City Can’t Climb Out Of Early Hole, Loses 4-2 To Orlando City

ST. LOUIS - Major League Soccer returned to action after a 10-day break on Wednesday night, and St. Louis City SC hosted Orlando City SC on a steamy evening at Energizer Park.

City fell behind early to Orlando’s high-octane attack in the heat, but City clawed their way back into the contest before the half. City’s efforts fell short late, and Orlando took three points back to Florida, winning 4-2.

Interim St. Louis manager David Critchley, who the club stated would shepherd the team through 2025 and could be considered for the permanent head coaching position, put forth an attacking team on Wednesday evening.

A familiar back four, with Jay Reid at left back, Timo Baumgartl at center back, Kyle Hiebert alongside him, and Tomas Totland flying up and down the right side.

Marcel Hartel dropped back from the more attacking midfield spots to the center of midfield, and Akil Watts served as the more defensive midfielder in the center of the park.

The offensive firepower came by way of Celio Pompeu and Cedric Teuchert playing on the wings, overlapping with strikers Joao Klauss and Simon Becher in attack. Plenty of scoring options for David Critchley, but perhaps a bit lacking defensively.

Orlando opened the scoring less than seven minutes into the contest. Ramiro Enrique finished a move where the visitors were bombing into open spaces and the City defense was at sixes and sevens running backwards trying to defend. Martin Ojeda squared a pass to Enrique, and with Roman Bürki out of the picture, Enrique slid into a tap-in.

While St. Louis City was processing the first goal, they gave up a second less than two minutes later. Orlando City’s Marco Pasalic weaved through traffic cone-like City defenders before placing a shot to Roman Bürki’s left that the City captain and keeper couldn’t reach.

Smelling blood in the water, Orlando went after a third goal, and found it in the 22nd minute. Again it was the Argentinian, Ramiro Enrique, who took advantage of some sloppy defense from Akil Watts. Eduard Atuesta played a quick pass after Watts turned the ball over at the edge of the City box, and Enrique finished to the right of Roman Bürki.

City were in a huge hole with just a quarter of the game gone. But in the extreme heat and humidity in downtown St. Louis, the game was still up for grabs.

After plenty of moments of the St. Louis City defense not responding quickly enough early, Orlando started to look a bit exhausted towards the end of the first half. Simon Becher gave City a lifeline with a 40th minute goal, taking a feed from Tomas Totland on the right and turning and slotting a shot to the left of Orlando keeper Pedro Gallese to make it 3-1.

Not to be outdone, Joao Klauss added a goal of his own in first half stoppage time. Again it was Tomas Totland on the right causing problems for Orlando, and he clipped a bouncing ball into the box that the purple shirts of Orlando City SC failed to clear. The ball bounced to Joao Klauss, who swept a shot home on the half-volley. It was 3-2, and City had a fighting chance going into halftime

A back-and-forth first half gave way to a war of attrition in the second half. Any time it felt like the hosts were getting a foothold in the second stanza, Orlando would threaten the City goal on the counter.

Roman Bürki was forced into multiple saves early in the second half to keep his club in the contest, and made nine saves in total. Unfortunately for City, in the 82nd minute, Marco Pasalic showed his skill yet again, dribbling from the right wing at City defender Jay Reid.

Reid gave the skilled Croatian winger too much space, and Pasalic fired a grass-cutter of a shot to Bürki’s left because Reid gave him a clear angle at an open side of goal. It was 4-2, and that sent many fans who had braved the heat at Energizer Park heading for the exits.

The last 20 minutes of games have not treated St. Louis City SC well in 2025. With Pasalic’s goal, City has given up 17 goals in the final stages, in 21 matches across all competitions. Some of those goals have been daggers, some have been goals that turned wins into draws, and draws into losses.

4-2 would be the final between the two City SCs when referee Guido Gonzalez blew the whistle for full-time. After a win in David Critchley’s first game taking over after Olof Mellberg’s dismissal gave hope for a second-half turnaround, the past three games have made St. Louis City SC realize just what team they are.

Interim boss Critchley started media availability by apologizing for City’s bad start that ultimately doomed them Wednesday.

“The first 10 minutes, 15 minutes all I can do is probably apologize to the fans. It wasn't good enough from us,” said Critchley in the post-match press conference. “It wasn't good enough from an individual basis on the field. I felt as though we were prepared for the game, but we let a quality team get into the game quickly with no pressure. A pretty disappointing 15-20 minutes.”

City keeper and captain Roman Bürki made his 500th appearance in club soccer, spanning his illustrious career in Europe and the past few years here in St. Louis. But he would have liked to celebrate it with a bit of a better game.

“I always ask myself, why am I so tired? But now I know it's the 500 games, and it's amazing (to have played so many),” Bürki said. “I would have loved to have a better game as a collective today.”

Bürki took some of the blame for four Orlando goals. “Very critical of myself, with the whole goalkeeper crew. So we’re going to analyze this as well. Maybe the second goal, I could have done a little bit better, and the last goal, obviously.”

The next month is crucial for the direction of St. Louis City. Playoff chances are likely gone, but upcoming games against teams just above them in the Western Conference standings give City a lifeline, if they can win, and that’s a big “if” in 2025.

One of those teams is the Houston Dynamo, who are five points ahead of City in the standings and will welcome City this coming weekend. Wednesday night was hot and humid in St. Louis, and the trip to Houston promises more of the same. Kickoff is set for just after 7:30 central time Saturday evening.

Print Version