St. Louis CITY SC travels west for another away Western Conference matchup, going up against LA Galaxy this Sunday at 7:00 p.m. CT at Dignity Health Sports Park. The match can be viewed on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and can be heard by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).
Last weekend, CITY SC were edged 2-1 in a tight encounter with their cross-state rivals Sporting KC. Sam Adeniran gave CITY SC the lead in the 22nd minute before Alan Pulido scored two goals before halftime to give the hosts the win and level the all-time series 1-1.
Adeniran continued his impressive form in front of goal, notching four goals in his last five MLS matches. The forward increased his goal tally to six goals this season. CITY SC has four players with five goals or more: Niko Gioacchini (10), Adeniran (6), Eduard Löwen (6) and João Klauss (5), joining New England and Orlando City as the only MLS teams to accomplish such a feat this season.
St. Louis remains at the top of the MLS Western Conference with 47 points and a 15-10-2 record. CITY SC will be looking for their 16th victory of the season against LA Galaxy, which would tie LAFC (2018) for the most wins by an expansion team in their inaugural season.
CITY SC remains one of the hottest attacking teams in the league, scoring a goal in 22 of 27 matches played in MLS, which is tied for the seventh highest games scored per games played ratio in the league with Orlando and San Jose. St. Louis ranks second in the league for goals scored with 53, one behind leaders Columbus Crew, and sits in eighth place for assists with 41. Of CITY SC’s 53 goals, 46 have been scored in the box, which ranks first in the league.
CITY SC has scored nine headed goals this season, which is good for second in the league, two behind Atlanta. Tim Parker is tied for second in headed goals with four, two behind Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis. Parker is one of two defenders in the top ten in that category and the only defender ranking in the top five.
On the defensive side, CITY SC has conceded 35 goals, eight more than Nashville who have given up the least number of goals all season. Roman Bürki made four saves against Sporting KC to bring his season total to 100 saves. Bürki is the first and only goalkeeper in MLS this season with 100 saves. The only goalkeeper in MLS history to record 100 saves quicker than Bürki while on an expansion team is Brad Guzan of Chivas USA (2005), who hit the mark in his 24th game.
Of their 13 Western Conference opponents, St. Louis CITY SC has defeated nine of them at least once during their inaugural MLS regular season. The remaining four sides are the LA Galaxy, LAFC, Minnesota United FC, and Seattle Sounders FC – with CITY SC facing each of them over their last seven games of the regular season.
CITY SC are 4-4-1 in road matches against Western Conference teams. St. Louis has scored 16 goals on the road this season, which is tied for ninth in the league. CITY SC’s 19 points in road games is the seventh-best points total in road matches across the league. St. Louis’ five away wins are two shy of LAFC’s record of seven road wins for an expansion team.
CITY SC and LA Galaxy met back on Matchday 18, with the game ending in a 1-1 stalemate. Gioacchini scored his sixth goal of the season to put CITY SC up in the match before LA Galaxy’s Daniel Aguirre secured a point for LA.
LA Galaxy currently sits in 13th place in the Western Conference standings with 26 points, five points shy of the playoff line with a 7-10-8 record. The Galaxy are 4-4-3 at home this season, scoring 19 goals in that span. The Galaxy will look to extend their three-game unbeaten run (2-0-1), after tying their last match with the Houston Dynamo at home. LA’s midfield pairing of Tyler Boyd and Riqui Puig has scored in four of their last five MLS matches, with Boyd leading the Galaxy with six goals.
Over their last ten matches against expansion teams playing in their inaugural seasons, the Galaxy are 5-2-3. In the home games over that span, the team is 3-0-1 with a plus-six goal difference.
