St. Louis CITY SC began their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign with a bang, defeating Union Omaha 5-1 at CITYPARK. Aziel Jackson scored CITY SC’s first goal in the 3rd minute, before the flood gates opened in the second. Second half goals from Joe Gallardo (own goal), Akil Watts, Jackson, Eduard Löwen put CITY SC well out of reach against their opponents.
CITY SC Scores Five Again
For the second time this season, St. Louis CITY SC scored five goals in matchup. CITY SC recorded a 5-1 win against FC Cincinnati in MLS, before winning by a similar score line in tonight’s win against Union Omaha.
Célio Pompeu. Involved.
Célio Pompeu appeared to be all over the pitch in the win against Union Omaha. The midfielder was involved in all of CITY SC’s goal, recording a hattrick of assists and was responsible for forcing the own goal off Joe Gallardo. Pompeu, who recorded
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Attendance Record
St. Louis CITY SC fans showed again with this city is considered a hotbed for soccer in the United Sates. CITY SC’s match against Union Omaha was played in front of a sold-out crowd (22,423), breaking the record for any U.S. Open Cup Third Round attendance, and becoming the 10th highest attendance in any round of the Open Cup.
Additional Notes
·      Aziel Jackson and Akil Watts scored their first goal for St. Louis CITY SC.
·      Last year’s CITY2 captain Josh Yaro, wore the armband for St. Louis CITY SC in their win against Omaha.
·      Jon Bell who was acquired by St. Louis CITY SC in the Expansion Draft made his appearance for CITY SC.
·      Goalkeeper Ben Lundt made his first appearance for CITY SC.
·      Eduard Löwen scored his third goal across all competitions (2 goals in MLS, one goal in in the U.S. Open Cup)
·      With the 5-1 score line, CITY SC tied their biggest win of the season, after winning with a similar result against FC Cincinnati in the MLS.
·      Jackson becomes the second player to score twice in a match for CITY SC this season, joining João Klauss who scored a brace against Real Salt Lake earlier in the season.
·      Pompeu becomes the first player in CITY SC history to record three assists in one match.
·      Pompeu raises his professional total assists to 11, after recording eight assists for CITY2 last season.
·      St. Louis CITY SC are unbeaten in their last three matches, outscoring their opponents 11-3 in that time.
·      CITY SC fielded its 10th different lineup this season in all competitions.
·      With Jackson and Watts finding the back of the net, CITY SC has seen 10 different goal scorers in all competition this season.
·      Célio Pompeu becomes the eighth assist provider in all competitions this season for CITY SC
·      CITY SC has now trailed 28 of 450 minutes at CITYPARK, scoring 16 goals and allowing just four, with a record of 4-1 across all competitions.
·      CITY SC recorded its fifth consecutive sellout in all competition
Goal-Scoring Plays
STL – Aziel Jackson (Célio Pompeu), 3rd minute: Aziel Jackson left footed shot from the outside of the box to the bottom left corner.
STL – Joe Gallardo (Own Goal), 48th minute: Own Goal by Joe Gallardo.
STL – Akil Watts (Célio Pompeu), 62nd minute: Akil Watts right footed shot from the right side of the box to the high center of the goal.
STL – Aziel Jackson (Célio Pompeu), 66th minute: Aziel Jackson left footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom right corner.
OMA – Pedro Dolabella, 79th minute:  Pedro Dolabella left footed shot from the right side of the six-yard box to the bottom right corner.
STL – Eduard Löwen, 86th minute: Eduard Löwen right footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom right corner.
Next Game
St. Louis CITY SC resumes MLS action at CITYPARK against Portland Timbers on Saturday, April 29.
April 25, 2023 – CITYPARK (St. Louis, MO)
Goals by Half                 1       Â
St. Louis CITY SCÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5
Union Omaha.              0        1        1
Scoring Summary
STL: Aziel Jackson (Célio Pompeu), 3
STL:Â Joe Gallardo (Own goal), 48
STL: Akil Watts (Célio Pompeu), 62
STL: Aziel Jackson (Célio Pompeu), 66
OMA:Â Pedro Dolabella, 79
STL: Eduard Löwen, 86
Misconduct Summary
OMA:Â Carlos Palacios (caution), 25
Lineups
STL: GK Ben Lundt; D Akil Watts D Josh Yaro © D Lucas Bartlett D Selmir Pidro; M Aziel Jackson (Jared Stroud 76’) M Miguel Perez M Isak Jensen M Indiana Vassilev (Jon Bell 71’); F Célio Pompeu F Tomas Ostrak (Eduard Löwen 70’)
Substitutes Not Used: D John Nelson GK Roman Bürki M Rasmus Alm F Niko Gioacchini
TOTAL SHOTS: 23; SHOTS ON GOAL: 13; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 2
OMA: GK Rashid Nuhu D Dion Acoff (Marco Milanese 68’)D Shaft Jr Brewer D Carlos Octavio Palacios D Alexis Souahy; M Conor Doyle M Luis Gil M John Paul Scearce (Chavany Willis 83’); F Noe Meza (Pedro Dolabella 68’) F Joe Gallardo (Joseph Brito 68’) F Steevan dos Santos (Alejandro Steinwascher 77’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ian McGrane D Luca Mastrantonio
TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 8
Referee:Â Lorenzo Hernandez
Assistant Referees:Â Matthew Rodman, Adam Drees
Fourth Official:Â Velimir Stefanovic
Venue:Â CITYPARK
Weather:Â Cloudy, 65 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Audio:Â Recording
BRADLEY CARNELL
Opening Statement
Good evening. Yeah, we spoke to the group today. About what this tournament means to the city of St. Louis. We know there’s been, I think nine open cups here before from various teams that were victorious. So, we spoke about us going to this game with a lot of mentality, a lot of courage, a lot of bravery. And knowing that, yeah, we rotated a whole lineup, right? With Indy Vassilev the only one being that turned back and was able to play again. So, you know, a real professional performance from our group. We wanted to be a team based on principles with and without the ball and I think you saw many, many of those components that came to fruition tonight, and was just a joy to watch. Obviously, an early goal helps. A good start helps, but then to have the willingness and the ruthlessness to carry on right until the 90th minute and we make a couple of change and a couple of subs and then we get another injection of pace and speed and in transition, looking dangerous again. Credit to Dominique though him and his team. It’s not an easy team, right. They went on a run last year. They have similar players to the group that they had out there last year, but obviously he’s a coach with great ambitions and a really good structure. They pose you a lot of problems. And you could see that in certain moments tonight, so credit to them. Yeah, just a little bit disappointed about the goal we gave up. So, yeah, we know that’s the sort of battle you play or the danger you play when you start making changes along your backline and, you know, you can concede, silly moments and we did just that. So, yeah, I thought was a professional performance and we move on.
A record crowd tonight. 22,000 for a Tuesday night game against the third division teams. How’s that make you feel?
Yeah, it’s incredible. We said it earlier in the week. The fans never cease to amaze us, right. We know what we have in St. Louis. And we know that when teams come to St. Louis, it’s not just the team that they’re going to play against. It’s also this cauldron that we have, right, the fans, the fan base, the stadium. Everything’s on display right now. So, the team is playing some great soccer. We have the fans giving the best versions of ourselves of, you know, the support that the city needs that we need. And it’s awesome to watch you know, it’s great to be a part of and, yeah, even for an Open Cup game, you know, not many teams, I don’t think can say the same thing right now. What we have going for us and we’re extremely grateful and extremely proud to be part of this movement together, right. And where that takes us is only forwards. And we hope to achieve great things with this team.
I wanted to ask about Aziel Jackson hasn’t gotten a lot of chances with the first team this season, but he certainly looked like he took his opportunity tonight.
100% I mean, [Aziel] is a guy we know he’s extremely talented, right? He’s incredibly gifted and talented. But what’s even more special he’s committed to city 2 minutes as well and it’s never easy for a guy you know where he trains week in and week out and doesn’t make a game there. We asked him to go play city 2. And if he’s up for the challenge, and he’s been up for the challenge many times and you can see just through game time alone and through rhythm. Now you get put on the display full stadium and bang he’s able to shine so you know it’s the commitment when no one’s watching is the commitment to something that’s bigger than just himself its commitment to the team to help wherever is needed and I’ve seen growth in Az [Aziel] the last two weeks three weeks.
Klauss and Gioacchini taking a break today and Tomas Ostrak and Celio Pompeu what did you like from them?
Everything? Oh, yeah, I mean, we played with with four false nines, you know, we knew that have a big backline we knew that they’re going to be dangerous with aerial threats. We knew we’re going to have to play underneath you know, little up back through games and I think you could see some great soccer moments from some great combinations just with a talent on display tonight. There were a lot of ballers like street ballers a lot of happy guys playing some soccer, you know, and that that’s almost what we wanted for them. You know, they we wanted these guys to be brave and to play with the edge to prove a point to send me a message to say Coach, why am I not playing so they sent the right response and they sent me the right message tonight so was fun to watch.
Did you want to see this as a sort of addition for those guys who haven’t had as much playing time to get into the weekend 11 and see if they can make a change in your mind about the performance?
100% I mean, listen, we had some guys who turned around and said they’re ready to play. We know what the trips to Salt Lake and Colorado do to you. We know that we arrived at 4:30am Sunday morning so we know that it’s one day less basically to regenerate and recover. So, for us it was all about being smart and strategic about the way we went about it. And we know we’ve always said we’ve had confidence in our group. We’ve always said we believe in the players that we have here. So, it would not be true to myself if I then tried to roll back the same guys again. You know, this is a tournament that we do have a little bit of flexibility with, especially playing at home. We knew we’re going to have the home crowd advantage and we knew we’re going to have Hungry Hungry players playing together playing for each other playing for the team. And I always tell the boys you know it’s like you’re a salesman, you take out your business card and you try to sell me your product tonight and many of the boys and all of the all of the boys who are out there really gave a good account of themselves.
Two of the players You know, we’ve talked about a lot to get more minutes is Jensen and Pidro how do you think there sales pitch went today?
Yeah, I think both of them down that left hand side you could see when we commit to other principles. You know, we were extremely dangerous is that picks up I mean, he’s one of the best forward defenders that we have. He’s got a real ability to sense out and sniff a play. He gets ahead of the game proactive in his mind, not just his body to be able to pounce and jump on a loose ball. So you know, that’s one of his biggest attributes. He surprised me that he went the whole 90 tonight because he did not stop running. So yeah, credit to him. I thought he was he was fantastic. And then yes, Selmir’s a high level player. You know, he’s got he’s got a good physical profile. He’s got good speed. He’s a great one v one defender. And now it’s my job to help him along to get to to get to those levels, right. So I would say it’s a work in progress, right. But again, what a platform to to put out your sales pitch you know what a platform now to play 90 minutes free. You know, you have an environment, you have players, you have coaches who support you to be put on display. So yeah, I thought he did a really good job. But Selmir is a guy that I need to work with every single day to make sure that we know that the principles are being spoken about committed to and I know he’s a great guy and he tries and he wants to do so hard for the for the betterment of the team. Right. So, and I think he made a good account of himself, you know, so we all critical, you know, on the goal, we concede. Yeah. Can we defend that a little bit better as a group, right, the cross comes in, we don’t challenge for the ball that drops down. Can we step out? Can we forward the defense? So just in terms of a principle that got us away from us a little bit, but I would say for the whole pot job well done.
Miguel Perez has a big game tonight as well, starting in a big moment playing next Indiana Vassilev. Does that kind of give you an idea of going forward that those two can play well?
Yeah, I mean, they complement each other really well. Right. So, I want to see Miggy Perez playing the way he did tonight. More of that and you know, just to just to have a good balance right we have a free flowing Indy Vasilev who’s you know can break lines, passes, and can see the can see the next phase of play maybe can break down plays and then connect the next guy and transition so it’s a good complement to each other good profiles. But yes, we wanted to see this for a while now and whether it was a Miggy and Edu or whether it was a Miggy and an Indy. I think just a compliment was really good. That was one of the things that we thought got away from us a little bit in in Colorado was a disconnect of the sixes you know just trying to work in harmony and work together. So, I thought we corrected that really well tonight, not just from the from the personnel on the field, but I thought from the tactical nuances as well so yeah.
Guys who probably didn’t need to make a sales pitch to you like Edu and Jared Stroud and what was the decision to put them in your reserves and ultimately use them versus perhaps accounting for the fact you have a four – 0 lead before you actually need to go to them.
Yeah. So I mean, it he came to us and he said, he feels really good. He would like to play, you know, so that that’s one you put in the bank and get and get him on when we know Johnny Nelson didn’t play the whole game in Colorado, right. Gioacchini, we were only going to put him in if needed. Unfortunately, we did not need him. So yeah, Stroud comes in. He’s very durable. He’s very reliable. He’s on a great run of form. See, he’s playing with high spirits and at a high level and I think you can see the injection of pace and the injection of transitional ability to play in tight spaces when those guys come on, they do take us up another level right so against the tight backline. So yeah, credit to the whole group tonight. I thought it was a fantastic moment for us as a team to grow one more step.
Getting the five goals it seemed like they keep on coming, and for you to be showing that relentlessness and yet kind of a bumpy period there kind of in the first half where they almost got a goal but you guys kept coming.
So you’ll see I keep a technical note and you know, a little thing on my game or my game sheet. The first thing I wrote they set pieces right so set pieces you give away momentum you give away chances you give away you know they have a whole team that’s over six foot and then a six foot five with Santos up the top. So you know we spoke about it. And these were moments for us to to kill our own momentum a little bit by making you know a few senseless fouls in and around our box, which then immediately when we scored the goal, they had a big moment that the you know, the very next moment is a big moment for them. So yeah, we gotta learn. I mean, we don’t say anything. Everything’s perfect with us. We know we’re a group who needs to stick with it every single day. And yeah, listen, we’re a bunch of youngsters. We’re a bunch of young guys. And we learn from these moments. So yeah, I’m proud as long as we can outscore the opponent, you know and carry on learning. I’m very happy.
What was the thought process in dressing some of the younger guys like Caden Glover and Owen O’Malley, when considering the chance that you could be up in the game and they could possibly get 10-15 minutes?
Yeah, listen, I mean Caden, Caden has been you know, hampered through a little calf strain. And he’s been playing a couple of progressive minutes but to get to, to get to sort of, I would say in connection of the first team he is still a little ways away. So, we’re going to be getting him in training. Now. Obviously, Klaus falls away for a few days and Caden will be complementing or supplementing that position. So, obviously, for now, we’ll keep him progressing with our training. Owen O’Malley is in a process, in a process with us, he’s in a process with himself right now. So, we’re trying to give him all the support that he needs. But it first starts with a commitment right now to City 2 there’s a bunch of guys there that are, you know, emptying the tank every single day. Owen O’Malley trains with us and plays down in City 2 some times, but we need to push Owen O’Malley. You know, he has a great upside he has a great ceiling. But we need to get him to that moment. Right. So, it’s an investment from me as a coach, it’s investment from us as a team to keep bringing him along. So, you know, as much as I would have liked to have got him out there today. You can see we rotated everybody right and we need to have a what if moment of what if we go down and we get stuck somehow. Right. And I think with the quality on the bench tonight, I just thought that that was more important right now.
AZIEL JACKSON
So what does this game mean to you is a guy who’s had a tough time getting minutes with this team to get a chance to start tonight and kind of show yourself?
It’s a good feeling coming out to the first Open Cup game in history as well but also credit to the guys and really happy how we played as a unit.
You get subbed out; you get kind of a massive ovation from the fans like how does that feel?
It’s a crazy feeling. I was trying not to smirk because it was 22,000 fans, the atmosphere is amazing. I felt really good in my soul. So, I’m really happy that the fans came out and supported. Happy we got the win.
Looked like you were getting a little miffed and upset at the end of the first half.
Yeah, I was just trying to get my wings under me first. It was so humid for me. But I don’t know, we’re just trying to get the ball under us and try and break them down. I remember playing them against Minnesota United last year and we lost that. So, they’re tough. They’re a tough team so sometimes it can be frustrating for the groups and so a huge credit to our team mentality.
CÉLIO POMPEU
On the cross that was knocked in…
At the end of the day, we have to put those balls in dangerous places, and every time we put the ball in dangerous places, good things happen. When I put the ball in, somebody can touch it in or like what happened with the goal, the other guy touched it in. So I just have to be dangerous and aggressive.
On looking forward to this game…
Of course, I came into this game thinking it’s one more chance. I always want more minutes because I work hard on and off the field. I think it was a great day, I ran a lot and gave it everything I had.
On how it felt playing with Ostrak, Jensen and Jackson upfront…
I felt pretty good. You know, it’s not a position that I play often. Since last year, I told the guys I’m here to whatever coach needs me and I’m always going to be ready. This year I’ve played as a left wing back, right wing back, right wing and left wing. Today I played as a number nine on the right. I’m here to help the team be better. I’m always ready and coach can always call me to any position. Yeah, I felt pretty good playing with them.
JOSH YARO
On the crowd and atmosphere…
I mean, it’s great. They show up every time, this time it’s a Tuesday night. It’s an Open Cup game and it’s the first round of the open cup games and we had 22,000 plus fans show up. So from that standpoint, the atmosphere was great. I think us players, we definitely feed off the energy of the fans, and we definitely did that tonight. So, again, thank you to the fans for always providing us with an environment where we can strive.
On the Open Cup and its importance in St. Louis…
You know, its history with soccer and how important soccer is to this city and everything behind it. I think St. Louis teams have won, if I’m not mistaken, nine times in the past years, so there’s a legacy here. This is a city that’s proud of its history, its soccer history. So yeah, from that standpoint, we look to continue that and today was the first step in doing that and we got that done. We look forward to what comes next.
On being expected to win this game…
Yeah, no, I mean, these games are really tough. Because for them, they play with house money. If they lose, it’s expected, right? They are playing an MLS team. Not just any MLS team, but a team that’s at the top of the league. And for us, there are other pressures on us. Playing at home in front of our fans, we are the MLS team, and so from that standpoint, there is pressure and it becomes hard. Again, I think, despite that we gave up a goal tonight, from a mentality standpoint, it’s excellent from the guys just everyone going out and performing and pushing. I think I’m really proud of the group performance that we showed tonight.
