St. Louis CITY SC fell 2-1 to Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park in the second match of the MLS Cup Playoffs Best-of-3 series, ending the team’s record-breaking debut season. Kansas City’s Logan Ndenbe drew first blood with a goal in first-half stoppage time, and then forward Daniel Salloi increased the home side’s advantage with a goal in the 73rd minute. Midfielder Célio Pompeu halved CITY SC’s deficit with a beautiful strike from distance in the 86th minute, but SKC held on to their lead and secured the victory.
Postgame Notes
- St. Louis CITY SC finished the regular season 17-12-5, with the team’s 56 points good for the second most by an expansion team in MLS history (excluding the shootout era)
- CITY SC’s 17 wins set the record for the most wins by an expansion team in MLS history
- The team became the first expansion team in MLS history to win their conference in their inaugural season
- CITY SC joined Atlanta United FC, Los Angeles FC and Chicago Fire FC as the only expansion teams to score 60 or more goals in their debut seasons
- Sixteen (16) different players got on the scoresheet for CITY SC in MLS play, tying the team with Charlotte FC (2022) for the most different goal scorers for an expansion team in MLS history
Goal-Scoring Plays
SKC – Logan Ndenbe (Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi), 45+1st minute: Logan Ndenbe right-footed shot to the bottom right corner.
SKC – Daniel Salloi (Gadi Kinda, Johnny Russell), 73rd minute: Daniel Salloi left-footed shot to the bottom left corner.
STL – Célio Pompeu (Njabulo Blom), 86th minute: Célio Pompeu left-footed shot to the upper left corner.
November 5, 2023 – Children’s Mercy Park (Kansas City, Kansas)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
Sporting KC 1 1 2
St. Louis CITY SC 0 1 1
Scoring Summary
SKC: Logan Ndenbe (Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi), 45+1
SKC: Daniel Salloi (Gadi Kinda, Johnny Russell), 73
STL: Célio Pompeu (Njabulo Blom), 86
Misconduct Summary
STL: Eduard Löwen (caution), 23
STL: Tim Parker (caution), 32
SKC: Alan Pulido (caution), 42
SKC: Logan Ndenbe (caution), 69
SKC: Dany Rosero (caution), 81
STL: Kyle Hiebert (caution), 90+6
SKC: Roger Espinoza (caution), 90+14
Lineups
SKC: GK Tim Melia; D Andreu Fontas, D Dany Rosero (Robert Castellanos 85’), D Jake Davis, D Logan Ndenbe; M Nemanja Radoja, M Gadi Kinda (Roger Espinoza 90’+3’), M Remi Walter; F Alan Pulido (Erik Thommy 85’), F Johnny Russell © (Khiry Shelton 90’+7’), F Daniel Salloi
Substitutes Not Used: GK John Pulskamp, D Graham Zusi, M Felipe Gutierrez, M Felipe Hernandez, F Marinos Tzionis
TOTAL SHOTS: 8; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 1
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Akil Watts (Tomáš Ostrák 76’), D Josh Yaro, D Tim Parker, D Kyle Hiebert; M Njabulo Blom, M Eduard Löwen, M Indiana Vassilev (Aziel Jackson 90’+3’), M Jared Stroud (Niko Gioacchini 65’); F Sam Adeniran (Célio Pompeu 46’), F João Klauss
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt, D Joakim Nilsson, D Jake Nerwinski, D Anthony Markanich, F Nökkvi Thórisson
TOTAL SHOTS: 15; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 2
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referees: Michael Barwegen, Lyes Arfa
Fourth Official: Guido Gonzales Jr
VAR: Michael Radchuk
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park
Weather: Sunny, 74 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Video: Bradley Carnell
Audio: Recordings
Head Coach Bradley Carnell
Opening statement…
Good evening, everybody. Thank you for coming out. Yet again, thank you to our fans, you know, for the unwavering support from Matchday 1 through 34 plus these playoff games. I think we’ve grown. We’ve grown as a group. We’ve grown as a unit. And all we wanted to ask for today was to see our signature, and I think that’s what we saw. You know, to go fighting into this last game and to show commitment and a belief and to show some character getting into this one. And credit to the boys, you know — they never let a moment get away from them, and they always bounced back. Bigger picture, we fall short today, but we grow for tomorrow. And I think that’s for us, what’s been an exciting year. It’s been a year where we’ve been challenged, and we’ve managed to come out on top and we’ve grown one step further. We’ve had so many highs and a few lows that we grow from. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t recover from this little moment that we were in. But what I saw today gives me hope. Gives me hope for the future and gets me energized and excited for what’s to come. Congratulations to my team for emptying the tank for me every single day. The staff that you guys don’t get to see behind the scenes. It’s a culmination of a body of work that countless hours go into. It hurts now. We’ll be sad for a couple of hours, 24 hours and get back together and make sure we come back stronger. But this is a nice growing moment for us as a group and know where we need to improve because in life things don’t go your way all the time. So, for us, we have to look forwards.
On how he hopes St. Louis remembers this first season…
I think the connection with the fans, and I think the connection with the players, the signature of our team, what we stand for and what all the fans stand for, right? So, what they stand for in the stadium, and they don’t want to sit down because we bring in energy. And we want to bring that over 34 games plus now, for us to grow, we’ve got to bring that for 34 games and more. We just have to thank the fans. It’s been amazing. It’s been — no one knew where it was going to go and how it was going to develop. What this has developed into is something that many clubs can be jealous of, and I’m proud to be part of this club.
On his overall thoughts on how the defense played tonight…
Good. Committed. I saw guys emptying the tank. I saw everybody giving their everything to get this W on the line to try and turn this series around. And for the most part, we saw exactly what we needed to see. Yeah, I can’t fault the team for the application on the night. It went exactly to how we wanted it to go. Unfortunately, the result, right. But again, we have confidence in our roster. We have confidence in everyone up, and we’ve always prided ourselves on the ‘next man up’ mentality. And we’ve done it so many times and been rewarded so many times. I think this lineup, this backline, was six-and-o going into this game. So again, full confidence in the group, full confidence in the group that was playing prior to that, and full confidence in the group going forwards. We’re showing it and proving that this recipe works, the way we do things works, the way we grow together as humans and as pros — right now, it’s a proven concept over 34 matchdays in a regular season. Can we get it to be a proven concept in the playoffs?
Célio Pompeu
On building off the momentum the club has created over the past two years…
I think from last year we already grew a lot. A lot of the first team players like Edu [Löwen], [Roman] Bürki, they came early. They helped us. I’ve seen a lot of improvement from last year to this year, and I only see us rising. Going up. Know what we have to do. We already know our style of playing a high press, and so I just see, like, us being much better, stronger, more used to this type of way because I know for a lot of guys, this was the first year, you know. So, I just think it’s going to be much better next year.
On if he felt any pressure subbing on for Sam Adeniran at halftime…
To be honest, on my heart was zero pressure because I have done this my whole life. I’ve played soccer my whole life — in front of ten people or 10,000 people, it doesn’t matter. I just play soccer. We practice every day. We know what we have to do. We know our formation – like, I know everything. So, I just wanted to go there and give my best and try to give it all my energy and try to give the players energy so we could win the game. And I played one ball to Klauss, and we almost scored. And then I scored. But, like, it was so close. But yeah, I just tried to give my best. But to be honest, no pressure. I was just trying to do my best, and I was free. We were already losing the game, so I went in my head I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going all in now. Go at their right back and try to create something.’ That was my mind before, honestly.
On whether the goal he scored ranks as the most impressive of his career…
Yeah, I mean, I did this before in academy times but like, of course in my professional game, it was my best goal so far. But we didn’t win. So, for me, I’m happy, but at the same time, like, I don’t know. It’s a mix of feelings.
Roman Bürki
On how he feels after being eliminated from the playoffs …
I mean, I was pretty tired. You know, I’d never had a season that long, like, with no breaks. I think it’s first of all, to talk about the season, we had a great season, but it’s actually really long. You see a lot of injury breaks, you know. Hope the other guy — I don’t know remember his name – hope it’s nothing, nothing too serious, that he can go on. But no, we played good. Second half, I think we put a lot of pressure, and we had the chance, but we didn’t score. And we conceded one too much.
On if there is one moment from the season that stands out as a highlight…
No, and I don’t want to because I think the whole season together with everyone involved made it, like, the way it is, you know, made it a great season, a special season. So, I don’t really want to pick one point or one situation or one action or — it would not be right to do that. So, everyone involved in that first season and also every moment that we had — doesn’t matter if it was a win or a loss or a draw — to put all these things together made it a good season that we had, and I had a lot of fun. And I said to the team after the game, you know, it’s one thing that you’re going to lose the game, but the game is one thing. But in my opinion, I won, because I didn’t know what to expect when I came here, and I met a lot of beautiful people and beautiful teammates, and I told them I’m just proud to be a part of the team. And in my opinion, it’s a win for the season.
On if the team ever got back to the form it showed for much of the regular season…
I think we definitely lost a little bit when we first clinched the playoffs, you know, and it was 100% sure. We just, I don’t know – it’s definitely the players’ fault, you know, because we calmed down a little bit, you know. The training sessions weren’t as aggressive, as much fire in it anymore how it was before, and you can definitely see that in the games. You know, we weren’t that dominant and aggressive on the field as well. Our pressing wasn’t good enough. It was small details that were missing because we didn’t do that in training. And as always, you know, I tried to tell the guys that, in my opinion, you play how you train, you know. If the training intensity is not high enough, then you will never reach the intensity that is needed to win a regular season or a playoff game.
