San Diego FC defeated St. Louis City FC, 2-1, at Energizer Park in St. Louis on Satuday.
Mikey Varas went with the expected lineup given Alex Mighten's injury, featuring the front three of Hirving Lozano, Onni Valakari and Anders Dreyer. Valakari in place of Mighten was the only alteration from the lineup that was able to obtain that 5-0 win against FC Dallas.
Roman Burki did not return from his injury for St. Louis as Ben Lundt kept his place in between the sticks. These teams had already faced each other at Snapdragon Stadium in what was a hard-fought scoreless draw.
The opening 45 minutes of this match were not very different from the previous encounter in San Diego. It was a rigid game of chess between two teams that were not making very many errors. The goal was not present but always seemed to be one pass or better shot shy of either team at Energizer Park.
San Diego controlled 57-percent possession, but St. Louis definitely had the more clear scoring opportunities in the first half. In the 39th minute CJ dos Santos saved a shot from Akil Watts inside of the penalty area.
The best chance from the first half came in the 45th minute when a shot off a free kick by Marcel Hartel smashed the post. The first big opportunity in the second half came in the 55th minute when a shot by Anders Dreyer from outside of the box hit the post.
The slow paced, hard-fought match decreased even more in excitement in the first few minutes of the second half. The first substitution from either team came in the 66th minute when Milan Iloski replaced Onni Valakari.
The Escondido, Calif. native made a significant impact as he scored from a shot from outside of the box in the 79th minute. Anibal Godoy racked up his first assist on the season on the scoring play in what was a magnificent individual effort by Iloski.
Varas' second substitution of the match came in the 80th minute when Oscar Verhoeven came on for Willy Kumado. SDFC maintained possession throughout the second half and really just tried to maintain that slim lead at Energizer Park. San Diego did well in controlling the sphere and almost doubled their lead towards the final whistle.
A shot by Iloski was saved by Ben Lundt while a shot from Anibal Godoy rattled the crossbar as the score remained 1-0. SDFC's persistence paid off as Anders Dreyer made a spectacular individual effort that resulted in the visitor's second goal.
The Danish forward took out Ben Lundt and was calm and precise to shoot at net to pad the lead. Olof Mellberg's formidable backline was not easy to break through for San Diego, but St. Louis' offense was just far too ineffective until it was too late.
Kyle Hiebert scored for the home team in stoppage time off a set-piece. The goal was checked by VAR, but with little time left it was not enough to significantly impact the final result.
The last few moments of the match were tough, but SDFC was able to maintain the 2-1 lead to gain the three points in the match. The win was a very significant one for the Chrome and Azul as it snapped a three-game losing streak on the road.
The offense did not completely erupt as it did against Dallas, but this was a very valuable result on the road. San Diego's persistence and Mikey Varas' key changes ended up making the difference in this match.
San Diego now has three consecutive home games and will have four total home games to close out the month of May. San Diego's next match will be against Coorado Rapids on Wednesday, May 14.