Jaziel Orozco, Joao Klauss, and Sang Bin Jeong each scored in St. Louis City’s 3-1 upset win over visiting Nashville SC on Saturday.
Despite the huge gap between Nashville (14-7-5, 47 points) and St. Louis (5-14-6, 21 points) in the standings, St. Louis City delivered perhaps their best performance of the season to win for just the third time in their last 21 matches.
The three goals matched St. Louis City’s season high for scoring and also tied the most goals allowed by Nashville SC in a match. Nashville had conceded only 26 goals in its first 25 matches of the season, and St. Louis City had scored just 24 times in their first 24 matches.
Hany Mukhtar converted a penalty kick in the 85th minute for Nashville SC, who are on a modest two-match losing streak.
In the 23rd minute, a corner kick bounced to Orozco, who took the ball almost perpendicular to the goal line. The defender then fired from the bad angle and scored his first goal in nine career MLS matches.
St. Louis City’s next tally came from a more familiar source in the 39th minute, as Klauss collected his team-leading eighth goal. The striker was in position to take the pass from a streaking Eduard Lowen and then deposited a shot that banked in off the goalpost.
Klauss left the match in the 62nd minute for a concussion check, and substitute Simon Becher made a quick impact four minutes later. Becher’s close-range shot was stopped by goalkeeper Joe Willis, but Becher was able to collect the rebound and send it across to Jeong for a header.
Mukhtar put Nashville SC on the board on his second attempt at a penalty kick. Goalkeeper Roman Burki stopped Mukhtar’s first kick, but a video review showed that Burki left his line early, resulting in a re-take.
St. Louis had to sweat out 15 minutes of second-half stoppage time, which included a would-be goal from Nashville in the 94th minute of play. However, Jacob Shaffelburg’s tally was quickly disallowed due to a foul called on Teal Bunbury in the goalkeeper’s box.
–Field Level Media
