(Photo Credit: Nick Yahl- Arch City Sports)
Saint Louis FC and New York Red Bulls II squared off Saturday night in front of a sold out crowd at Marshall Wireless stadium. Saint Louis looked to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat in its last match against the Colorado Switchbacks.
However, New York had other ideas as the Redbulls jumped out to an early lead in the 8th minute. New York midfielder Leo Stolz sent a pass by the Saint Louis defense to Marius Obekop, who picked it up and slotted it past Saint Louis keeper Mark Pais for a 1-0 lead.
Sam Fink, listed as questionable prior to the match, started at center back for the home team and held down the back line nicely despite conceding the early goal. Fink has seen a lot of minutes recently playing nearly every minute of the teams past four matches.
Additionally, the absence of Brandon Barklage and James Musa in the midfield seemed to disrupt Saint Louis from pressing the attack and generating scoring opportunities. Saint Louis head coach Dale Schilly commented afterward on the Redbulls tough defense.
“The way they came after us, made it difficut for us to get established and get a rhythm going,” Schilly said.
Saint Louis had a great chance in the the 34th minute to knot the game up as Bryan Gaul and Mike Ambersley stretched the field on a break away. Though even with a 2 v 1 matchup they were unable to capitalize on the opportunity and the score remained 1-0 heading into half time.
New York doubled its lead to 2-0 shortly after the start of the second half as subsitute Konrad Plewa struck a beautful ball from 20 yards out that Pais never had a chance on.
Though, moments later Saint Louis finally got on the board in the 58th minute as Jermie Lynch found the back of the net amongst a clustered box cutting the deficit in half 2-1. The goal was Lynch’s fourth on the year.
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Crowd getting into now after that Saint Louis goal. @SaintLouisFC trails 2-1 63′ @SaintLouisFC @USL @StLouligans
Lynch’s goal was also the only bright spot on the evening for the home team as things quickly turned out of hand. Schilly opted for a more agressive attack to try and pull even rather than continuing with the normal game plan.
That would end up costing Saint Louis as Franklin Castellanos scored in the 83rd minute before Plewa registered his second goal of the game in the 90th minute en route to a 4-1 victory for the Redbull.
Schilly said afterwards on the decision to attack, “We could’ve sat in and kept the game going and lose 2-1, but a great crowd and support from the fans we wanted to put forth an effort to get at least a draw, let alone a win.”
With the loss Saint Louis FC is now 3-5-5 on the season and have just one victory in league play at home. New York moves to 6-5-4 in league play with the victory.
Saint Louis defender Jacob Bushue was confident in the teams ability ot win games as they currently sit ninth in the standings, three spots out of the playoff picture with 14 games left to play.
“14 games is a lot of games and we’re not many points separated from sixth place. So when you put a couple of wins in a row, which this team is capable of doing, we’ll be fine,” said Bushue.
The team will have to figure out a way to generate and capitalize on scoring chances. Too often is the team struggling to score first as this was the seventh straight game in which Saint Louis has conceded a goal before scoring.
This team has battled injuries to key players such as Barklage, Musa, and Richard Dixon and many of these guys have had to play a lot of minutes because of the banged up roster. However, averaging less than two goals per game isn’t going to get the job done and certianly isn’t going to get you a playoff spot.
Saint Louis is next in action on Wednesday, July 1 when they travel to take on Wilmington Hammerheads FC. The team will be home next on July 11 to face off against the Richmond Kickers.
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