ST. LOUIS - St. Louis City played its first game since firing its first and only sporting director, Lutz Pfannenstiel, on Saturday evening, hosting the Houston Dynamo at Energizer Park.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
A good crowd took advantage of a lovely evening weather-wise to pack Downtown West to watch Major League Soccer. City rallied late, but couldn’t come all the way back, falling 3-2 to the Dynamo.
It was a first-time lineup from interim City manager David Critchley, but one with familiar pairings all over the field. A potentially defensive lineup was devised to try to clog up the central areas and force Houston to play around.
Devin Padelford has rightly claimed the left back spot; to his right were center backs Timo Baumgartl and Henry Kessler. Conrad Wallem worked in the right back spot.
Tomas Totland, who was the first-choice right back for quite some time, seemingly can’t crack the lineup despite David Critchley trying different players there to see if anything sticks.
Center back Fallou Fall, who didn’t make the trip to last week’s game in Vancouver because he didn’t have a visa to play in Canada, again didn’t make the starting lineup, despite being in the same country as the team on Saturday night.
“I thought Timo [Baumgartl] and Kess [Henry Kessler] played well against Vancouver, they were good in the run of open play,” Critchley elaborated on the decision not to start City’s second-biggest ever signing, Fallou Fall. “I don’t want to chop and change the lineup every time I’m given the opportunity to. We have a fully strengthened squad, and I’m trying to build consistency.”
Alfredo Morales and Eduard Löwen started in central midfield, with Morales playing more defensively in hopes of allowing Löwen to venture forward in attack.
Ahead of those holding midfielders were Marcel Hartel on the left wing, Tomas Ostrak in the middle, and Sangbin Jeong on the right wing. Joao Klauss, a goalscorer in defeat in Vancouver, started up top again.
Houston kicked off the scoring in the 20th minute off a free kick on the left wing. Dynamo attacker Ezequiel Ponce beat Timo Baumgartl to the delivery and headed home from close range. City hadn’t managed a shot on or off target at that point, and the visitors were already ahead.
It took St. Louis 34 minutes to register a shot of any kind, a Joao Klauss effort fizzed just wide after the big Brazilian striker had a fortuitous bounce fall to him at the edge of the Houston 18-yard box.
In the 40th minute, City should have equalized. Eduard Löwen played a gorgeous through ball into the path of Sangbin Jeong, who was busting a gut up the right channel into open space. Sangbin then played a great weighted pass into the path of Joao Klauss, directly in front of the Houston goal, and Klauss missed well wide to the left from inside the penalty spot.
In a half of few chances for St. Louis City, they would rue Klauss’s miss, going into halftime down a goal when they should have been level. Five minutes into the second half, the Dynamo would compound City’s misery, using a quick restart to catch the hosts napping. Dynamo right back Griffin Dorsey swung in a cross hoping to find Ezequiel Ponce, but found Henry Kessler’s knee and the back of the City net.
Just past the halfway mark, St. Louis had more than 60 percent possession, but nothing to show for it. Houston was more than happy to let David Critchley’s team prod and pass the ball around, defending in numbers, much like their previous encounter in Houston on a muggy Saturday in June.
But that second goal seemed, at the time, to take the wind out of City’s sails. Suddenly it was Houston that was feeling more confident, spending more time on the ball, and in the 72nd minute they found a third.
Fallou Fall, who came on as a substitute for Timo Baumgartl around the hour mark, misplayed a pass to center back partner Henry Kessler, and instead found the Dynamo’s Ondrej Lingr, who squared a pass to Duane Holmes who smashed a shot beyond a helpless Roman Bürki.
A third goal without reply saw a bit of an exodus from the City faithful at Energizer Park. Those who remained in their seats were treated to an exciting finish, and a bit of hope for a result.
In the 86th minute, Eduard Löwen smashed a first-time shot into the top right corner of the Houston goal, despite the best efforts of Houston keeper Jonathan Bond. With a goal back and the game winding down, City saw an opportunity to salvage something out of nothing.
“In that moment you just have a millisecond to make a decision,” Löwen explained. “I just decided to take it first time”
Less than three minutes later, City found a second goal, and it was the first MLS goal for Mykhi Joyner. Joyner has been tearing up MLS NEXT Pro with the reserve CITY2 this season, and impressed the club so much that he was brought onto the first team’s supplemental roster.
Substitute City midfielder Chris Durkin hit a cross right at Joyner, waiting beyond the far post. Joyner, who is a very good header of the ball for a shorter player, nodded a shot into the ground and into the back of the net.
Saturday was Joyner’s 19th birthday, and what better way to celebrate it than a goal that put his team back in the game before second half stoppage time.
“Super surreal moment,” said Joyner after the game. “Super happy, a lot of emotions, but just super happy.”
When fourth official Malik Badawi held up the board indicating seven minutes of stoppage time, a roar went up around Energizer Park. Those still in attendance were right there with their team, pressing for a late equalizer to save a point and a comeback to build momentum from.
In the third minute of stoppage time, that chance came, and Jonathan Bond made a heroic save on a Joao Klauss header to keep Houston in front. Klauss had done just about everything right on the play, making a run to get into space in front of the Dynamo goal, but Bond was up to the task, a lunging save down to his left, pushing Klauss’s header onto the post and out of play.
Klauss’s header was the last real chance for City to score, and 3-2 remained the score when referee Ricardo Montoya Araya blew his whistle for full-time.
“I knew when [the save] hit the post, it was going to roll the opposite way of the goal. It's just what happened this season,” interim head coach David Critchley said postgame. “So we have to continue to create more and more. On another day, on another year, another season, that ball probably bops the other way and rolls in for an equalizer, but not this season.”
It was a good flurry of a finish for about 15 minutes, but the performance simply wasn’t good enough for the first 80 minutes. A sentiment echoed by Critchley and Eduard Löwen in the post-match press conference.
“This weekend, we beat ourselves,” Critchley admitted after the loss. “We had three mistakes against the ball that led to three goals. And as much as I do appreciate the response and the effort, it took 75 minutes of a football game to get to that point.”
“I think there’s a lot of things that we could have done better,” said Eduard Löwen. “The goals we conceded are just, ‘Here we go again,’ and we’re talking about the same thing again. It's just too easy. Obviously, I think we had too many easy [giveaways]. Houston wasn't really a team that should have scored three goals tonight, but we just gave it to them.”
Critchley also shrugged off the notion that the firing of Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel this week was a distraction and a factor to his team’s defeat Saturday night.
“I don’t think [Pfannenstiel’s departure had an impact],” Critchley said. “The one thing I quickly and closely evaluated today was what the mood was like when everyone showed up to the facility and what the mood was like in the locker room. Everyone seemed very focused.”
Löwen, however, spoke to the human side of seeing a friend and someone who’s been integral to the club lose their job.
“I don’t want to shift blame to [Pfannenstiel’s firing], but he’s been here since day one,” Löwen expressed. “He has a lot of relationships in the team and the club… I feel bad for Lutz, but the club made the decision and everybody respects that. But you’re always compassionate for someone who lost their job. It’s never easy.”
On yet another disappointing evening of St. Louis City SC soccer, Mykhi Joyner’s first MLS goal was a big positive. Joyner, with the endeavor of a 19-year old with nothing to lose, adds a dimension to the team that has been missing.
“He's just a great kid,” Eduard Löwen said with a smile. “I like him a lot, on and off the pitch. I think we also need some of that energy, a young player who maybe doesn't think about things as much… it's just about playing free and having joy and having fun on the pitch. And I think you can see that with him, and that's definitely something we need.”
Unfortunately for City, Joyner won’t be with the club for next week’s contest, but fortunately for him, it’s because he was called up to the US Men’s National Team U20 camp. Sangbin Jeong will also be out of action next week, as he was called up to the South Korean national squad.
“Anytime a player can represent their country on youth level or the fully senior level, it's an opportunity we should celebrate,” Critchley said. “So, I'm excited for these guys.”
St. Louis City hosts FC Dallas at Energizer Park on Saturday, September 6.
More like this:
