St. Louis City raising the bar for MLS expansion teams

After defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 at home on Saturday night. St. Louis City (8-4-1) became the first expansion team to total 25 points within their first 13 MLS matches.

St. Louis (8-4-1) is tied with the defending MLS Cup champion LAFC for second place in the Western Conference, trailing the Seattle Sounders by a single point. City SC also leads all of MLS with a +15 goal differential, making the early argument of being one of the strongest expansion teams in the history of American soccer.

"This is part of our journey," head coach Bradley Carnell said. "We want to be competitive, and the next game is on the horizon, which can be competitive. We should sit back and reflect on these moments too. Because oftentimes you pinch yourself that, 'is this really happening?' So we believe it internally. We keep on proving people wrong. We keep on having a chip on our shoulders. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We didn't say we're going to go through the season unbeaten, and we didn't say we're going to be world beaters, but we're going to be competitive."

St. Louis made as good of a first impression as any expansion team could by starting the season on a five-game winning streak. City SC then went on a 1-4-1 slump after struggling to adjust to the injury loss of Kluass.

They're starting to turn it around in his absence with back-to-back wins at home, highlighted by back-to-back goals by Eduard Löwen. His most recent goal came on a free kick that went over everyone and into the corner of the net.

“I always — like every single one from the left side in-swing,” Löwen said, “I always try to target the far post, and if no one touches it, it still goes in. That is always my goal, and the goalkeepers make one step, it goes over.”

The game before, Löwen scored on a penalty kick against Sporting Kansas City. He now ties Klauss for most MLS goal contributions on the team with 9 (four goals, five assists).

St. Louis City has not lost a game so far this season after scoring the first goal, and both of Löwen's goals continued that trend.

St. Louis City now has a league-high seven players with multiple goals this season. The latest edition to that group was the hometown kid Miguel Perez, who scored his goal unassisted in the fourth minute of stoppage time against the Whitecaps. He became the first homegrown player to score an MLS goal in City SC history, shortly after graduating from Pattonville High School no less.

“The stadium was very, very loud when he scored,” Löwen said. “I think we are very happy for him that finally he could score in the MLS.”

St. Louis City will host the Houston Dynamo at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, June 3.