(Photo Courtesy: Mark Guthrel)
Mike Magee’s return to action on loan wasn’t enough to power Saint Louis FC past Louisville City FC in the third game of the Kings Cup. The two teams pulled out a 1-1 draw in their second meeting this week.
The first half remained scoreless 0-0, but Saint Louis showed improvement with its ball movement. The addition of Magee was supposed to give the team a boost offensively against the difficult Louisville defense, but that wasn’t the case.
Magee wasn’t in on the action much in the first half, but he had a couple scoring opportunities in the second before being subbed out in the 60th minute for Charles Renken. James Musa continued to perform at his new position in the central defensive midfield. The captain has been a solid improvement for the defense since Saint Louis switched up its formations.
The Louisville defense remained rock solid throughout most of the game limiting Saint Louis’ opportunities. Louisville City took the lead minutes into the second half when Kadeem Dacres connected for a beautiful finish to put Louisville in front 1-0.
After a high arcing cross entered the box off the foot of Charlie Adams, Dacres slotted it into the top corner, past Saint Louis goalkeeper Alec Kann. The goal was Dacres third of the season.
Saint Louis finally cracked the Louisville defense later as Patrick Doody lobbed a beautiful pass over the Louisville back line to Renken. Renken played the ball perfectly, blasting it past keeper Scott Goodwin to knot things up 1-1.
The score stayed tied for the remainder of the game, but Louisville had a pair of opportunities late in the closing minutes that nearly put them ahead. Chad Vandergriffe blocked the first shot before Oskar Gasecki slammed a shot off the post in an attempted clear, which nearly resulted in an own goal.
With the 1-1 draw the Kings Cup will have to wait to be decided until the teams meet in their next matchup in the season finale on September 19. Saint Louis FC (3-3-3) is next in action on the road at the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The teams tied 1-1 in their previous meeting at Marshall Wireless stadium on April 11.
Saint Louis head coach Dale Schilly said afterwards he was pleased with his teams performance of late.
“Given the tough stretch of games recently, I thought both teams did a good job in what was a really grueling battle. Our guys played on pure determination and guts after playing four games in 13 days,” Schilly said.
Update on Richard Dixon: Dixon’s season is at a halt as he suffered a torn MCL in the first half of the US Open Cup game against Minnesota according to his Twitter page. Dixon was supposed to head out on loan to the Jamaican national team next month.
Rich Dixon on Twitter
Well that sucks! Completely tore my MCL, sidelined for 2 months smh. Coming back BIGGER, BETTER, STRONGER though!!!
For more St. Louis FC updates follow @NickYahl on Twitter.
