City Beats New England 3-1 For First Win Of 2026

ST. LOUIS - It has not been a fantastic start to the 2026 MLS season for St. Louis City SC. Four games with one draw, three losses, and only one goal scored. On Saturday night, City hosted the New England Revolution, with aspirations of turning their fortunes around.

It’s only the second matchup ever between the Revs and City. The first was a 2-2 draw at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts back in 2024. Simon Becher scored a goal in that game, and a goal Saturday night, and City scored a 3-1 victory.

St. Louis City head coach Yoann Damet made just one change to the team that lost 2-0 on the road to LAFC a week prior. Celio Pompeu got a rare start on the right wing, where Cedric Teuchert has been starting in recent weeks. Teuchert left the loss in Los Angeles at halftime after suffering an injury in the first half.

Damet’s City still lined up in a 3-4-3, but fell into a 5-4-1 when defending. Dante Polvara, Timo Baumgartl, and Jaziel Orozco made up a familiar back three. Rafael Santos and Conrad Wallem took the left and right wingback spots, with Chris Durkin and Daniel Edelman anchoring the midfield between them. Marcel Hartel, Simon Becher, and newly inserted Celio Pompeu started in the attack.

Before the match, and during the minute 10 was on the scoreboard in the first half, Energizer Park and the 22-thousand-plus in attendance held moments of silence for Ilona Löwen. During the minute observed during the game, fans in the stadium held up gray cards with Ilona’s initials, “IL”, written in white inside a black heart.

You could hear a pin drop during the moments of silence. From press row at the top of the west side of Energizer Park, the silence allowed you to hear the chatter on the field, the sound of the ball being kicked, and even skidding across the grass when passed from player to player.

“We went through a tough time over these past two weeks,” said Yoann Damet during his post-match press conference. “But there is someone that we hold in our heart that is going through an even tougher time and we have to remind ourselves of that. [Eduard Löwen] is going through a tough time and we’ve got to show him the love, support and energy that he deserves.”

Near the end of the minute of observed silence, New England right back Ilay Feingold just missed a wide open goal from inside the City 18-yard box. Two minutes later, Feingold got another chance in the box, and converted to put the visitors up in the early going.

City defender Conrad Wallem was beat by Revs winger Luca Lamponi, who chopped a cross back across the face of goal from the endline. Striker Dor Turgeman, hounded by a City defender, laid the ball back for the onrushing Feingold, who slotted his shot into a gaping goal.

Not an ideal start to proceedings in Downtown West for St. Louis City, but perhaps going down early sparked the team into action. City were growing into the game, and by the half-hour mark, they found an equalizer.

In the 29th minute, Daniel Edelman forced a dispossession from New England midfielder Brooklyn Raines. Edelman picked the ball up, looked forward, and saw Simon Becher running into the Revs’ 18-yard box in space. Edelman played the ball to Becher in the box, Becher made a nice little move to free up space as the defense closed in on him, and smashed a shot that goalkeeper Matt Turner got a hand to, but couldn’t keep out of the goal.

“The goal comes from winning the ball high,” Simon Becher elaborated following the game. “That’s what we’re trying to do. And yeah, just nice to get my first goal.”

It was the first goal for St. Louis City since their season opening 1-1 draw. They found a goal, now it was time to find a win. In first half stoppage time, Chris Durkin gave City the lead.

Durkin was the beneficiary of the New England Revolution defense falling asleep on a corner kick. The whipped corner from City left wingback Rafael Santos fell right to Chris Durkin’s feet, who probably couldn’t believe how open he was inside the six-yard box. All Durkin had to do was redirect the ball into the back of the net, and there was nothing Matt Turner could do to stop it.

Not known for his goalscoring prowess, the goal was Chris Durkin’s first since St. Louis City visited Inter Miami back in 2024, where he scored in the 15th minute of a 3-3 draw. He thought his celebration was better this time, a belly slide to the corner flag before leaping to his feet.

“I love scoring goals,” Durkin said. “Looking at a compilation of my goal celebrations over the years, they’ve been pretty bad. So that one tonight is on the top of the list.”

It was the first half that City had won in their five games of play this MLS season. It was the first half that City has scored two goals in all season. The team was playing as if a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders.

Despite the lead, the back-and-forth nature of the first half is not necessarily the game that Yoann Damet wants to play. In the first half, City were often caught upfield in attack, which opened up space and created chaos in defense. With a lead at half, Yoann Damet’s message to the team in the locker room was to find control of the contest.

“Something was off, in terms of the timing, the distances, a little bit of the energy as well, to be honest,” said Damet on a disjointed first half. “The main message at halftime was ‘Hey, let's get back to working together because that’s our strength’. I thought we were more compact, more precise, with the moments we picked to press.”

New England had to try to fight and claw their way back into the game in the second half, but City’s defense was up to the task of holding their first lead of 2026. Only one shot, a speculative effort from Revs number 10 Carles Gil, tested St. Louis captain and keeper Roman Bürki in the second stanza.

“(Damet told us) to defend first together, and we adjusted to stay compact, defend in a block, and it worked well,” said Marcel Hartel postgame. “I think in the second half, New England didn't have any 100 percent shots on our goal, so it worked out.”

City were in control, looking to see out their first win of the season as the last minutes ticked off the clock at Energizer Park. In the 83rd minute, Marcel Hartel added a moment of magic that sealed a St. Louis City win.

Pressing high into the New England half of the field, Hartel intercepted a loose ball from Revs center back Brayan Ceballos, but made a bad touch that popped the ball into the air. Thinking quickly, Hartel noticed Matt Turner had vacated his goal, and swung his right foot at the bouncing ball.

Hartel judged the distance perfectly, his shot, from roughly 40 yards away from goal, went well over a leaping Matt Turner, under the crossbar, and into the Revs goal to give City a 3-1 lead. Downtown St. Louis was jubilant, and would send up another cheer 15 minutes later when referee Serhii Boiko blew his whistle for full-time.

Winless no more, City’s first of the season moves them up from the bottom of the MLS Western Conference. Four points in five games isn’t the best start by any stretch, but Yoann Damet preached that even a win is just a step in the process.

“I don’t want to minimize the results, but tonight is just another game in the journey,” Damet explained. “So we have to stay level-headed. We’ve got to enjoy this win, we’ve worked really hard for it, but we don’t get carried away.”

After finding goals and finding a win, the next task for St. Louis City is to reproduce the performance and turn more games into wins. Yoann Damet believes that his team believes in itself.

“What I just told them in the locker room, it’s about them,” Damet said at the post-match presser. “It’s not about how I feel. It’s all about them believing how good they can be and what they can do.”

St. Louis City, and all of MLS, has a week off with the international break before returning to play on April 4. City will be heading to the Big Apple to take on New York City FC at Citi Field.

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