New Faces Shine As City Stuns Nashville 3-1
ST. LOUIS - With just 10 games remaining in their Major League Soccer season, St. Louis City SC are mostly playing for pride, with only the LA Galaxy separating City from the bottom of the Western Conference.
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Up against Nashville SC, the third-place team in a stacked Eastern Conference, St. Louis put in their best performance of the season Saturday. New additions featured throughout, Sangbin Jeong scored his first City goal, Fallou Fall looked impenetrable in defense, and City stunned one of the league’s best teams 3-1.
With both Nashville SC and St. Louis City not featuring in this year’s edition of the Leagues Cup, both came into Saturday’s contest having last played English Premier League club Aston Villa in a friendly. City lost their friendly encounter 2-1, while Nashville drew with Villa 2-2.
New and record signing Fallou Fall, the Senegalese center back acquired at the start of this summer transfer window, made his first MLS start in the heart of defense alongside the more familiar Timo Baumgartl. Devin Padelford again made the starting eleven as a left back, and Jaziel Orozco moved over to the right back spot.
“[Fallou Fall] is a guy that has a lot of presence,” said City’s Jaziel Orozco postgame. “He has a lot of experience back in the French league, and we're so happy to have him. He's been gelling in the group really well.”
Interim City head coach David Critchley went with a more defensive look in midfield, starting Alfredo Morales alongside Eduard Löwen, with Tomas Ostrak joining those two in the middle.
Sangbin Jeong started on the right wing, and Marcel Hartel moved from his No. 10 role more centrally and started from the left wing. Joao Klauss started as a striker as usual.
It was a team that Critchley set up to clog the middle of the field and not allow a talented Nashville team to have space to move the ball in dangerous areas. For much of the game, Nashville had possession between the boxes, but couldn’t break down the City defensive block in attack.
City opened the scoring in the 23rd minute through an unlikely source: makeshift right back Jaziel Orozco, who cleaned up the rebound off a City corner kick. Orozco then pushed toward the end line, finding open space in the box, and as he ran out of other options, fired a shot from a tight angle to the right of the Nashville goal, a shot that beat Nashville keeper Joe Willis, grazed the inside of the post, and crashed into the back of the net.
Orozco bagged his first goal in MLS action, his third goal as a professional in his young career.
“Yeah, the goal was something like an adrenaline pump for myself in my career,” explained Orozco. “Something that I'll never forget, and with the fans, with everyone, a huge crowd, it's always so nice to do that.”
Keeping their foot on the gas has been an issue for City in 2025, the lack of following up a first goal with a second or third has cost the team numerous points, numerous victories turned draws or defeats. But Saturday was different, and in the 39th minute, City doubled their lead.
City broke out in transition after forcing a Nashville turnover in midfield, with Eduard Löwen dashing up the middle, with Joao Klauss to his right. Löwen went right to Klauss, laying a perfect pass in the path of the big Brazilian striker who went for Joe Willis’s near post and squeezed a shot off the inside of the post and in.
“I think we have to give a lot of credit to Edu [Löwen], because he weighted the ball perfectly. Gave me a chance to finish with my first touch. And, yeah, I think in this position, like you have to finish strong, you have to put a lot of power on the shot. And when I see this gap [at the near post], I think that was my chance.”
Willis, the Nashville goalkeeper and St. Louis native, was not given a warm welcome by St. Louis City. City had a two-goal lead going into the halftime break.
As mentioned, letting teams back into games has been the problem for St. Louis in MLS play this year. You’d be forgiven for expecting Nashville to storm back into the contest to break City hearts, because that’s been the norm.
But Saturday was different. For their possession, Nashville only posed threats in moments, and City’s ability to lock down the firepower of Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge proved to be the difference.
“We knew a lot of their opportunities come from the central areas,” said David Critchley, explaining his defensive game plan. “So we wanted to remain really compact, and one of the messages to the team was to make their fullbacks their quarterbacks or their ballplayers today.
Just eliminating the central areas was the key to our game this week, and I thought the guys did a pretty good job of that.”
City didn’t let up, and in the 66th minute, another young player found his first goal in CITY Red. Sangbin Jeong scored the third goal, a flicked header from inside the six-yard box following a chipped half-shot half-cross from Simon Becher, who kept the play alive close to the Nashville net.
Sangbin has added a bit of vim and vigor to a City attack that was lacking that breakaway pace, causing attacking moves to break down. He spent his time on the field Saturday night bombing up and down the right wing, showcasing the speed that earned him a transfer to St. Louis.
“He said he's been preparing this week with some desperation,” said a translator for Sangbin Jeong. ’“He really wanted to score this week. He was starting to think that maybe today is not the day because he had some chances that he missed. He's really happy because he ended up scoring a goal tonight.”
City were up 3-0 against the third -place team in the MLS Eastern Conference, perhaps playing their most well-rounded game of soccer this season, and did so with new additions proving their value almost instantly.
Unfortunately an otherwise perfect evening at Energizer Park was spoiled by a penalty awarded to Nashville late with Alfredo Morales bringing down Hany Mukhtar in the City box. Roman Bürki, notoriously not a penalty stopper, denied Mukhtar’s initial penalty attempt, and made an instinctual save on the follow up. Downtown West erupted, but only temporarily.
VAR would intervene, saying Bürki had inched off his line when Mukhtar took a stutter-step in his penalty run-up. Mukhtar was given another chance, and converted to Bürki’s right to make it a 3-1 game.
“The penalty comes, Roman [Bürki] makes the save. I think it's [the loudest the stadium has been],” Critchley said. “...But it gets brought back. I’ve felt like the theme for us this year has been the moments that have gone against us. But today, the difference is that we put ourselves in a position of control with a 3-0 lead that even when it doesn't go our way, we can still come away with three points.”
3-1 would stand for the final moments plus nearly 15 minutes of stoppage time. City had a rare win, and had one against one of the best teams in the league.
In their history, City has a great record at Energizer Park against teams from the Eastern Conference, and the win improves that record to 6-2-2, with a plus-12 goal difference in those 10 games.
Not on the scoresheet, but the man drawing some of the biggest cheers in Downtown West on the evening was Fallou Fall, who looked every bit worth the $3.48 million sent to to Fredrikstad FK.
“Against the ball, he was brilliant,” said Critchley. “On the ball, we've asked him to be brave and try to play out. But defensively, he had a moment where he slide-tackled I think three times consecutively on the ground and the crowd loves it. His aerial threat was fantastic. His leadership is getting better. I’m hearing him in moments on the field.”
“He felt comfortable right away. I give the locker room massive credit for that, especially when guys come from overseas. If their teammates open them with welcome arms, it makes the transition so much smoother. It's been good for him.”
Moving forward, MLS Playoffs at this point would be a miracle, and St. Louis City would need to be near-perfect to consider that possibility. But the one thing the team can do is turn the tide and build positive momentum for 2026 with the new faces around the club.
“We know that we are having ups and downs during the season, but you can see that the team is improving,” Joao Klauss expressed following the win. “Of course, the results are not always there, so it's difficult to really say, like, ‘Oh, this team is getting better.’ But with what [David Critchley] is doing, also, we're finally getting healthy”.
Saturday might not last forever, but a big victory gives a club that’s been lacking in confidence a shot in the arm going down the homestretch of the MLS season. The main objective is to get everyone back on board to believe in 2026.
St. Louis City SC heads up I-55 next weekend to take on the Chicago Fire at their suburban Bridgeview, Illinois home, Seatgeek Stadium.
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