St. Louis CITY SC extended their unbeaten streak to five matches after drawing 2-2 against D.C. United on Saturday. With the tie, CITY SC became the first expansion team to start their first two seasons unbeaten through five matches in MLS history. Defender Josh Yaro scored the opening goal of the match before Klauss scored a penalty in the 70th minute to level the game after D.C. United took the lead heading into halftime.
Postgame Notes
- Through five MLS matches this season, St. Louis CITY SC remains undefeated with a 1-0-4 record
- CITY SC became the first expansion team in MLS history to go unbeaten over their first five games in the team’s first two years of existence
- CITY SC is just the fifth team to go unbeaten over the first five games in back-to-back season in MLS history (2014-15 Real Salt Lake, 2017-18 FC Dallas, 2019-20 LAFC, 2022-23 LAFC and 2023-24 FC Cincinnati)
- St. Louis have earned at least a point from a losing position in four of their five MLS matches this season (Real Salt Lake, Austin FC, LA Galaxy and D.C. United)
- CITY SC has recorded multi-goal matches in the last four league games
- Josh Yaro scored the first MLS goal of his career
- Indiana Vassilev picked up his first assist in MLS play of the season
- Nikolas Dyhr made his first career MLS start
- Klauss scored his first goal of the season
- St. Louis has a 12-4-4 all-time MLS record at CITYPARK and are 5-3-1 all-time against Eastern Conference teams.
Goal-Scoring Plays
STL – Josh Yaro (Indiana Vassilev) – Josh Yaro scored with header from the center of the box from a corner kick.
DC – Ted Ku-DiPietro – Ted Ku-Dipietro scored with right footed shot from the center of the box
DC – Christian Benteke (Jared Stroud) – Christian Benteke scored with right footed shot from the center of the box
STL – Klauss (penalty) – Klauss scored from a penalty kick with a right footed shot.
March 23, 2024 – CITYPARK (St. Louis, Missouri)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
St. Louis CITY SC 1 1 2
D.C. United 2 0 2
Scoring Summary
STL: Josh Yaro (Indiana Vassilev), 19
DC: Ted Ku-DiPietro, 21
DC: Christian Benteke (Jared Stroud), 38
STL: Klauss (penalty), 70
Misconduct Summary
DC: Jackson Hopkins (caution), 24
STL: Joakim Nilsson (caution), 42
STL: Chris Durkin (caution), 74
DC: Ted Ku-DiPietro (caution), 82
DC: Gabriel Pirani (caution), 87
STL: Njabulo Blom (caution), 90+12
DC: Jacob Murrell (caution), 90+13
STL: Rasmus Alm (caution), 90+14
Lineups
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Tomas Totland, D Joakim Nilsson, D Josh Yaro, D Nikolas Dyhr (Anthony Markanich 57’); M Chris Durkin, M Tomáš Ostrák (Rasmus Alm 70’), M Indiana Vassilev (Célio Pompeu 57’), M Aziel Jackson (Njabulo Blom 80’); F João Klauss, F Sam Adeniran (Nökkvi Thórisson 80’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt, M Akil Watts, D Jake Nerwinski, D Kyle Hiebert, M Rasmus Alm
TOTAL SHOTS: 14; SHOTS ON GOAL: 9; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 2
DC: GK Alex Bono; D Lucas Bartlett, D Conner Antley, D Christopher McVey; M Jared Stroud (Jacob Murrell 70’), M Gabriel Pirani (Martin Rodriguez 90’+7), M Ted Ku-DiPietro (Mohanad Jeahze 90’+10), M Jackson Hopkins, M Mateusz Klich; F Cristian Dajome, F Christian Benteke ©
Substitutes Not Used: GK Luis Zamudio, D Hayden Sargis, GK Nathan Crockford, M Martin Rodriguez
TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 22; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 0; SAVES: 6
Referee: Amin Hadzic
Assistant Referees: Fernando Pina, Albert Kyei-Mensah
Fourth Official: Dimitar Chavdarov
VAR: Greg Barkey
Venue: CITYPARK
Weather: Clear, 47 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Video: Footage (Passcode: @5Phs.8J)
Audio: Recordings
Head Coach Bradley Carnell
Opening statement:
First of all, just want to apologize to the fans, it frustrates me a little bit when fans pay hard earned cash to get tickets and watch a soccer game and there’s no rhythm to the game and there’s no real action. We pride ourselves on action and unfortunately, yeah, it was a little bit of disruption of rhythm tonight.
For me, I hurt for the fans because they deserve more. And then yeah, to my team, I’m proud that we go a goal up. Not so proud that we concede straightaway in two games where we give away these moments from the kickoff. So it’s something to reflect on, something we’re going to have to get better at and something we have to look at a little bit more intensely. By focus was not on the soccer match, no real soccer rhythm tonight. We showed guts and desire to get back in the game but those are the least of my thoughts tonight, and yeah, my thoughts are with the fans.
Q. Giving up that goal, you looked frustrated on the bench after that happened. Was it just the team not being in the moment?
Yeah, it’s difficult, the long goals and these rhythm of the plays and stuff like that. Every game poses a different problem. You know, which means we have to look at ourselves because now against two different opponents and two different situations. It’s really frustrating. You know, but yeah, they came, they battled away, broke down the play. They did what they needed to do.
Q. Seemed like you were okay with the ties on the road because those were road points but coming home and getting a tie —
Sure, again, I don’t know. We play an aggressive game, and there’s usually a lot of stoppages, corners when we play because we are forcing things out of bounds. We are forcing interceptions. But yeah, just to see the ball-in-play time diminish becomes real frustrating when there’s no rhythm to the game.
Q. Are you talking about the rhythm stopping, subbing the match, caution cards and calls? And also going to that, do the D.C. United share that same sentiment on the soccer being played tonight?
I don’t know. You’ll have to evaluate who was trying to speed up the play, who was not trying to speed up the play. I think that’s a question for you and for your observation.
Q. How important do you think that goal was for Klauss to finally get a goal this season and hopefully boost his confidence?
Massive. I think he’s been working his tail off to try to get in moments. You can see he gets an assist from Nökkvi, and on another day Nökkvi will put it in the back of the net and win the game. I thought again, it’s been a couple weeks now in a row where we make an impact off the bench. We keep guys hungry, and we give guys starts. There’s a certain rhythm to our game and we feel pretty good up until the point that we score our goal.
And then I think we dominated much of the proceedings tonight, and so it’s massive for Klauss to get into good spots. He’s got his fitness back, you can see. He doesn’t stop working for the 90 minutes and he’s a real menace up top. He’s working his way back and the harder you work, you know your game is in better situations and he did so tonight.
Q. Given the situation with D.C. missing a couple players, you only got the draw, do you think it was a missed opportunity to take three points?
Yeah, it was, and you could also mention a couple names off our roster as well.
Q. Talking about the first goal, you were disappointed by the second goal, but Josh, getting in that position, he’s becoming a real important player for you this year. What did that moment mean for him and for you watching?
It’s massive. To get a corner kick, there has somebody some form of momentum, some final third entry, some final play. We have been challenging the guys to have many more of these moments and I think you can see some real good stuff in the first half where we just don’t get off that final — then we get the corner deflection, or what-have-you, and then we get to some good quality service.
whether it’s [Eduard] Löwen, AZ [Jackson], [Célio] Pompeu, I think we are pretty unpredictable at set pieces, but for us, it’s predictable and that’s the most important thing because it’s about getting in the right spot early on and making the right ones and it’s about rewarding ourselves. With the strength of them in their defensive block, you look at the way they defend, it’s not so easy to beat that. So you know, credit to Alex [Langer] setting up the set piece play and now we reward ourselves again.
Q. Predictable, Célio comes in off the bench and does one of those things that he does on that run that sets up the penalty kick. I guess you’re always looking for that?
We’re looking for some change of rhythm, change of pace, creativity. He is that from the beginning of the game and we know last week, whether we start or bring on Sam, or start and bring on Klauss or start and bring on Célio [Pompeu], you know, so these are always equations we are playing with. We thought two strikers was the way to go tonight and I think early on you could see that the intent of the game is back and forth, the second ball, the chaotic game that there was, so we thought that as the game progresses we’d need more sort of patience on the ball and I think Célio brought that in certain moments. Yeah, he was really creative, brave and earns the penalty.
Q. Dyhr makes his first start but also comes out early. What did you see?
[Nikolas] Dyhr was never going to last the whole game. We knew that. So yeah, we got him to halftime, ten minutes past the half, but we knew that Anthony [Markanich] were chomping at the bit. So, Nikolas gets good minutes under his belt. Those are very important for him and now it’s a nice competition at left back.
Q. With injuries to key players like Tim and Löwen, how do you think your team reacted to adversity tonight?
Great. I think we have gone into some pretty hostile environments in the last two games, and we fight our way back and create these chaotic moments and for that I’m proud, because the guys, the way we train and the intensity we play at, we put teams in these kind of games, and D.C. is a little bit of, yeah, big brother, little brother. I think we are related in certain ways. We might play in different conferences but we have a similar stylistic game model and to lose two key players like that, you take your hat off — or Tom’s hat to players like Josh [Yaro] and other guys who step up, Tomáš [Ostrák] has been amazing coming in at six and he’s usually playing a ten on the left or right or through the middle and he does a great job on the six. We know he can hold the ball really well. We thrive in these moments. It’s about a growth mindset.
Q. Blom made an impact in his return. Looked pretty good. How did you feel about his return to the pitch?
Yeah, good, [Njabulo Blom] has a certain orientation, so we would have liked to have got him a few more minutes tonight. Just the rhythm the and the progression of the game, we just thought that was the right moment to bring him in and I thought he looked pretty good. We’ll just keep on punishing him and keep on demanding more in training and getting him up to more speed but yeah, I’m glad we’re getting healthy bodies over here.
The impact of the Champions Cup leaves its marks, and you can see around the league what it does. We are getting over the hump now and getting guys slowly coming back and the more place that we have healthy, fit, strong in the roster, the more competition, the internal competition drives the external competition, and that’s what we need from all the players.
Célio Pompeu
On an aggressive second half:
They have a similar style to us. So, I expected to, like, go attacking, defending, back-to-back, you know. But I expected us to win the game, to leave here in CITYPARK with three points. But yeah, we didn’t win. We got one point. Better than nothing but yeah, I think it should be a battle, both teams aggressive, so yeah.
On coming away with a tie:
I mean, it’s a little frustrating, of course, because we want to win every game play for the three points. Doesn’t matter if it’s away or at home. But, I mean, that’s a little frustrating. You know, we want to win. We want to celebrate after the game, three points, you know. It’s always tough, but like I said, we manage the game at least to tie in this game. But it’s better than losing. I hate losing, so if we know we’re not winning, I take the tie any day, you know. But yeah, of course we’re going for the three points every game.
On the team being too impatient in front of goal during the game:
Yeah, for sure. I think sometimes we can be more calm in front of the goal, to think about the next pass, to open up more and have a clearer chance to score the goal. But yeah, I mean, again, I think everybody wants to do good. Everybody wants to score the goal, like as an attacking player. And I agree, yeah, we can be more calm in front of the goal and think about the next pass or early shots, you know. But yeah, I agree. We can be more calm in front of the goal.
Roman Bürki
On tying another match:
I think at the same time I’m disappointed about the draw but at the same time, I look at the game and I think if we don’t score the goals, the chances we have, if we can’t score from open play, we don’t deserve to win the game. And today it was difficult to play, but we didn’t do enough to win this game.
On the opponent scoring a goal immediately after CITY SC scored:
The first goal, I think if you look at it, the most dangerous players that it’s played to, they have nobody with him. After the cross, yes, we try to find him and defend. But that’s something I mentioned already, earlier in the season, to the guys and in the video, that we have to actually track the guys because the player in the middle is going to score the goal, not the guy who’s crossing. If Jared Stroud scores from this angle, then it’s my fault. He was way too far to score a goal from there. So, we have to sometimes organize or like think about who the dangerous player is here. And the attacker was all alone. [Josh] Yaro came after to, like, try a little bit, but it’s just not enough. And the second goal, I think, was two players of us try to go out to pressure the pass, the ball gets played in between them. Jared Stroud, again, can shoot, but he plays it across the goal and it’s just too easy. We make it too easy for our opponents.
On the lack of rhythm throughout the game:
Yeah, but also, I mean, like I said, D.C. [United] wasted time. They knew that when they do that, we will never find rhythm. And that’s also where the frustration comes from. But still, I mean, we had chances in my opinion, we just didn’t score out of open play. Personally, it didn’t really affect me. I tried to be ready whenever something was coming.
Klauss
On getting his first goal on the season:
Yeah. Good feeling. I mean, first of the season, I have been working very hard during the past games. Of course, as a striker, everybody expects that they score goals, every single game. It’s not possible. But yeah, I’m happy to score my first one.
On the team’s approach these next couple of games:
As you say, we always play to win games. MLS, we always have tough games. Doesn’t matter where we play, if we play home, or we play away games. I think last year we didn’t tie a lot of games, five games. I think this year we already have four. So honestly, I think it could be easier last year for us if you tie a little bit more games. But yeah, I think four ties, it’s a little bit too much. So yeah, I think it’s more details that we have to get better. I think against Austin we didn’t give up a lot, and they found two goals. Set pieces, if I’m not wrong. So, this is the kind of detail that we have to be concentrated for 90 minutes. But yeah, as I said before, it’s better tied than lose, but of course we have to win games to make the playoffs in the end of the season. So yeah, we’re going to work on some details. Coaches showing us a lot of videos. We are training a lot as well. These kind of details that are missing in our game. But yeah, I’m sure also we didn’t lose a game until five games again, without a loss. So, I think we are in good way.
On the matchup with Lucas Bartlett:
I mean, Lucas is a great friend, great player. He is very strong as well. So, it’s always tough to play against players that are so physical, like Lucas, but yeah, since last year, we had great battles in trainings. Sometimes it was a little bit fiery as well between us, and today we were doing it in the game as well. So yeah, I’m happy that he’s doing well right there. He deserves the minutes that he’s having right now, and I just wish him the best.
Josh Yaro
On his first MLS goal:
When you get your first goal, it is always very special. A little bit of it was taken away once they scored so fast, but still special and I will celebrate that. And yeah, tomorrow comes, it’s a new day. A new day to, you know, pick ourselves up and go again, but I’m really happy and excited that I got my first goal.
On how difficult it was to defend Christian Benteke:
Yeah, I mean, there’s no hiding behind. He’s a big guy. He’s a strong dude. And he’s a guy that has played at the highest level possible. And we knew that going into the game. I knew that it was going to be a battle. We all knew that. And I think it was a good fight. I think, you know, between myself and your team in the backline everyone on the team, I think, for the most part we dealt with it well. And yeah, I think overall on the night, we did what we had to do. But no doubt, really strong guy. He also tries to outsmart defenders a lot. But overall, I’m happy with the job that we did in containing him.
On former teammate Jared Stroud setting up two goals:
Yeah, I mean, that’s a good homecoming for him. We all know what he is about and what he can do. I am very happy for him. I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a good guy. He’s a good player, and I’m glad he’s finally home.
