ST. LOUIS - Coming down the final straight of the 2024 Major League Soccer season, St. Louis City SC might be thinking more about the possibilities of 2025, given their unsavory position in the MLS Western Conference. Thoughts and hopes for next season took a backseat when City hosted their I-70 rivals from Kansas City, Kansas on Saturday night.
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With both St. Louis City and Sporting Kansas City eliminated from MLS Playoff contention, Saturday’s game might have been the last one truly circled on the calendar for either team. On the night, City were led by one of their summer signings to a 3-1 rivalry win.
To know the full story of the game is to know that Sporting KC played 120 minutes in the US Open Cup Final on Wednesday. All first-choice SKC players played in that game days prior to Saturday’s contest at CITYPARK, and manager Peter Vermes opted to give those guys a deserved rest following their 3-1 Open Cup defeat.
Which meant no Johnny Russell, Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi, or Logan Ndenbe, at least from the start. Even goalkeeper Tim Melia was rested, with John Pulskamp taking over between the sticks for Kansas City.
On the flip side, St. Louis City fielded their best lineup, save for Chris Durkin, who was ruled out as he continues to deal with a knee injury that forced him to leave last week’s win over San Jose in the first half. In his place was Akil Watts as a defensive midfielder, a role Watts is more comfortable in than the fullback roles he’s been asked to fill from time to time.
The rotated Sporting side did a good job early of pinning City back in their own defensive third of the field, but for their extended pressure, didn’t create much to threaten Roman Bürki in the City goal.
The first goal of the game came just after the half hour mark, with Cedric Teuchert coming through again for his fifth MLS goal. Teuchert has now scored in five of the last six City MLS matches since his arrival from Germany.
The goal came after a failed City corner kick, cleared by the SKC defense. Roman Bürki, inside the center circle on the play, sent a long ball down the left wing to Marcel Hartel, who played a one-touch pass to Eduard Löwen behind him.
Löwen’s pass toward the top of the box went awry, but a bouncing ball fell to the feet of Cedric Teuchert, who took one touch to settle the ball, and his second touch was a right-foot rocket that curled beyond a diving John Pulskamp to give City the early lead.
“I know my right foot is good, so I believe in it.” said Teuchert on his goal following the match.
The first half was not the quickest, or highest-energy half of soccer this St. Louis City team has played. The team often struggled to move the ball forward early, creating moments of stagnation as City attempted to crack the SKC code.
City’s second goal in the 54th minute was one answer to that defensive conundrum: a Roman Bürki deep ball towards Joao Klauss went from the City penalty area to the SKC box, and Klauss was able to out-muscle the Sporting defender for possession. Klauss left the ball for the onrushing Cedric Teuchert, who continued to push toward the end line before cutting a pass back across the face of goal.
Two City shirts awaited the pass, and the first on the scene was Rasmus Alm, who tucked home an easy goal, but one that meant a lot for him and the whole City team.
“I've talked about it before, (Alm) is an amazing person,” said interim City head coach John Hackworth postgame. “He's an amazing professional. He works so tirelessly for everybody else. To see him get that reward, it just makes everybody smile.”
It’s been a tough road for Rasmus, who’s been dealing with injuries on an on-and-off basis throughout his time in St. Louis. Saturday’s start was his first at CITYPARK since May 15.
Alm spoke about how interim head coach John Hackworth, and the whole City team, have helped him along the way.
“This season Hack (John Hackworth) always told me to be hopeful,” explained Rasmus Alm, on what Saturday meant after missing extended time due to injury. “This is the light you see at the end of the tunnel, when you get close to coming back.”
“To be injured as a soccer player is not fun, and not fun for my family to see me going through all this. But everybody in this club, my family, everybody around the club, has been so supportive. So, I'm grateful and I mean, yeah, at the end of the day when you get back, you're just so happy.”
The visitors would put a dent in an otherwise ideal City evening when Stephen Afrifa hit a first-time curler that Roman Bürki couldn’t palm away in the 63rd minute. At 2-1, SKC were in a position to make a game of it down the stretch, but as they stretched and pushed numbers forward, space opened up for St. Louis City.
City would ultimately put the game to bed in the 75th minute. A Sporting KC corner was cleared, and St. Louis had a five-on-three man advantage running towards the SKC goal. Cedric Teuchert, running with the freedom of CITYPARK on the right wing, had time to look up and pick out Eduard Löwen’s run to the top of the box.
Teuchert lofted a pass that Löwen controlled with one touch, and City’s #10 hit a vintage curling effort reminiscent of the goals that put him on the MLS map last season. John Pulskamp in the Sporting goal had no chance to stop Löwen’s perfectly placed shot to the low left-hand corner.
Teuchert’s night, a goal and two assists, ties him with Marcel Hartel for a single-game team high in goal contributions on the season. Teuchert also earned a spot in MLS’s Player of the Matchday voting.
SKC brought on their first-choice attack late to try to make a difference, but Johnny Russell, Alan Pulido, and Daniel Salloi made no real impact on the game in the final minutes.
With the goals on the night, Löwen and Teuchert are now tied with Joao Klauss for the team lead in goals at five each. Importantly, in games where Eduard Löwen contributes a goal or an assist, St. Louis City are 18-3-3, counting Saturday night’s victory.
City SC is now a perfect 3-0-0 in three games against Sporting KC at CITYPARK, outscoring their rivals 11-2 in those games. In 2024, City went undefeated against SKC, with Saturday’s win and two draws in the prior matchups.
A big rivalry win for City on a night they were, officially, eliminated from MLS playoff contention. City players were already thinking about 2025, the likes of Cedric Teuchert and more have admitted as much in recent press conferences. But Saturday’s performance gave the team hope for 2025, a chance to turn the page and show City’s evolution over the course of 2024.
“It is what it is,” said Eduard Löwen, on how 2024 transpired. “We are frustrated, but we have to keep things in perspective. We didn't play a great first half, but we've improved a lot. We've collected points, we had a chance to make the playoffs and we missed that. But you can see something developing.”
“I've been saying it for a long time,” said John Hackworth. “That this group has the ability to be a really good team, regardless of what happens to end this year. I am very confident that we will be a good team next year. Those guys are working towards that, and they are putting it on display against our main rival.”
City has a short break before a midweek matchup in downtown Los Angeles with LAFC Wednesday night, with kickoff just after 9:30pm Central Time.
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