St. Louis CITY SC (15-10-4, 49 points) are back in action at CITYPARK for a midweek clash with LAFC (12-9-7, 43 points) on Wednesday, September 20 at 7:30 p.m. CT. The match can be watched on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and be heard by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).
St. Louis CITY SC is coming off a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Houston Dynamo FC. Houston’s Corey Baird scored the game’s first goal just before halftime before João Klauss found a late equalizer to rescue a point on the road for CITY SC. With Klauss’ goal, CITY SC ended a 540-minute-long shutout streak for Houston, which was the second-longest in their club history.
Klauss has now scored for the second-straight game following his goal against LA Galaxy in the previous match week. This marks the ninth time this season that a St. Louis CITY player has scored in consecutive matches, and the third time Klauss has done so this season. The forward raised his tally to seven goals, joining Sam Adeniran for second on the team in goalscoring, three behind Niko Gioacchini. CITY SC forwards are responsible for 24 of the team’s 56 goals.
St. Louis remains at the top of the MLS Western Conference with 49 points and will have an opportunity to increase the gap on LAFC in a top-of-the-table matchup. The match will mark the first time since August 30 (2-1 win over FC Dallas) that CITY SC will play at CITYPARK, following a three-match road trip (Sporting KC, LA Galaxy, and Houston).
St. Louis CITY SC have made CITYPARK a fortress, selling out its first 14 MLS regular season games. CITY SC are 10-3-1 at CITYPARK in MLS, picking up a total of 31 points, which is the fourth-most points accrued at home among MLS teams this season. Offensively, St. Louis has tallied 37 goals in MLS, which is tied for first with Atlanta United. CITY SC’s 10 home wins are tied with Charlotte and Montreal for the second-most home wins by an expansion team. Atlanta holds the record for most home wins by an expansion team with 11.
CITY SC have scored at least three goals in eight of their 10 home wins this season in MLS (3-1 vs Charlotte, 3-0 vs San Jose, 5-1 vs FC Cincinnati, 4-0 vs Sporting KC, 3-1 vs Vancouver Whitecaps, 3-0 vs Houston Dynamo, 3-0 vs Inter Miami, 6-3 vs Austin FC), the most three-plus goal wins by any team in MLS this season.
Roman Bürki has recorded five clean sheets at home, which is tied for fifth in MLS this season, four behind Seattle's Stefan Frei. Bürki leads the league in saves with 108, with a 74 save percentage. On the defensive side of the ball, St. Louis has only trailed just 100 of 1260 minutes at home in MLS play.
CITY SC will take on LAFC for the second time this season. When the two teams met earlier, LAFC defeated CITY SC 3-0 at BMO Stadium. Since the first meeting, LAFC have posted a 2-3-1 record in MLS play, scoring 11 goals in that span.
LAFC sits in 2nd place in the Western Conference standings with 43 points, six points behind CITY SC. The MLS Cup defending champions are 3-5-4 on the road this season, scoring 13 goals and conceding 19 goals in that span. LAFC enters the match on a high note after picking up a 4-2 win over their rivals LA Galaxy on Saturday. Denis Bouanga (2), Ryan Hollingshead and Timothy Tillman all scored in LAFC’s win. Bouanga is now tied for first in the MLS Golden Boot race with Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar and Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis with 14 goals.
Across their seven matches in club history against expansion teams playing in their inaugural seasons, LAFC has a perfect 7-0-0 record.
