St. Louis CITY SC heads to the Sunshine State for a road match this Saturday against Orlando City SC at 6:30 p.m. CT at Exploria Stadium. The match will be streamed free 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).
St. Louis CITY SC resumed MLS play in resounding fashion, defeating Austin FC 6-3 at CITYPARK to extend their lead at the top of the MLS Western Conference table. Tim Parker opened the scoring with a header, as he did when the two sides met on Matchday 1. Braces from CITY SC forwards Niko Gioacchini and Sam Adeniran plus a clinical finish from midfielder Tomáš Ostrák capped off an impressive attacking display in front of another sold-out crowd at CITYPARK.
St. Louis CITY SC sit in first place in the Western Conference with 44 points (14-8-2) and trails only FC Cincinnati (51 points, 15-3-6) in the Supporters’ Shield standings. CITY SC ranks first in the league in goal scored (49) and goal differential (+19). CITY SC has scored 35 goals across 13 home MLS matches, making them the top team in that category. St. Louis has scored at least three goals in a match ten times this season. The only other expansion teams to record at least 10 games with three-or-more goals in their debut seasons are the 1998 Chicago Fire (10 games) and 2017 Atlanta United (12 games).
CITY SC will have the chance to make more expansion team history against Orlando this Saturday. If the team scores, they will become the fastest-ever expansion team to 50 goals in their first year, eclipsing Chicago Fire (1998), Atlanta United (2017) and LAFC (2018) who all scored their 50th goal in their 26th match. Only these three expansion teams in league history have scored 50-plus goals in their first year. Only four teams since 2002 have reached 50 goals in their first 25 games of a season – Austin FC (2022), LAFC (2022), LAFC (2019) and Atlanta United (2018).
With his two goals against Austin, CITY SC forward Gioacchini leads the team with 10 goals this season and is tied for sixth in the Golden Boot presented by Audi race. Gioacchini is the 18th player to score 10+ goals for an expansion team and ranks 12th among those players in terms of fewest games played to achieve 10 goals.
Gioacchini (23 years, 27 days old) became the fifth-youngest player to score at least 10 goals for an expansion team, trailing only Cyle Larin (20 years, 106 days with Orlando City SC), Diego Rossi (20 years, 208 days with LAFC), Fredy Montero (22 years, 20 days with Seattle Sounders FC), and Hector Villalba (23 years, three days with Atlanta United). Gioacchini will be facing his former team Orlando for the first team since he was acquired by CITY SC in the 2022 Expansion Draft.
Löwen played an important role in CITY SC’s midfield last time out, providing three assists in 90 minutes played against Austin. Löwen has now recorded five total assists against Austin FC, the most by any player in MLS. The midfielder increased his assist total to a team-high nine, which is tied for fifth in the league.
Adeniran raised his goal tally to five this season following his second-half brace against Austin. After coming in the 65th minute, Adeniran found the back of the net with two spectacular goals, one of which claimed the AT&T 5G Goal of the Matchday honor. Adeniran’s brace marked the second time he’s scored twice in one match this season after his achieving the same feat in CITY SC’s 2-1 win over San Jose on June 24.
St. Louis owns a 5-5-1 record in road matches and has scored 14 goals and seen nine different goal scorers on the road in MLS this season.
Orlando currently sits in 4th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 40 points, 11 points behind leaders FC Cincinnati. Orlando boasts an 11-6-7 record and has lost only two of its last 14 regular-season matches (7-2-5 record) dating back to mid-May. Only FC Cincinnati (27) collected more points than Orlando (26) during that time. Orlando City comes into the match following a 3-1 road win against Chicago, where they battled from a goal down to secure all three points. Orlando is 5-3-4 at home, scoring 18 goals with a plus-six goal differential. Duncan McGuire and Facundo Torres lead Orlando in goals with eight.
Orlando City SC is 7-7-5 across its 19 total matches against expansion teams, most recently sweeping its two matches against Charlotte FC in the latter's inaugural season in 2022. In home matches against expansion teams, Orlando is 6-2-1 with wins in four of their last five such contests.
