St. Louis CITY SC’s three-match winning streak was snapped on Wednesday night after falling 3-0 to LAFC. LAFC’s Carlos Vela, Stipe Biuk and José Cifuentes all scored in the second half to secure the three points for the home team. St. Louis CITY SC remains in first place in the Western Conference standings with 38 points.
Postgame Notes
- Jon Bell made his first start for CITY SC
- CITY SC fielded its 20th different lineup in 22 MLS games
- With 12 games remaining, CITY SC remains atop of the Western Conference
Goal-Scoring Plays
LAFC – Carlos Vela (José Cifuentes), 72nd minute: Carlos Vela left footed shot from the center of the box to the high center of the goal.
LAFC – Stipe Biuk (Denis Bouanga), 82nd minute: Stipe Biuk right footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom left corner.
LAFC – José Cifuentes (Nathan Ordaz), 90’+2 minute: José Cifuentes left footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom right corner.
Next Game
Following a two-game road trip, St. Louis CITY SC returns to CITYPARK to take on Inter Miami CF on July 15.
July 12, 2023 – BMO Stadium (Los Angeles, California)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LAFC 0 3 3
St. Louis CITY SC 0 0 0
Scoring Summary
LAFC: Carlos Vela (José Cifuentes), 72
LAFC: Stipe Biuk (Denis Bouanga), 82
LAFC: José Cifuentes (Nathan Ordaz), 90’+2’
Misconduct Summary
LAFC: José Cifuentes (caution), 14
LAFC: Denil Maldonado (caution), 30’
STL: Jon Bell (caution), 51’
STL: Jake Nerwinski (caution), 72’
Lineups
LAFC: GK John McCarthy; D Denil Maldonado, D Diego Palacios, D Giorgio Chiellini, D Ryan Hollingshead; M Ilie Sanchez, M Mateusz Bogusz (Stipe Biuk 62’), M Mateusz Bogusz, M Jose Cifuentes, M Kellyn Acosta; F Carlos Vela © (Nathan Ordaz 86’), F Denis Bouanga
Substitutes Not Used: GK Eldin Jakupovic, D Mamadou Fall, M Timothy Tillman, M Daniel Crisostomo, D Erik Duenas, D Diego Rosales, F Julian Gaines
TOTAL SHOTS: 11; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 2
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Jake Nerwinski, D Lucas Bartlett, D Jon Bell (Kyle Hiebert, 69’), D John Nelson; M Njabulo Blom, M Indiana Vassilev, M Rasmus Alm (Jared Stroud 56’), M Tomáš Ostrák (Aziel Jackson 78’), M Célio Pompeu (Eduard Löwen 69’); F Nicholas Gioacchini (Sam Adeniran 69’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt D Josh Yaro, D Akil Watts, M Miguel Perez
TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 0
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Logan Brown, Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Fourth Official: Elvis Osmanovic
VAR: Younes Marrakchi
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
Venue: BMO Stadium
Weather: Sunny, 81 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Audio: Recordings
Bradley Carnell
Opening statement…
Yeah, I think the result sucks. The scoreline sucks, but I think the performance, yeah, really gave me things to have hope about. And just looking at the way we went at it, you know, we gave guys a run, and I thought those guys came through. Again, a lot of those plays that started the game we’ve created history with down the stretch the first five games, and yeah, for me it was an easy choice to play guys here tonight. And yeah, we fought for 70, 71 minutes and then, you know, the randomness of a long ball, a long play and the quality of LAFC in transition, they can hurt you and they certainly did. Think if I look at the stats, three shots on target and three goals. So, you know, this was a game finely poised and finely balanced. And unfortunately, we lost the critical moments at critical times, and then we see the score line at the end of the day. So, you know, I thought we grew as a group together today. You know, we win so many times together. Today, we lost together. We get out of here after a successful week, I would say, and now we head back home and get prepared for a very important Inter Miami match on Saturday.
On if there is an inherent risk to completely rotating the backline…
I don’t see so. I mean, we changed the whole backline or we changed a bunch of players against San Jose. You know, we’ve done it so many times, and we’ve been rewarded so many times. I definitely won’t buy that narrative. Everyone has created history, like I said in the opening statements. You know, we’ve got these guys and we’ve got these players, and I take every bit of responsibility here for these guys. I’ll protect these guys because they’ve done exactly their job, and they’ve done exactly what I needed here today. And unfortunately, we couldn’t just reward ourselves for the final stretch, you know, towards the end of the game.
On whether he sees anything from this game that compares to the match against Seattle earlier in the season…
Yeah, I see growth. I see growth from our group. You cannot only grow when you succeed. You have to grow when you when you fail as well, right? You find ways to bounce back, and you find ways to get back on track and you find ways to be successful. I think if you look post-Seattle, we’ve been pretty successful. So, you know, thinking how we grew now as a group, also in times of adversity, also in times of a bad result – I mean, is this a bad result losing to LAFC? I mean away from home on short rest with a big travel, I don’t see this as a big failure.
Eduard Löwen
On how it felt to return…
Yeah, obviously it felt so great, for sure. Yeah, I’m very happy that I could be back and had a quick recovery. But, of course, obviously there are better games to come back like that, so that was a little bit of a bummer. But yeah, I’m still happy.
On what LAFC did to turn the tide in the second half…
Yeah, I think the first goal was a little bit surprising. I don’t think that assist, yeah, was planned like that. Just smashed the ball away, and we weren’t prepared. And then Vela strikes the ball very well, Roman can’t do anything. The second goal, yeah, I don’t know. We can say they played it well, for sure as well. Also, the third goal, yeah, couple of passes. We were done. So, I think they made it good, but in the end of the day, we are going to watch the video and going to prepare for Saturday what we can do better.
On what he saw from his teammates while he was on the bench…
Yeah, I think to be honest, I have to give a lot of credit to the guys because it was a completely mixed team, a different team. We never played like that. JB came in — Jon Bell. Yeah, so I think he did a great job, not playing for a long time, was his first starting game. I think he did great. As I said, LAFC rarely found space and chances to create something. So, I think the boys did a really, really good job here in LA. And obviously it’s a tough place to play, so I think the guys did really well.
