ST. LOUIS - For the last time in 2024, Major League Soccer was played in St. Louis on Saturday evening, when St. Louis City SC hosted the MLS Playoff-bound Houston Dynamo.
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For the Dynamo, playoff seeding was at stake. For City, pride, and some gratitude to those who’ve filled CITYPARK constantly during a tumultuous sophomore season.
“It’s amazing,” said interim City head coach John Hackworth. “We live in the greatest soccer city in the country. We’re not in a great position in the standings, but in [CITYPARK] you can’t tell. Our fans are crazy, it’s amazing, which is one of the reasons we’re putting the pressure on ourselves to perform well.”
On Saturday, City executed a game plan to perfection. A stout defensive effort kept the Dynamo from looking dynamic and kept a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory in City’s final home game of 2024.
Hackworth picked an attacking side, with two attackers, Joao Klauss and Simon Becher starting together again. Akil Watts once again filled in for Chris Durkin, who the team is being precautious with due to his lingering knee injury.
From the start, there was an energy and intensity not felt at CITYPARK for some time, with fans and players alike fully aware that this was their last evening together until spring. An early 14th-minute goal only energized the paying customers in attendance even more.
A Houston turnover in its own half of the field saw the ball trickle out to City left-back Jannes Horn near midfield. Horn looked up and saw Cedric Teuchert in both acres of space and an onside position at the top of the Houston 18-yard box.
Horn floated a ball for Teuchert to run to, and Teuchert played a perfect first-time pass back across the penalty area to Simon Becher making a run to the 6-yard box, where a little flicked shot beat a sliding Steve Clark in the Houston goal.
“I wasn't sure if Cedi [Teuchert] was going to play [the pass] with his head first-time, or put it on the floor,” elaborated Becher postgame, reflecting on his first goal. “He ended up putting it on the floor, I saw the goalie go down early, I'm pretty close to him, and just as long as I miss him and put it on target, it's probably going to go in the back of the net.”
On the scoresheet, or the MLS statistics page, Houston took over in possession and passing after Becher opened the scoring. But for their 221 accurate first-half passes, 101 of which in City’s half of the field, the Dynamo created a single shot, a wild effort from Griffin Dorsey in the 22nd minute that missed Roman Bürki’s goal by about 10 yards.
As the Ben Olsen-led Houston Dynamo so often do, they tried to disrupt the flow of the game with fouls and a general level of chippiness that drew the ire of City fans and players alike. Over a half hour into the half, Roman Bürki noticed his teammates arguing with the referee and Houston players about fouls.
Bürki sprinted out of his goal to midfield to confront Teuchert, Eduard Löwen, and any City teammates in the vicinity, to tell them to get their heads together and focus on the Dynamo, not the referee’s decisions.
“In my opinion, we were talking too much to the ref,” said Bürki postgame. “Every time the ref made a decision, we had four guys surrounding them, explaining, trying to win something else out of [arguing]. Two or three times Houston played a free kick fast, and we were caught off guard a little bit. I wanted to prevent that.”
“We have a nice saying that Hack [Hackworth] taught us, ‘If the ball goes dead, we come alive’. I just wanted to tell the guys that we have to actually play a game and not talk too much to the refs.”
Just two minutes after stepping onto the field for the second half, St. Louis City had their second goal of the game. Houston committed bodies in attack and were left vulnerable to a potential counter attack, one that came quickly when a turnover led to a Marcel Hartel long ball over the top of the purple-clad Dynamo for Becher, running with the freedom of CITYPARK as he beared down on Steve Clark.
Instead of opting for a powerful shot, Becher lofted the ball over the Houston keeper’s right shoulder and into the back of the net. A brace for SLU’s Simon Becher, his third and fourth MLS goals since joining City this summer.
“I was kind of waiting for him to make a move,” said Becher on his approach to his second goal. “I knew I was in a good amount of space and he actually stayed up pretty long. As he started to go down, I just thought, ‘I can lift it up over him’, and I saw a little window over his shoulder. So, he made it hard on me, I was just trying to find a little window and I did.”
Much like the first half, the Dynamo piled on pressure after a Becher goal, this pressure finally made Roman Bürki work a bit in the City goal, the biggest of which coming in the 72nd minute when he denied Houston star Sebastian Ferreira’s header from point-blank range.
Houston were reduced to ten men when left back Franco Escobar fouled Rasmus Alm in the 79th minute, earning his second yellow card of the evening for fouling a speedy City player on the wing. Perhaps being down a man led to the space that created the third and final City goal of the evening in second half stoppage time.
City’s Marcel Hartel chipped a cross into a dangerous area in front of the Houston goal, and late sub Nökkvi Thórisson leaped for a header but didn’t connect. This saw the ball fall to Jake Nerwinski, playing out of position as a left back in the closing stages Saturday night.
Nerwinski took a touch, found a little room, and sliced a shot into the right corner of the Houston goal, while Steve Clark and the Dynamo defense looked on in anguish. City were 3-0 up and flying in their final home game of 2024.
It’s a rare goal for Jake Nerwinski, but an incredibly important one given his current situation as a role player on this City team who is a free agent after this season. City and Nerwinski haven’t negotiated a possible extension as of yet.
“It meant a lot,” said Nerwinski of his goal, and the moment at the end of City’s 3-0 victory. “As I said about a month ago, this is one of the hardest seasons of my career. Disappointing that I didn't get a lot of game time. But this last month, I think that I tried to take my opportunities as much as I could.”
“I know that I'm known as a defensive guy, but to be able to push forward at left back and get a goal, it just felt great. Last game of the season at CITYPARK, I don't know what the future holds for me, but if that's it for me here, I'm pretty damn happy that that's how I will go out.”
The whole City team celebrated Jake Nerwinski’s goal, with all substitutes and even backup goalkeeper Ben Lundt running from the bench to dogpile Nerwinski in the corner after he scored.
As far as fun MLS stats go, this season has been a bit more bare than the record-breaking inaugural season of 2023. But with Jake Nerwinski scoring his first goal of the season, his first goal in a City shirt and his first goal in MLS at all since 2021, St. Louis City became the first club in MLS history to have over 20 different goalscorers in a single MLS regular season.
A testament to two things that have defined City’s 2024 season: 1) the turnover, where the raft of summer signings and players recovering from injury have greatly shifted City’s fortunes, and 2) that offense and attack can come from anywhere, and it’s not always the striker who is the goalscorer.
“That's pretty awesome,” said Hackworth, learning that Nerwinski’s goal gave City that record. “We look so much different than the last time we played Houston, just personnel-wise. We've come together in these last couple months, and that's really nice for everybody. I'm glad we set a record and hopefully that gives everybody a little bit of hope that we can come back and do it again next year.”
A 3-0 City home win was the perfect send-off to a not-so-perfect season at CITYPARK. Players celebrated with their families on the field and watched the end-of-season fireworks display, some of the kids of City players took turns scoring goals on Roman Bürki. When sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel took a shot, Bürki saved it, which got a cheer from the supporters section behind them.
“It's sad that we didn't have more of these moments,” said Bürki after those post-game celebrations. “When we’ve won a game, celebrating with the families, with the kids, you know, we’re way looser, we can celebrate and enjoy the whole stadium and the fans. We just haven’t had enough wins this season to actually have these moments and celebrate with our fans.”
While 2024 will be remembered for a lack of those winning moments, City have put in the work to showcase what the team is capable of in 2025.
“I think that it's all, you know, trending towards next season,” said Nerwinski. “I think it could be a very big season for us. We have high expectations, just from how we've played, the last few months. The players that we brought in, you can see, have made an immediate, massive impact. So we're excited, we're obviously disappointed [in 2024], but I think there's a lot to look forward to.”
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