Milan Iloski scored in the 79th minute Saturday night to snap a scoreless tie and visiting San Diego FC continued its fine start to its expansion season in MLS with a 2-1 win over St. Louis City SC.
Serviced through Anibal Godoy, Iloski beat Ben Lundt with his team’s second shot on frame, a right-footer from just above the 18-yard box that found the lower left corner of the net. It was Iloski’s second goal of the year.
Anders Dreyer added insurance in the 87th minute with his fifth marker for San Diego (6-4-2, 20 points), taking advantage of a giveaway and then finishing clinically from an acute angle on the left side of the box. The visitors improved to third in the West table, sitting just two points behind second-place Minnesota.
Dreyer’s goal became critical when St. Louis’ Kyle Hiebert found the net’s backside in the first minute of stoppage time. But Hiebert’s goal wasn’t enough to stop his team’s recent slide. St. Louis (2-6-4, 10 points) is 0-5-3 in its last eight fixtures, dating back to a 1-0 blanking of Seattle on March 15.
San Diego finished with just over 56 percent of possession time. St. Louis had a 5-3 advantage in shots on net but goalie CJ dos Santos came up with four saves.
The storylines coming into this match were two-fold. While San Diego was looking for a follow-up to a 5-0 rout of Dallas on May 3, St. Louis continued its season-long search for more offensive punch. It came into this match with only eight goals, three in a road win over the winless LA Galaxy on March 8.
That search netted nothing in a first half, even though St. Louis came up with more shots in spite of San Diego’s decisive advantage in possession time. Joao Klauss had a decent chance in the 29th minute but couldn’t solve dos Santos and Marcel Hartel’s attempt just as the first half ended went begging.
–Field Level Media
