CARSON, Calif. - It’s been a very different life for St. Louis City under new head coach Olof Mellberg. High-pressing chaos has been traded for a more cautious approach, illustrated by two goalless draws in their first two matches.
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In their third match of the MLS season, City went back to SoCal to face the LA Galaxy, with both teams looking for their first win. City broke their goalless schneid in style, scoring a 3-0 victory.
Mellberg trotted out a mostly unchanged starting lineup, but one that saw the return of Joao Klauss in attack and Chris Durkin in midfield. The defense remained the same - Conrad Wallem as a left wingback, Jannes Horn as a left center back, Henry Kessler as the most-central center back, Kyle Hiebert to his right, and Tomas Totland bombing up and down as a right wingback.
Durkin and Eduard Löwen manned the engine room in midfield, Marcel Hartel started yet again as a more advanced or attacking midfielder, and Cedric Teuchert started in attack with Klauss.
Early on, City’s offense, or at least their ability to play out of defense, certainly looked far better than it did in their lukewarm 0-0 draw in San Diego last weekend. Teuchert had a huge chance in the 22nd minute, beyond the defense with only LA goalkeeper Novac Micovic to beat, but rifled a shot into the wrong side of the net from close range.
Moments later, Marco Reus made his presence felt, the German and Borussia Dortmund legend forced a great save from City’s own Dortmund legend, Roman Bürki, who got a few fingertips on Reus’s low shot to force the ball off the post to Bürki’s left.
Reus has been nursing a knee injury early in the season, and was seen with a right knee covered in tape during pregame warmups. But in the moments he found the ball, he showed the quality that has made him one of the world’s best players in the past decade.
Bürki hasn’t had a ton of work to do for St. Louis City in the opening two games of the season, facing just a single tame shot through 180 minutes of action. Sunday was quite different, and Bürki had to be on his toes throughout the match to keep City alive and keep LA off the scoresheet.
City defender Kyle Hiebert tested just how ready Bürki was in the 34th minute. A bad pass from Hiebert went straight to a white Galaxy shirt, and City’s captain and keeper had to come up with a big save to keep the game scoreless.
It took 224 minutes of Major League Soccer action, but St. Louis City found their first goal of the campaign just on the verge of halftime. A 44th minute corner kick saw Löwen swing in a ball that Micovic struggled to deal with, and the Galaxy defense couldn’t clear the ball to safety.
A bouncing ball in the six-yard box fell fortuitously to Teuchert who had a gaping goal to shoot at, and he converted for City’s first goal of the day and the year.
"It was one of the easiest goals of my career,” said Teuchert, on his lucky goal. “Sometimes we need goals like this. Very happy to score the first goal of the season for the team."
City nearly added a second before the halftime break off another corner kick, one that saw Tomas Totland ghost behind the LA Galaxy defense, but his header went well wide.
Coming off their goal to end the first half, City came out of the locker room flying in the second half, and added their second goal of the game and the season just minutes into the second stanza.
A crisp bit of interplay between Klauss, Hartel, and Teuchert resulted in the latter running into space on the left wing, opening up the defense for Hartel to make a run down the middle.
Teuchert played a pass behind the LA defense and into the path of the onrushing Hartel, and his shot hit the bottom of the crossbar and flew into the back of the net for a 2-0 City lead. City had two goals in about five minutes of game time after waiting 224 minutes to score their first.
The hosts were almost shell shocked, down two goals despite playing probably their best soccer of the 2025 season. City’s defense was at times broken down by the likes of Gabriel Pec and Reus, but every time, Bürki was up to the task.
Bürki denied Pec’s curling effort with a dive to his right that City’s Swiss shot stopper made look routine. In total, Bürki made eight saves on the night, and wasn’t beaten once.
Mellberg brought on some defensive-minded substitutes at the hour mark, replacing both Teuchert and Klauss with Simon Becher and Josh Yaro. Yaro slotted into defense, forcing a domino effect which moved Horn to the wingback spot, and Wallem from the wingback spot into a midfield attacking role.
“I felt they found a lot of space outside of our three midfielders,” Mellberg explained his tactical switch. “We wanted to have a little bit more protection there. I mean, at the time, the first 20 minutes [of the second half], we didn't have so much use of our two strikers…. Again, they found space a little bit too easily outside of our midfielders. So, we needed another one to help them out there. But from then on, we looked really solid defensively, and also really dangerous on the break, especially.”
The closest the Galaxy came to scoring in the second half came in the 63rd minute. Pec, the man who was doing everything he could to create some offense for the home team, found his way unmarked into City’s 18-yard box, but missed a golden opportunity to bring his team back into the game by firing his shot wide of Bürki’s goal.
City added a third for insurance in the 84th minute by way of a one-two from Becher and Hiebert, who made up for his turnover earlier in the match that forced a big save from Bürki. Becher received the ball in midfield and ran right at the heart of the LA defense. He looked to his left and saw Hiebert bombing up the field with him, and fed Hiebert on the left wing.
Hiebert played a beautiful one-touch pass back into Becher’s path, and Becher coolly converted past Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Micovic in stride to take a commanding 3-0 lead that all but ended the contest.
Ten minutes of the LA Galaxy trying but failing to break down the City defense later, the full-time whistle blew, and City had their first MLS win of 2025.
With their shutout win, St. Louis City became just the fifth MLS team in the past decade, and the 11th ever to not allow a goal through their first three matches of a season.
It was an ideal performance from Olof Mellberg’s men, even if the defense looked a bit more susceptible at times. When the defense wasn’t on point, Bürki was, as has so often been the case through City’s MLS existence.
“As always, I think he's very, very important for us,” said Teuchert postgame. “I think he made three or four really good saves to keep us in the game, and that's why he is the best goalkeeper in the league.”
The team will look to continue their positive momentum at Energizer Park this coming Saturday, facing a Seattle Sounders team that won over LAFC 5-2 this weekend in what could be the team’s biggest test of the young season.
CITY2 Update
Not to be outdone by the senior squad, the kids of CITY2 also scored a 3-0 victory on the road, shutting out North Texas SC at Toyota Stadium, the formerly named Ballpark of Arlington. City’s four Homegrown players, Caden Glover, Miguel Perez, Mykhi Joyner and Tyson Pearce all started.
Miguel Perez scored a goal in his return to the greater St. Louis City roster, following a loan to USL Championship team Birmingham Legion over the 2024 season. Perez didn’t start regularly on loan, and looks like he’ll spend this season with CITY2 where the club can make sure he gets necessary game time.
CITY2’s other two goals came by way of an early North Texas own goal and 2023 MLS SuperDraft pick Brendan McSorely finding the back of the net in the first half.
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