St. Louis City shook off a two-hour weather delay to lead by three goals at halftime and never looked back in a 5-1 rout of visiting FC Cincinnati on Saturday night.
The win ended St. Louis City’s two-game losing streak, while Cincinnati (5-1-2, 17 points) suffered its first setback of the season. St. Louis (6-2-0, 18 points) moved to the top of the Western Conference with the victory.
A tornado warning and lightning in the area delayed kickoff for over two hours, but Jared Stroud and SLC took next to no time to strike.
In the third minute, St. Louis won a free kick to the left of Cincinnati’s box. The cross was redirected and fell to Stroud, who put a right-footed shot past Roman Celentano to open the scoring.
Eduard Lowen doubled the lead in the 39th minute after a spell of St. Louis possession. An attempted shot bounced high into the air and as it fell, Lowen swung through and volleyed it into the ground, through traffic, and into the bottom corner of the net to Celentano’s right.
Then in first-half stoppage time, Stroud got involved in the goalscoring again. He gathered a header to the right of the Cincinnati box, then picked out a picture-perfect cross to the penalty spot. Kyle Hiebert slipped in unmarked and headed it home.
After halftime, Cincinnati came out aggressive and put St. Louis under pressure for the first eight minutes. Then Rasmus Alm slipped a pass to Nicholas Gioacchini, who calmly finished past Celentano to make it 4-0.
The nightmare continued for Celentano in the 57th minute. Alm gathered a bouncing ball outside the box and unleashed a rocket toward the goal. The ball beat the diving Celentano, found the post, then bounced in off Celentano’s back for an own goal.
Celentano finished with three saves on the night, while St. Louis City keeper Roman Burki finished with four.
Cincinnati ended St. Louis’ shutout bid in the 62nd minute. Second-half substitute Dominique Badji kickstarted a counter before getting the return pass to run into the box. He then found Sergio Santos, who guided a shot into an open net.
–Field Level Media