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MLS St. Louis City SC

St. Louis CITY SC and Sporting Kansas City Draw 1-1 at Children's Mercy Park

July 20, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
St. Louis City SC News Release


KANSAS CITY, KS - St. Louis CITY SC earned a point on the road at Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. CITY SC opened the scoring in the first half with a strike from Nökkvi Thórisson which was his third of the season. John Klein and Akil Watts both registered assists on the goal. In the second half, Willy Agada tied the match for Sporting Kansas City in the 73rd minute. Cedric Teuchert and Jake Girdwood-Reich both made their MLS debuts during the match. CITY SC will begin Leagues Cup play next Saturday at CITYPARK against FC Dallas.

Postgame Notes

STL's 1-1 draw snapped a three-game losing streak. The two goals scored in the match was the lowest total of the seven total matches across all competitions between the two rivals.

St. Louis has scored at least one goal in all seven matches against Sporting Kansas City.

City SC has scored in 19 of their 25 MLS matches this season.

With the start, Cedric Teuchert made his MLS debut

Additionally, Jake Girdwood-Reich made his MLS debut coming off the bench

Nökkvi Thórisson earned his third goal of the season. Thórisson has tallied three goals in the last six matches.

Thórisson became the ninth different CITY SC player to score against Sporting Kansas City.

John Klein picked up his first career MLS assist. Klein is the 13th different St. Louis player to record at least one assist this season.

Klein has tallied his first MLS goal and first MLS assist in the last three matches.

Akil Watts registered his first assist of the season

Klein and Watts became the eighth and ninth different St. Louis players to record an assist against Sporting KC

Goal-Scoring Plays

STL: Nökkvi Thórisson (John Klein, Akil Watts), 42nd minute - Nökkvi Thórisson scored with a right footed shot from the center of the box.

SKC: Willy Agada (Alan Pulido), 73rd minute - Willy Agada scored a header from the center of the box.

July 20, 2024 - Children's Mercy Park (Kansas City, KS)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City 0 1 1

St. Louis CITY SC 1 0 1

Scoring Summary

STL: Nökkvi Thórisson (John Klein, Akil Watts), 42'

SKC: Willy Agada (Alan Pulido), 73'

Misconduct Summary

STL: Nökkvi Thórisson (caution), 34'

STL: Akil Watts (caution), 45'+1

SKC: Tim Leibold (caution), 84'

SKC: Khiry Shelton (caution), 89'

STL: Hosei Kijima (caution), 90'+4

Lineups

SKC: GK Tim Melia, D Khiry Shelton, D Robert Castellanos, D Robert Voloder, D Tim Leibold; M Rémi Walter, M Nemanja Radoja, M Erik Thommy (Stephen Afrifa, 90'+2); F Johnny Russell © (Alan Pulido, 64'), F Willy Agada, F Dániel Sallói

Substitutes not used: GK Ryan Schewe, D Andreu Fontàs, D Kayden Pierre, D Christopher Rindov, M Danny Flores, F Alenis Vargas

TOTAL SHOTS: 19; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 8; SAVES: 1

STL: GK Roman Bürki ©, D Kyle Hiebert, D Tim Parker, D Jay Reid; M Tomas Totland (Josh Yaro, 70'), M Njabulo Blom, M Akil Watts (Jake Girdwood-Reich, 84'), M John Klein (Anthony Markanich, 63'); M Eduard Löwen, M Cedric Teuchert (Hosei Kijima, 63'); F Nökkvi Thórisson (Caden Glover, 84')

Substitutes not used: GK Ben Lundt, D Michael Wentzel, D Jake Nerwinski, M Indiana Vassilev

TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 5

Referee: Rubiel Vazquez

Assistant Referees: Nick Uranga, Jeffrey Greeson, Matthew Corrigan

VAR: Ricardo Montero Araya

AVAR: TJ Zablocki

Venue: Children's Mercy Park

Weather: Cloudy, 76 degrees

ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES

Interim Head Coach John Hackworth

Opening Statement:

Yeah, it's hard to sit here again, because I think we made some positive steps tonight. And we were in a position to come into our archrivals home and get all three points. To give up the goal that equalizes it the way that we gave it up, that's going to sting for a long time. So that said, as a team and staff, we asked the guys to really give everything tonight and I certainly think they did that on the third game in a week. So, there's a lot of positives out of it and at the same time, I think we're bitterly disappointed that we didn't get all three.

On Nökkvi Thórisson's form....

Nökkvi is playing out of position. You got to give him a lot of credit. We're asking him to play out of position played a different role than his natural position. And he's done really well for us. So, another guy who absolutely gave everything tonight and good to goal. I would've loved if he scored that second one early in the second half.

On Cedric Teuchert's first MLS game tonight...

For him, it was important. You can see his quality but he's also coming off, that's his first match minutes in a long time. So, I think we can all feel good about it. And I think that there's some special qualities there that are going to really help us. And especially when we get him to a point where he can play 90-plus, it's going to be fun.

On Tim Parker's play tonight...

I mean, he also rolled his ankle pretty bad for him to stay in the game, you know? It's, again, tough because I'm thanking all those guys. In particular, Tim plays like a warrior, Kyle [Hiebert] plays like a warrior. And at the same time, you want to thank him for battling through, putting out every bit of the critical moments, winning so many, like you said about Tim and that's tough especially in this environment. So happy for those guys but disappointed that we're not walking away with more.

Forward Nökkvi Thórisson

On playing with Cedric Teuchert tonight:

Really good. I felt straightaway chemistry and he's a good friend off the pitch. So that's something we build on and he showed his quality today. You could see moments where he showed his quality and once, he gets more game fit it will be good for him.

On when the team plays their next MLS game in a month, if they will be a different team than before:

We will have now a good month period with the Leagues Cup games and getting Marcel [Hartel], getting Cedric [Teuchert] into more fitness, getting João [Klauss] back so we will see. Yeah, I know we will see a good St. Louis CITY team for the for the last stretch and it's going to be exciting.

On if getting a second goal tonight would have been important for the team tonight:

I mean, coming into second half, we expected the game to open up more, which it did, but we got good, we got two chances right after the whistle. [Tomas Totland] got a good one and then I got a decent one, it was a stretch, but I mean, the game didn't go like that, that's football, you know, doesn't always go as planned. But yeah, just the fact that it didn't open up, that's just the way this game went and just keep on going and create more opportunities as a team.

Defender Tim Parker

On what the team takes away from tonight's game:

Yeah, it's a step in the right direction, but it's definitely still disappointing. I don't think we gave up a whole lot of good chances besides really that cross. I have to, I have to have a look back at it because I know [Willy] Agada gets away from me. It's just, it's a weird one, where it's just a weird cross to kind of defend so I have to have a look at it and see what I could have done better.

On how much it takes for the defense to get on the same page playing in a new formation:

Yeah, it's, it's tough. Obviously, I played with Jayden [Reid] and I played with Kyle [Hiebert] so many times now. So maybe not as a back three but with those guys in general. So it requires a lot of trust. Before the game to kind of, you know, we kind of put ourselves on islands at times and just win your battles. You know what I mean? It seems, it's a lot of encouragement, continued encouragement throughout the game when guys are doing the right thing and communicating and making sure that even when something goes wrong to have the other guys back, because I think that's the most important thing to build confidence and build encouragement throughout the game is even if there's a little bit of a mistake, if you're able to clean things up, it's like hey, and let's go again.

On if there is a sense of relief to get a fresh start during Leagues Cup:

Yeah, and I think it's also an opportunity right? To build confidence and put together some results. So, Leagues Cup can sometimes be looked at as like a get healthy period, but for us also it could be looked at as, it's time to build some confidence to get some results. And in cup play, it's kind of, it's good to get a little bit of that taste of win or die so hopefully we are able to taste that as well.

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