St. Louis CITY SC fell 2-0 to Seattle Sounders FC in the team’s final match of the 2023 MLS regular season. Seattle midfielder Albert Rusnák gave the visiting side the advantage in the 23rd minute. In the 38th minute, the away team doubled their lead when a shot deflected off CITY SC defender Tim Parker and into the goal.
Postgame Notes
- St. Louis finished the regular season with the third-most goals (62), third-best goal difference (+17), third-most interceptions (356) and third-most wins (17) in MLS this season
- In the team’s first season of existence, CITY SC became the first expansion team in MLS history to win their conference
- CITY SC’s 17 wins this season set the record for the most wins by an expansion team in MLS history (excluding the shootout era)
- By securing the top seed in the Western Conference, CITY SC claimed a spot in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup
- CITY SC finished the season with 62 goals, joining LAFC (2018), Atlanta (2017) and Chicago Fire (1998) as the only expansion sides to do so in their debut seasons
- The team’s plus-17 goal difference tied Chicago Fire for the second-highest goal difference by an expansion team in MLS history (trailing only Atlanta United’s plus-30 goal difference in 2017)
- Throughout the season, CITY SC dominated at CITYPARK, with the team’s eleven wins tied with Atlanta United (2017) for the most home wins by an expansion team in MLS history (excluding the shootout era)
Goal-Scoring Plays
SEA – Albert Rusnak (Cristian Roldan), 23rd minute: Albert Rusnak left-footed shot from the middle of the box to the bottom left corner.
SEA – Tim Parker, 38th minute: Own goal by Tim Parker.
Next Game
CITY SC awaits the outcome of the Western Conference Wild Card match ahead of their first Round One match.
October 21, 2023 – CITYPARK (St. Louis, Missouri)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
St. Louis CITY SC 0 0 0
Seattle Sounders 2 0 2
Scoring Summary
SEA: Albert Rusnak (Cristian Roldan), 23
SEA: Tim Parker (own goal), 38
Misconduct Summary
SEA: Yeimar Gomez Andrade (caution), 18
SEA: Cristian Roldan (caution), 32
SEA: Jackson Ragen (caution), 71
STL: Tim Parker (caution), 75
SEA: Leo Chu (caution), 80
SEA: Josh Atencio (caution), 87
SEA: Nico Lodeiro (caution), 90+5
Lineups
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Jake Nerwinski, D Joakim Nilsson, D Tim Parker, D Anthony Markanich (Tomáš Ostrák 77’); M Akil Watts (Jared Stroud 46’), M Njabulo Blom (Indiana Vassilev 46’), M Eduard Löwen, M Aziel Jackson (Célio Pompeu 88’); F Niko Gioacchini (Sam Adeniran 77’), F João Klauss
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt, D Josh Yaro, F Nökkvi Thórisson, D Kyle Hiebert
TOTAL SHOTS: 16; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 8; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 3
SEA: GK Stefan Frei ©; D Jackson Ragen, D Yeimar Gomez Andrade; M Joao Paulo Obed Vargas 80’), M Cristian Roldan, M Albert Rusnak (Xavier Arreaga 87’), M Alex Roldan, M Reed Baker-Whiting (Nouhou 59’); F Leo Chu (Nico Lodeiro 80’); F Josh Atencio, F Jordan Morris
Substitutes Not Used: GK Stefan Cleveland, M Kelyn Rowe, F Heber, F Fredy Montero, F Raul Ruidiaz
TOTAL SHOTS: 15; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 17; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 5
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistant Referees: Corey Rockwell, Jeffrey Swartzel
Fourth Official: Jon Freemon
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
AVAR: Peter Balciunas
Venue: CITYPARK
Weather: Clear, 62 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Video: Bradley Carnell
Audio: Recordings
Head Coach Bradley Carnell
Opening Statement…
Before I get to anything with the game, match day 34, here we are. To be sitting in this position, you know, I have to give credit to the club, to the ownership group, to the fans. They stood by us through everything. They have given us a platform. They set a standard and we have followed suit. Unfortunately that got away from us a little bit tonight especially in the first half.
You know, we apologize for that. But look at the bigger picture, and the bigger picture brings a lot of joy to us, and to think of the experiences and the joy that we’ve given the City of St. Louis, has been something amazing and something memorable. Each and every one of us will take this with us for the rest of our careers.
But we have to go in with the mindset that we are not done yet. Unfortunately we have to give Seattle a lot of credit tonight for the way they went about the game plan. Yeah, even though it was a tight game, not too many chances. Could argue that we had the better chances early on in the game. But against a team like this who don’t give much away, we have to take chances. We have to take the moments that are awarded to us and the opportunities given. So unfortunately we don’t do that, and you can see the quality that they have in two moments where they get into our box, and I thought it was a very tight game other than that. We huffed and we puffed in the second half and couldn’t break them down.
I liked the energy in the second half and that’s the standard that we set for this season, especially here at CITY PARK. We have to put our hand up and say first half was not good enough. Second half, we are in the game.
Do you like where the team is right now heading into the playoffs?
It’s staggered. We have some guys going into the national team and obviously that’s no excuse. You look at Vancouver and you look at this last game, but if you look at the last ten, 12 games, yes, the picture looks a lot more rosy. But the last two games, it’s never good if you’ve lost them both. You know, we’ll look at that and reflect hard, and make sure we don’t turn over every page and every Stein and look what’s underneath there to go through it.
But again, overthinking things never do good either. I think they lead to problems that don’t really exist, and we have always a bigger picture in mind and for that we’ll work towards and the bigger picture comes upon us next weekend. That’s something that will be special for us in the stadium and here in the community. Us as players and coaches, something the club has never experienced before is a playoff run. How can we start that first playoff series game and where can we take it. So we’re excited about what’s coming up. We just have to wait to find out who.
Talking about experiences and joys for the fans, but what about for the team, the level of experiences and joys that you guys have had?
Good. It’s been an amazing season. But we live in this realm of we are not happy with anything other than a successful moment. We’ve had so many moments over the season, and that set a standard. Anything that we don’t achieve, if we don’t meet that standard on any given day, we are unhappy with that as coaches and players. We drive a pretty high standard in those four walls there, and which is great but also we have to remember where we came from and what we’ve done.
Again, it’s a fine balance we have to continue to work with between greatness achieved so far and not being comfortable yet. And with a young group, often sometimes we have a blip in the system, a glitch. So for that said, all right. We’ll throw this one out and move again. Move on.
Given the way you guys want to play, how frustrating is it — slowing down on the pitch and restarting the game?
It’s a good point but credit to them. They used the rules and they stretches the rules of the game. It’s a savvy group. We’ve known this for many years now and I’ve been in the League nearly six, seven years. Seattle are always there and thereabouts. It’s no turning point that they put in a performance like that in the first half. They know exactly the type of buttons we are trying to push and they work against it the totally opposite way. It’s, again, this game between the game. Yeah, there’s nothing I can say about that?
Key thing tonight, everybody get through the game health-wise?
Yeah, again we’re not really too concerned, right. We just want the guys to empty the tank, fight hard, be who we are, and that’s stood us good the whole season. We believe in everyone on the roster. I would rather go down swinging in moments of in a first half where we are a little bit passive, right.
So we woke up a little bit in the second half and we really stood for what we believed in and showed it in certain moments. And yeah, that’s all I ask. Then you can see the guys start getting rewarded for their brave actions. But unfortunately it was a little bit too late. But everyone else, everyone else is fine.
Did you go up at the start to get Indy to break?
One thing you don’t know, Indy [Vassilev] had a problem in the national camp. He had a problem with his calf muscle that kept him out in the first game. He played 30 minutes, managed minutes and load, and we had to do the same thing.
So we just weren’t sure because of Indy’s arrival how long he could go and we didn’t have time to assess. We just took a cautious approach.
Did you see yourself at the top of the conference, and for what you’ve achieved with this club; talk about what were your expectations.
Yeah, thanks, we set out from day one to be competitive, and that’s all we wanted to do. So, for, I would say, 30 out of 34 games, we were competitive. Even in games that we lost I thought we were always in games, and fighting to the very end.
So, did we believe internally? Yes. Have we been given the best facility in the MLS, yes, to do our work, every single day and an ownership group who supports us. Plus there’s a lot of history and tradition in St. Louis.
So, we were not the first ones on the block. There’s a lot of people before us, and we just wanted to through our journey bring everybody along who was never part of a professional team in St. Louis in the MLS. So that way I think we’ve done an amazing job collectively. But again, we set high standards. So we are not settled if we don’t compete and win games and being challenging for something.
Now that we have set the standard, top seed in the west, we have to now accept a new focus to new levels and what’s the next step for our group. I don’t think anybody in the locker room is happy now with the last two games, but we are excited to kind of clear the slate and start a playoff run; a playoff run that’s one-and-done. It’s about next weekend and hopefully we can put our principles and who we are complete with what we believe in on display.
You just talked about clearing the slate. Are you happy in a way that you can get out fast before the playoffs or get it out of your system?
It is what it is, right. We can spin any story whichever way we want to, right, and we have to make sure that we clear the player’s minds. We have to clear our minds and be focused on what the job is at hand. The two teams in the eighth and ninth spot, we have faced them already and had really good success with them and that’s got to give us momentum and that’s got to give us excitement and that’s got to give us energy knowing that we can beat these teams.
So that’s got to be the focus of the week, showing No. 1 and performing like it even on training day. So we’re just going to continue our business as we have done and if that gets us into the next round of playoffs, then by all means. But you know, for us and our group right now, we are still playing with house money. There’s a stack of house money left over from the season and we are going to put that to good use.
Perhaps not a situation today where you had to pay attention to results. Presumably when you got off the field you found out what the situation was elsewhere. Were you surprised to find out that Portland didn’t get in?
I haven’t focused too much with that. We just picked up Sporting KC and San Jose. I’ll go tome in the darkness of my basement and have a look at the wrap-up show and see what’s going on. But right now, the focus is with you guys.
Were you like, oh, my gosh —
Again, there’s so much going on in my mind about the game, the 90 minutes, the first half and second half, and what’s the planning for tomorrow, the training. Because the show doesn’t stop. We have training tomorrow. We have to regroup and go again.
Are you going to play a team —
I’ll tell you Thursday.
Thursday when?
I’ll tell you — again, I said, we’ve faced these two teams in the season already. We’ve had good experiences with both of them, and yeah, we are excited about going to our first-ever playoff game. The focus should be about us and what we believe in, and our principles and then CITYPARK. We have to get off on the right foot and we are going to make sure that we put them in a tough game from the very first leg of the playoffs.
Eduard Löwen
On potentially facing Seattle in the playoffs…
I mean, we know what Seattle is capable of, and we know that they are a great team. We know that they are one of the best teams in the league for many years. And you can always count on them. And we know that in the playoffs, it is a whole different thing. I have never played in a playoff, but I treat this as kind of a German Cup mentality in one game, where everything can happen because it’s only one game. And as I said, it doesn’t matter what the whole season before what happened, on what spot you entered the season. So, we know in this situation, every team can make it to the final and that’s maybe a bad thing and maybe also a good thing.
On how the team is feeling right now…
That’s hard to say. I don’t know, I mean, I can’t look into anybody’s head. I don’t know who’s struggling with what, what the problem is at the end of the day. But I mean, yeah, we just have to get ourselves together. We just have to stick together as a team now and have to work out this week and focus on the playoffs like the season, like nothing else happened, like we are not on first in the Western Conference, like we didn’t lose the last two games. It doesn’t matter. The playoffs start now. And that’s why we’re trying to treat that like a like a new season.
On the game in general…
Yeah, obviously not happy. But who knows if maybe that’s our best. And I’m not searching for an excuse with that. I mean, we obviously were very unhappy with both of our performances, Vancouver and now Seattle. I think Seattle now the second half was different. The second half wasn’t bad, but we just couldn’t score. Couldn’t create as many chances but yeah, obviously it’s not satisfying to go into the playoffs with such a feeling.
Roman Bürki
On the playoffs coming up…
Yeah, of course. I heard it’s either San Jose or Kansas. So, both teams are very good teams. But yeah, we will see. We know that we have the home advantage. We play at home first, and everybody knows it doesn’t matter who it’s going to be. We need to win the game.
On letting in the first goal…
Yeah, obviously very bad defending. I mean, they started I think from half, the first touch, and they played through down the whole field. And it was a nice goal from Seattle, but very poor defending from us. And I mean, I just tried to tell the ref that maybe it could be offside, you know. He did a movement. So, I don’t know if this is active in the game, but he moved his body and if I was irritated on the line or he offside or not, I can’t tell. You know, it was too fast. But you have to try it in the moment.
On letting in the second goal…
It was a frustrating night for me to be honest. This was the situation. I saw him looking in the middle, so I took one step left. So, I was there in the position that maybe I can save the ball or stop the ball from getting in between our defenders and me, and unfortunately, the ball hit Tim somehow and the ball unluckily went into the goal.
