Within an hour of kickoff there was snow falling from the St. Louis sky. Kickoff temperature was 25 degrees Fahrenheit, but St. Louis showed up for their MLS expansion team. St. Louis City SC began the night looking to become the first expansion team in MLS to start their journey winning their first four games against a San Jose side that was off to a hot start of their own.
The first news of the night was City SC would be playing down another Center Back, having already lost Joakim Nilsson prior to the season starting. Coach Bradley Carnell spoke to the "next man up" mentality in the post game press conference, and the next man up was newly signed defender Lucas Bartlett. St. Louis City was looking for a historic win starting two center backs who had played a combined 4 first division games (both made regular appearances in MLS Next Pro last season for City2 and North Texas) against an attack of Cristian Espinosa, Jeremy Ebobisse and Cade Cowell.
The game started with some back and forth play before San Jose conceded 4 corner kicks before the tenth minute. As has been a theme for the first few games of the season City won possession via a sloppy San Jose turnover and Joao Klauss got the first dangerous shot on goal of the game. Nico Giocchini was fouled hard and that led to a 14th minute yellow card on Rodrigues of San Jose. In what would end up being a theme for the evening, Joao Klauss' hold up play and ability to find players in space in tight windows led to a Giocchini goal in the 34th minute.
San Jose continued to put pressure on City and were looking for an equalizer before half time, but a seemingly broken play in which the ball travels through roughly half of the outfielders for San Jose culminates in a Klauss goal in third minute of stoppage time to put St. Louis up 2-0 going into the half. Defensively Lucas Bartlett was holding his own and Kyle Hiebert was controlling the 18 yard box, clearing everything and having a big block in the 44th minute when San Jose were pushing.
In the second half San Jose was almost able to capitalize on a St. Louis inability to clear in their box, but Cowell pushed a wide open shot wide left. After that every time the Quakes started to get on a break Bartlett or Hiebert were there to greet them, closing the door on any sustained pressure. There was a moment in the second half where Cade Cowell got on a break down the left sideline only to have the ball taken away by Bartlett.
San Jose's frustrations were evident with three yellow cards being doled out to Kikanovic, Cowell and Baldisimo. The feeling of the game was that St. Louis was likely to get their 3rd goal before the Quakes got on the board, and then Tomas Ostrak struck in the 68th minute to make it 3-0 St. Louis. Coach Carnell brought in Ostrak in the 57th minute, Miguel Perez and Samuel Adeniran in the 65th, and then Ariel Jackson and Celio Pompeu in the 86th and 87th minute. Even with a 3-0 lead City were pushing for a fourth and keeping San Jose on their heels all the way to the final whistle.
The biggest storyline of the game may be that St. Louis City Center Back pair. Given there is a lack of positional depth across the league and the "Energy Drink" style of play City SC Head Coach Bradley Carnell was going to implement, few pundits believed that the expansion side would have a successful first season in Major League Soccer. The team won their first three games with MLS veteran Tim Parker playing alongside former Missouri State University Center Back Kyle Hiebert. Tim Parker was held out of precaution leaving City without either of their preseason projected starters at the position. So for Hiebert and Bartlett to step up and provide such quality is quite remarkable.
Coach Carnell started the press conference talking about the organizational depth this showed and the belief in being part of something bigger. He also spoke to how loud the stadium was and that they gave Captain and Goalkeeper Roman Burki the game ball following the first clean sheet of the season.
In the press conference you can see why Bradley Carnell has gotten his team to buy in. He spoke to having guys from all around the world coming together to buy in to something that was bigger than them. He also talked about Joao Klauss, saying "He takes two defenders when he has the ball" and that he has a "massive toolbox". Probably the most telling statement about the Brazilian striker was that "He's a teddy bear and guys gravitate towards him in the locker room." Having that type of professional in the locker room along with Captain Burki and the leadership of Carnell it shouldn't surprise any of us that this team is off to the best start of an expansion team in MLS history.
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