St. Louis CITY SC fell 2-0 to FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium. Dallas took the lead in the first half from a penalty kick scored by Jesús Ferreira. Then in the second half, Nkosi Tafari scored off a corner kick. CITY SC will return to action on Wednesday night for a midweek match up with Colorado Rapids.
Postgame Notes
- Tim Parker made his 250th MLS start
- John Klein made his third appearance as a CITY SC player; his first of this season
- With the start, Roman Bürki has now played in 50 MLS games
Goal-Scoring Plays
DAL: Jesús Ferriera (penalty) – Jesús Ferriera scored a penalty kick with a right footed shot.
DAL: Nkosi Tafari (Sebastian Lletget) – Nkosi Tafari scored a header off a corner kick.
June 15, 2024 – Toyota Stadium (Frisco, TX)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
FC Dallas 1 1 2
St. Louis CITY SC 0 0 0
Scoring Summary
DAL: Jesús Ferriera (penalty), 28
DAL: Nkosi Tafari (Sebastian Lletget), 81
Misconduct Summary
STL: Joakim Nilsson (caution), 26’
STL: Tim Parker (caution), 35’
DAL: Asier Illarramendi (caution), 45+11’
DAL: Sebastien Ibeagha (caution), 65’
STL: Eduard Löwen (caution), 69’
STL: Nökkvi Thórisson (caution), 75’
Lineups
DAL: GK Maarten Paes; D Sebastien Ibeagha, D Omar Gonzalez, D Nkosi Tafari; M Paul Arriola ©, M Sebastian Lletget (Liam Fraser, 85’), M Asier Illarramendi, M Marco Farfan (Sam Junqua, 88’), M Jesús Ferreira (Logan Farrington, 63’), M Patrickson Delgado (Tsiki Ntsabeleng, 63’); F Petar Musa (Bernard Kamungo, 85’)
Substitutes not used: GK Jimmy Maurer, M Carl Sainte, F Dante Sealy, F Eugene Ansah
TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDES: 4; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 8
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Tomas Totland, D Tim Parker, D Joakim Nilsson (Josh Yaro, 35’), D Akil Watts; M Njabulo Blom (John Klein, 77’), M Eduard Löwen, M Célio Pompeu (Nökkvi Thórisson, 20’), M Indiana Vassilev, M Hosei Kijima (Aziel Jackson, 77’); F João Klauss (Sam Adeniran, 78’)
Substitutes not used: GK Ben Lundt, D Jake Nerwinski, D Anthony Markanich, F Caden Glover
TOTAL SHOTS: 22; SHOTS ON GOAL: 8; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 3
Referee: Jon Freemon
Assistant Referees: Brian Dunn, Diego Blas, Gerald Flores
VAR: Sorin Stoica
AVAR: Joshua Patlak
Venue: Toyota Stadium
Weather: Sunny, 89 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Video (password: 59.2vLuf )
Head Coach Bradley Carnell
Opening Statement
Game gets kind of sidetracked with Celio’s [Pompeu] horrific injury, so we just wish him all the best when we’re not sure of all the exact details. I know it didn’t look good at the first visual, and I’m not sure how to evaluate it afterward. But that’s a big shock for us. Then we lose Joakim [Nilsson] as well. So before we even talk about how the game went, we have to talk about how our teammates are doing. And that’s first and foremost, that was the most important thing. Trying to speak about the game, I don’t want to sound like a broken record. I don’t want to be thinking that this is not a serious situation to be in. You know, 100% I felt we had enough chances to dictate and dominate the game. I felt we had enough in there end of the play. We give up two moments and a penalty, of which, not sure it was and a corner kick goal. So unfortunately, we give up two, three moments and we get punished for two. For the 20 minutes that were in the game in the first 20 minutes. Wow. I thought we did an excellent job. The only thing that’s lacking now is to create the clear moments or you know, I thought we got a lot of shots on target and, unfortunately, the zero scoreline stays intact for them. So we have to brush this off our shoulders. We have to evaluate our squad. We have to move forward and we have a very important crucial game against Colorado on Wednesday.
On if he has any updates on Celio and Joakim’s injuries…
I’m not at liberty to discuss injuries right now. Joakim [Nilsson] looks like a muscular pull. With Celio [Pompeu], we’ll just have to evaluate properly and I just have to dissect what’s going on. Again, I’ll head off to the hospital now and just to check up on it.
On what the team is lacking to finish chances…
The thing is that the industry that we’re in you play games to score goals, to win points on the board. And you go through moments, and sometimes the road that’s a far traveled road, which is an MLS season. It has ups, its downs, its lefts, its rights. You have to jump over the problems and off you go again. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to be critical in our evaluation, and we have to share and show where it’s not good enough. And then we also have to share and show where it is good enough. And so that I think we’ve done massive, massive steps forward as a group. So yes, dominated in a lot of areas, but then the more problems that come your way, you either have a belief system, or you either drift away, and it’s our job now as a collective to make sure that we don’t drift away, that we all connected that we share a common belief. I saw a team tonight with so many, many positive moments, man, you know, like really good. I saw Akil [Watts] play out of his socks, Jabs [Blom], who gave us performances like he did last year. We saw so many so many green light moments of, Wow, this is awesome. So, this is what keeps us going. This is what drives me every single day. And now it’s my job to instill belief, right? So because it’s a game we lose, we’ve been in every game. And we’ve dominated a lot of the games so yes, well, we don’t score on this one. I do feel that there are opportunities here to be had. And again, we’re halfway through the road. The road is 34 games deep. We are 17 into them. And we just have to continue to grind. Work it out. The harder you work, I believe the luckier we’ll get. And then we’ll be okay. So, before we get to that point, there’s a ton of things now on our shoulders. So we have to work them. We have to work through them and move forward and that’s the important thing.
On instilling the belief in Nökkvi (and the team) after Celio’s injury…
I think guys know how close they are to the team and their teammates. Just to keep on pushing each other through moments, and sometimes we are thrown a curveball and we have to deal and move on with it. This job, it’s not for the faint hearted and if you don’t believe in your process, and you don’t believe in your structure, then it’s going to be tough because the good times are easy to manage. And now it’s the tough times that we have to manage. We challenge each other every single day and we push each other. Last year, we were the top of the West and we pushed each other. You can imagine now, how supportive, how we are pushing each other, how we are demanding accountability, how we are striving for success as a group together. There’s moments to be had, there’s opportunities to be held. And now guys, haven’t had a chance to prove themselves, which is, the next flip side of the coin, right. We just have to embrace these opportunities. And for whichever, unfortunate story or what happens, there’s a group of guys that are chomping at the bit. So, we have to now motivate them, we have to get them organized into a group that’s formidable that’s got belief and to take on the next game and the next games right on our doorstep. There’s no time to delve in it. There’s no time to sink in the thoughts. We just have to get back to work and plan for Wednesday.
Midfielder Eduard Löwen
On what he thought of the flow of the game and how the team responded to the injuries…
I think pretty good, pretty well, as in the last couple of weeks as well. Yeah, it was definitely a shock seeing Celio’s [Pompeu] injury. It was the darkest moment of the game. Yeah, it was… it looked so bad and then with Joakim’s [Nilsson] as well, it’s definitely tough to deal with that mentally. But I think the team still did a great job. And it’s frustrating that they we fly out of Dallas without any points.
On how he felt about his performance during tonight’s game…
Yeah, I’m trying to get into rhythms more and more, and that’s why you need playing time. And yeah, I still need some time. I still need more games. I still need more minutes. And it’s gonna take some time to be the old me, being fresh on the pitch and everything but it definitely feels good. I’m happy to get those minutes in and also happy that the coach is always communicating with me. On the pitch he was communicating to take me out when the 2-0 happened and then he took it back and then he left me on the pitch. Yeah, now it’s about recovering well, and being ready for the next game on Wednesday.
On if the two home matches coming up can help flip the script for the team…
Yeah, definitely. 100% playing in front of our own fans is always a big thing and it’s always different with that atmosphere. And yeah, we will need the fans, we will need the fans in the next couple of weeks to get out of this situation. Yeah, what we need is a winning streak. We need to win the first game and then the next game and then things will go away. We have to be patient and we just have to keep going because like sticking our heads into the sand now is not gonna help and yeah, we have to find our way through this all together.
Midfielder John Klein
On how it felt to step out onto the field for CITY SC for the first time in 2024…
I came on, I think when there was VAR decision going on, so it was a little bit chaotic there for a second then realized we were only down a goal. So, when I came on, I just wanted to create something you know, a full contribution. We were in the game at that moment. So no, it was really good and felt comfortable out there and just a little bit disappointed not to be able to contribute.
On if it feels nice to get onto the field for the first team after his recent performances with CITY2…
Yeah, it does feel good. But when the result goes this way, it’s a little bit disappointing. But there is a little bit of a moral victory for myself. Just it shows that the work that I’m putting in is not going unnoticed. So yeah, it felt good to be out there and get a run out, but really, really wanted to try to help the team get a result tonight, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
On how frustrating it is that the team is being outplayed and not getting three points…
Yeah, um, you know, after the game, we talked about it a little bit in the locker room, just you know, this is the game of soccer for whatever reason, the ball is just not going in the net now. And personally, for me, you know, being on CITY2 the results are going our way right now. Now, I come into this locker room, the results aren’t going their way. And it can be a form thing. And I think in other sports, maybe people don’t understand that a little bit. But in soccer, it can really be just a belief or something that the group might not have in the moment. But no, just being around this group all week. It’s right there. You know, any moment, this thing’s gonna flip for them. So however, I can be a part of that I’m happy to be, but this group is sitting right there to start stringing some results together.
