame Notes
- João Klauss scored his first goal of the season. The goal was Klauss’ 16th career MLS goal
- Timo Baumgartl made his first career MLS start
- Homegrown player Mykhi Joyner made his first appearance of the season
April 13, 2025 – Energizer Park (St. Louis, MO)
Goal-Scoring Plays
STL: João Klauss, 7th minute – João Klauss scored with a header from the center of the box to the middle right zone.
CLB: Steven Moreira (Max Arfsten, Diego Rossi), 45th + 2 minute – Steven Moreira scored with a right footed shot from the center of the box to the lower left central zone.
CLB: Diego Rossi (Dylan Chambost), 45th + 2 minute – Diego Rossi scored with a right footed shot from the right half-space outside the box to the bottom left corner.
Scoring Summary
STL: João Klauss, 7’
CLB: Steven Moreira (Max Arfsten, Diego Rossi), (45’+2)
CLB: Diego Rossi (Dylan Chambost), 55’
Misconduct Summary
STL: Célio Pompeu (caution), 39’
CLB: Max Arfsten (caution), 76’
STL: Henry Kessler (caution), 90’+5
Lineups
STL: GK Ben Lundt; D Kyle Hiebert (Mykhi Joyner, 87’), D Timo Baumgartl, D Henry Kessler, D Josh Yaro (Akil Watts, 31’), D Conrad Wallem; M Alfredo Morales, M Marcel Hartel © (Tomáš Ostrák, 87’), M Célio Pompeu; F Cedric Teuchert (Simon Becher, 58’), F João Klauss
Substitutes not used: GK Christian Olivares, D Joey Zalinsky, D Michael Wentzel, M Jake Girdwood-Reich, F Emil Jääskeläinen, F Brendan McSorley
TOTAL SHOTS: 12; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDES: 4; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3
CLB: GK Patrick Schulte; D Malte Amundsen, D Sean Zawadzki, D Steven Moreira (Cesar Ruvalcaba, 90’+1), D Mohamed Farsi; M Darlington Nagbe ©, M Dylan Chambost, M Aziel Jackson (Daniel Gazdag, 45’); F Max Arfsten, F Jacen Russell-Rowe (Amar Sejdic, 90’), F Diego Rossi (Taha Habroune, 84’) (DeJuan Jones, 90’+6)
Substitutes not used: GK Evan Bush, D Yevhen Cherberko, M Cole Mrowka, M Derrick Jones
TOTAL SHOTS: 13; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 5
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
Assistant Referees: Kyle Atkins, Matthew Rodman, Fotis Bazakos
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson
Venue: Energizer Park
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 79 degrees
Postgame Audio: Recording
Postgame Video: Footage (Password: !1RveDc$)
Pool Reporter Question to the Referee
The submitted question:
On the goal by Klauss that was ruled offside in the 68th minute, what was seen (or not seen) that kept the play from getting an on-field review?
The response from the referee to the submitted question:
All angles were reviewed and there were none that could conclusively prove that STL #9 was in an onside position. Therefore, no review could be recommended.
Head Coach Olof Mellberg
Offensively you played well, but is it difficult to get a win against a team like Columbus?
They have not conceded on chances for goals at the beginning of the season but because they are really good on the ball and have a lot of possession. So, they did today, but we managed to create these big chances through the possession we had. So obviously extremely disappointing not to win this game or at least get a point.
What was the key in getting so many more offensives chances today?
I think I spoke about it last week. How we could improve from last week’s game, and obviously also having analyzed the opponents and where we could hurt them. We did that really well on the chances, a lot according to game plan, and obviously some individual good performances, as well, to create those chances, and we’re very unfortunate not to pull them off.
Do you think Klauss was on-side?
No, he wasn’t. He definitely wasn’t off-side. That should have been a goal.
You thought he was on-side?
I had no idea in the moment. So I didn’t look at any screens or anything but we’ve been told afterwards that it’s definitely not off-side. So I don’t know why he gives the offside in the first place when it’s so close. Better to get the ball and they can look at it afterwards, not the other way around.
I don’t know if that’s the reason they decided to give an off side because I thought it was close. But apparently the people have been looking at the pictures and it’s on side.
You mentioned midweek you’re looking for the team to be more aggressive, and starting out the match in the first few minutes they reacted exactly like you said. Did you see and notice that progress, what you talked about midweek, how the club was operating today?
think so. It was good energy. It was difficult for us to hold that up throughout the game. They are good on the ball, and we tried to push the guys to put as much pressure on them as possible. And on some moments, they did really well.
But on others, we had to back off a little bit.
And in the second half, you conceded the goal, but throughout the half it seemed like you were denied. Is that something they can bring out next week against Vancouver?
I mean, obviously I have to look at the game again. It’s always better to have that analysis. I felt like they were more dangerous in the first half. Some situations, I think had one really good opportunity to go. It was a shot wide and advanced left. Apart from that, they had some dangerous situations, some balls behind us.
But obviously we created those really big chances in the first half, and in the second half they didn’t have much. I think it was the goal, and the off-side goal, they had, as well, and not much more than that, and we created our chances.
You seemed to make tactical adjustments in the second half. You were giving instructions to Kyle [Hiebert] and [Henry] Kessler to make moments. Did you like the reaction you were saying?
We went to more of a back four and sort of gambled a little bit. Mykhi [Joyner] as left back in the end trying to throw everything forward, and we had some good moments, and I think created enough chances to score at least another goal.
Tough game against a tough team who is really good in tight spaces. What can the team and everyone can learn about them, and improve for the next match? What do you think about those situations?
I think you said it. We knew that before, and so every week we have a new opponent. They are all very different from each other. The last home game was very, very different. We had a lot of possession. They backed off, and you know, it wasn’t a possession team.
So we have to look at each game individually, and you know, try to have a really good game plan for each opponent.
What’s the situation with Josh Yaro? Is it a concussion?
No, it doesn’t seem to be. But yeah, they have to follow protocol.
CITY is ranked 27 out of 30 teams in the MLS in expected goals. You had 1.66 XG, a little better than Columbus, but you don’t get the result you wanted. What do you feel this team did better or worse tonight compared to maybe some of the other games like the L.A. game where you got a win or the past three where you’ve fallen and been in the loss column?
I think probably the it game we created, I don’t know about most chances but definitely the biggest chances. I find that surprisingly low expected goals, looking at Simon’s [Becher] couple of chances, Klauss’s, Cedi’s [Teuchert].
There must be a couple of those chances more than a penalty. Much better chances than those, it’s difficult to get in a game, and especially get four chances like that in the same game.
Definitely look at how we can take that into the next game and hopefully score. We got a little bit more direct; we spoke about that after the last game, as well, not so two-possession minded for the second week. We were really trying to look for our strikers as early as possible, and yeah, I thought we did that quite well on a few occasions.
If you can describe tonight’s game in one word, what would you say that word would be?
There was so many things happening in this game. So there are lot of words. There were ups and downs, a lot of situations; the goal we should have had. You know, the goals allowed. It’s very difficult in one word.
In the first half, you guys got that early goal, and it seemed like some of that aggression that started early really gave way to Columbus’s possession style. Is that due to something Columbus did, or is that just part of our game plan to kind of stay back and let them have the ball a little bit more?
You have to give credit to the opponents, as well. They are really good on the ball. Played with small margins. They knew that and they are really good in the buildup. They have a good goalkeeper there, as well.
So start being patient, as well, and not giving up. Still continuing to try with that high pressure, and eventually will give you a chance, like it did with Simon [Becher], a really, really big chance in the second half. We’ve seen that before in their game. It’s enough to score on one of those if we are patient in our high defending throughout the game.
But it’s difficult to do it all the time, every time, and we had a period there in the second half when we sat back a little bit too much, I think. But also in a period where they had some situations that were dangerous behind us and in our box. We had to be cautious, also, in our defending.
In possession, it seemed like a lot of times it was really heavily reliant on finding that first ball to Klauss or someone in the attack. But then oftentimes, the ball was lost. So can you talk a little bit about the importance of getting that second ball?
We knew we had been working on that, the possibilities on the longer ball, and I think when we found Klauss, he did well on several occasions, and we were able to be dangerous from there on a few occasions.
But yeah, on our possession game, our buildup, I don’t think it was great today. We really have to look at how we can really improve there and get better movement and variation in our attacks.
Talking about Klauss’s game, it’s got to feel Klauss finally get a goal with how the season has gone for him and he certainly looked like he was energetic, as well, after that?
It’s really nice. He had a good training week, as well, with good energy. It was nice to see him out there today. I thought we had some other really good individual performances.
So you know, obviously we’re all extremely disappointed to lose but we’ve got to try to bring the positives to the performances, and the chances we created, definitely need to improve on certain other things.
Looked like Timo [Baumgartl] with the start came flying out of the gate. Looked like he was ready to go today.
Yeah, definitely. I thought he did well, as well. Nice to see Mykhi [Joyner], as well, making his home debut. He did well when he came on, as well.
Forward João Klauss
On his thoughts of being offside:
From the camera that we watch in the locker room, it looks like I was onside. I don’t know. I think maybe we have to watch from another angle or another camera. Maybe they had more angles than us, and this can explain maybe I was offside, but from the camera that we watch, I was onside.
On his emotions after the goal and other opportunities:
We think as a team, and of course, very happy to score. I just think that with the game that we played today, we should have had more goals. Columbus is a team that plays with a lot of players going forward, and they were leaving us in front, like one-versus-one. Their center backs were defending one-versus-one and that’s how we created the goal. And I thought just that, if we had this kind of chance, just to use the ability to go one-v-one open space, and just to be confident to do that.
On the results of the game compared to others:
I think that the other games, some of them we had good chances, but I also don’t think we played our best. But, yeah, as you say, I think today was a better game. I think the balance was there. I think we also played with the ball. We had some transitions. We had the build out, build up. We had long balls that we were able to put the ball down and create as well. I think today was just different than the other games.
Defender Timo Baumgartl
On his first start:
Well, yeah, it was a difficult game to describe, because, like, we started well. We scored. We had the chance for the second goal. Unfortunately, they get the equalizer at a difficult time before the half time, get to two to one against us. But then we had still lot of time, lot of chances. And yeah, I think we deserve today a point.
On limiting Columbus from having big chances:
I mean it’s one of the best teams in the league, to be honest. They play a beautiful game. They know where to go. They will have, normally, solutions for every single moment in the game. But today, I think we had some good moments. We pressed them. We had with Simon, the big chance after we pressed them. So, I think, to be honest, we deserve the point. They had some chances, but the one-one equalizer was, yeah, a mistake from us. We need to defend that better because, yeah, it’s three minutes before half time. But at the end, we had enough chances to win this game.
On how it could have been different holding the 1-0 lead at halftime:
Yeah, it is different because you get the energy in the half time, you have a good feeling in leading one-zero against this team. They need to find solutions. They are sitting in the dressing room thinking about what they can do better. That’s difficult, that’s different, if you get the one to one right before the half time. It’s always been that because they get the high, we get the low, that’s normal. So, for us, it would be perfect if we didn’t concede the goal right before half time.
