The same city that took the Rams from the gateway to the Midwest stood on the other side of the pitch in Major League Soccer (MLS) on Sunday, September 1st. St. Louis City SC faced off against the #1 team in the Western Conference in MLS, the Los Angeles (LA) Galaxy. Leading soccer stat companies all predicted that the LA Galaxy would win. For example, FotMob.com’s poll stated that 70% of people thought Galaxy would win. 

Logically, this prediction makes sense. St. Louis has been disappointing so far in 2024. They currently sit in 13th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference. Carrying a record of 4 wins, 12 draws and 10 losses going into Sunday afternoon. 

However, one beacon of hope in the dark tunnel of City’s playoff chances is the transfers. These transfers for City included 2 German Bundesliga players, Midfielder Marcel Hartel and Striker Cedric Teuchert. Other players St. Louis added include Left-back Jannes Horn, Center-back Jake Girdwood-Reich and Striker Simon Becher. These players have made an immediate impact on City SC. Both Teuchert and Hartel made an impact in their first MLS game against the Portland Timbers, Teuchert scored his first goal and Hartel racked up a surprising 3 assists.

With City SC’s playoff chances dwindling, St. Louis would need to win the majority of their last 8 games to even sniff a playoff spot. Their first challenge since the 3-week break from MLS play for the Leagues Cup was the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy, with new German International, Marco Reus, went into the game confident. Kickoff was set for 1:45 on Sunday, September 1st at Citypark in The Lou. Fans were rowdy as the match started. 

The match started with a rush for City but the solid Galaxy defense quickly shut down the first chance of the game. 

Both teams went back and forth with little to no chances to score. However, the stalemate was quickly shattered when a streak of passes from Indiana Vassilev, Marcel Hartel, and Simon Becher led to a shot from Cedric Teuchert that snuck into the bottom right corner of the net.  The tie was broken only 9 minutes after the first whistle. After the goal, head referee Joe Dickerson called for a Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) review for whether the ball touched Cedric Teuchert’s arm before he scored the goal. The rules about handballs are complicated. If the ball touches a player’s arm or hand and aids them in playing the ball, it is a handball and the goal would be disallowed. However, if the player’s hand is in a natural position and it didn’t aid the goal to a certain extent, it is not a handball. The interpretation of whether it aided the goal comes from the VAR referee. It is a judgment call. The VAR referee decided that even though the ball touched Cedric Teuchert’s hand before scoring, his hand was in a natural position and didn’t aid the goal. 1-0 St. Louis leads. 

The first half ended 1-0 despite big chances for both teams to score.

In the first minute of the first half, St. Louis defender Henry Kessler defended the wrong player and LA Striker Gabriel Pec had a wide-open shot that he struck past Goalkeeper Roman Burki. 1-1 Tie.

The next and last goal came in the 68th minute off the right foot of star transfer Marcel Hartel. Defender Jayden Reid played a perfect ball in the box that Hartel nudged with his open-faced right foot. The shot went into the top right corner as the crowd went manic. 

City SC would hold this lead on their way to a 2-1 win. 

After the game, I asked Interim Head Coach John Hackworth about the play of his team and their season-low of 7 fouls committed. He had this to say, “LA is so good, you have to respect what they try to do. And for us, we needed to go put pressure on the ball…”. He also touched on that they had to be less aggressive due to the skill of the Galaxy’s players and their ability to go on a counter-attack.

The playoff window for St. Louis opened slightly after the win against LA, however, their draw against the New England Revolution puts their playoff chances at a season-low 1%.