City Falls 2-0 To Sporting Kansas City, Third Straight Shutout For St. Louis
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS - In another installment of the I-70 Derby, St. Louis City SC traveled across the state of Missouri to take on Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. Following them were thousands of fans clad in City Red, most of them occupying a whole corner of Children’s Mercy Park.
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“[The City fans] were amazing,” said St. Louis City head coach Olof Mellberg. “They continued to support us throughout the whole game. They were amazing today.”
Injuries forced City into a bit of a makeshift lineup, but one that had plenty of chances. Sporting KC, under new manager Kerry Zavagnin, weathered the first half, and two Dejan Joveljic strikes in the second half propelled the hosts to a 2-0 win over St. Louis City.
With the likes of Chris Durkin and Jannes Horn joining a lengthy injury list, and Eduard Löwen missing his second straight game to deal with a personal matter, City head coach Olof Mellberg had to do a bit of tinkering for Saturday night’s starting eleven.
At the start, City tried a bit of a different setup. Kyle Hiebert took up the left wingback position usually occupied by Horn or Conrad Wallem in 2025. The center backs were unchanged from last weekend, with Joakim Nilsson, Henry Kessler, and Josh Yaro lining up at the back, with Akil Watts playing as a right wingback.
Alfredo Morales once again deputized in Edu Löwen’s absence, and Marcel Hartel slotted into a more Löwen-like position in central midfield. The aforementioned Wallem started the evening as an attacking midfielder, as did Celio Pompeu, with Mellberg choosing those two for the pace they offer driving into and behind the Kansas City back line.
João Klauss started for the first time since Matchday 3 this season and offered the team a physicality on and off the ball that has been lacking in his absence.
St. Louis was playing to the plan their head coach drew up. Klauss was getting on the ball, forcing SKC defenders to keep an eye on him, opening up spaces for the likes of Pompeu and Wallem to run at the defense from their positions in midfield.
Wallem hit the post in the 16th minute, following a Klauss through ball that found Wallem in stride running up the right channel. Wallem fired another shot on goal moments later that was saved by Sporting keeper John Pulskamp.
That setup seemed to be working quite well, but an apparent knee injury to Joakim Nilsson, who has missed considerable time since coming stateside due to injury, had to be substituted in the 26th minute.
St. Louis brought on Tomas Ostrak, which saw Wallem drop back to his left wingback position, and Kyle Hiebert slotted into the left center back spot. Ostrak filled the midfield position Wallem had left.
“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,” said Josh Yaro after the game. “I think the group adjusted pretty well. Ostrák’s a really good player that I personally really rate, and he had his fair share of good moments.”
Even still, with an even more makeshift setup, City were creating more chances and getting behind the SKC backline. They were the better team, but the scoreboard said 0-0 at halftime.
The home side started to grow into the game in the second half, and City had to fend off a few half-chances in the first few minutes of the second 45. Not to be outdone, City responded with a few chances of their own, the biggest being a Marcel Hartel shot from the left side of the box, but a shot that was easily saved by SKC keeper Pulskamp.
City were having the most success in attack when Celio Pompeu and Conrad Wallem were linking up on the left side after Wallem moved to the left wingback spot. It was a bit of a surprise in the 65th minute when Pompeu was subbed off for Simon Becher.
On its face, an understandable switch, bringing on a second attacker to complement Klauss up top. But City lost their forward momentum without their Brazilian talisman bombing up and down the wing.
Minutes later, Sporting Kansas City found the breakthrough from their four-million-dollar man, Dejan Joveljic, purchased from the LA Galaxy this past offseason. Joveljic latched onto a Manu Garcia through ball, running beyond the City defense, and struck a smooth right-footed shot that beat City goalkeeper Ben Lundt to his right.
Notably, the space Joveljic ran into was vacated by Kyle Hiebert, who was sucked into midfield trying to man-mark Garcia before the through ball. Hiebert wouldn’t have been in that position if Joakim Nilsson hadn’t gone down with an injury in the first half.
Perhaps the goal took the wind out of City’s sails, but the visitors clad in City Red looked like they had conceded the game after the 71st-minute strike. Chances dried up, SKC had seized momentum, and the Sporting Blue end of Children’s Mercy Park was rocking.
“I think we did well up until the goal,” Mellberg said postgame. “We dominated the game in the second half, up until the goal, we had our chances. It was a big blow for us, obviously it gave them energy and the last 15 to 20 minutes [we were] not good.”
Joveljic added a second goal for Sporting that sealed the result in the 88th minute. Kansas City was cruising to its first win since last September, ending a 13-game winless streak against their hated cross-state rivals in front of a home crowd with interim manager Kerry Zavagnin at the helm of his first game.
“They scored the second goal through an ideal press,” said City defender Josh Yaro, analysing the play following the game. “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 [prepared for] exactly how they came out. We had everything we needed to go out and win.”
Losing to the team at the bottom of the standings is never easy, but for St. Louis City, it’s the third straight loss, and their third straight game without scoring a goal. City is now on 345 minutes and counting without scoring in MLS play.
“Obviously, scoring goals is one of the most difficult moments in soccer,” Mellberg explained. “So it’s something we are working hard on and improving, hopefully it will come.”
It will be a week of inquisition at the City training ground in Downtown West this week. This is the City squad that the coaching staff will have to work with, given the injury list and the uncertain status of star midfielder Eduard Löwen moving forward.
With another defeat, St. Louis City falls out of the early playoff places and drops to 10th in the Western Conference, after being as high as fourth earlier in the season. It doesn’t get any easier for City next Sunday, when the team will welcome MLS Eastern Conference leaders Columbus Crew to Energizer Park.
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