St. Louis City SC has a strong start, weak finish but still comes away with its first road win

St. Louis City SC's performance against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night was not its best. The final 70 minutes saw wave after wave of attacks from the Quakes, with saves and clearances all over the place.

It may not have been the best, but it was a first, and at this point in the season, that's what mattered most. City SC rode two early goals and a healthy dose of desperation to a 2-1 win over San Jose for the team's first road win of the season, in its 15th game away from CityPark.

All season long, City SC has had chances to win on the road and not done it. In its past three road games, it has held the lead in the 70th minute and been unable to close out the game and had to settle for a tie. This time, despite how City SC did it, it did it and took itself out of contention for becoming just the 11th team in league history to go winless on the road for a full season.

"I don't think we played particularly well," said City SC interim coach John Hackworth. "What we did do is we defended the box very bravely, brilliantly, and at times made some key ball winning moments. [Roman] Burki makes some great saves to help our team out. And at the end of the day, we do get our first road win of the year and three additional points, and that's something that the team set out to do in these last five games. I think this is one of those hurdles that we just got over, and now we've got to go try to do it again."

"It's a great feeling," said Cedric Teuchert, who joined the team in the summer transfer window and hasn't been around for much of the road agony this season, but still knew the problem. "I think this was our (goal) this week. We won the first game on the road to get the three points, and we are very happy about that."

While the win may have been a boost for morale after City SC had six losses and eight ties in its previous 14 road games, it did nothing to improve City SC's last-gasp playoff chances. In fact, the team moved closer to the brink of mathematic elimination. Minnesota United, in the ninth and final playoff spot in the West, beat Sporting Kansas City 2-0. So even with its win, City SC is one point, either lost by it or won by Minnesota, away from being officially out. There is one playoff scenario remaining for City SC: It goes 4-0 while Minnesota goes 0-4.

And City SC did it without a full squad. Eduard Lowen has been battling a sore hamstring and Hackworth, terming it a precaution, opted to leave him home rather than risk it. Then Chris Durkin, who left last week's game at the half with a badly inflamed knee, had to leave this one in the 23rd minute after he took a blow to the knee again. At the time Durkin came out of the game, City SC had played without either Durkin or Lowen on the field for just 62 minutes all season. On Saturday, it had to go 67 minutes without its midfield stalwarts.

"(Durkin's) knee yesterday and today was fine," Hackworth said, "but he took a knock, and then he hit a ball, and he just felt it really be very weak. He gave it his best shot, which is what Durkin does. But at the same time, I told him, 'you're suffering. I don't want you to suffer.'

"There's a lot of tough decisions that as a coaching staff we have to make. Resting a guy like Edu who is so important to us knowing that we wanted to come on the road and get a victory. That's a really hard decision. Playing Durkin is equally part of a decision. But the difference between the two, to be very specific, is that Durkin wasn't going to hurt himself anymore. Edu could potentially have pulled his hamstrings, and that soft tissue injury is not something that I want to put a player in harm's way."

The team also was without center back Henry Kessler, who is still in the concussion protocol, so the team matched its different cast to a different script. City SC leads the league in points lost from a winning position with 25, and it very nearly added to that total. City SC led 2-0 after 13 minutes on goals by Teuchert, scoring his fourth goal in five games as he deftly touched in a cross from Jannes Horn while Rasmus Alm, making his first start since June, drew defenders away with a run, and Marcel Hartel, who converted a penalty kick. But a 2-0 lead is no guarantee of anything when it comes to City SC. City SC came into the game with a 1-1-1 record when it led 2-0 and sure enough, San Jose pulled within one in the 40th minute and then it just seemed a matter of time until San Jose found a path through a defense once again cobbled together.

"The halftime talk was not easy," Hackworth said. "It was difficult because we should have been in a much better position to control the game in the second half. ... We haven't (closed out games) very well. We've lost points from this position previously, but tonight we didn't. So I was really upset with the latter part of the first half, because I think it was self-inflicted. We gave the ball away far too easy. We didn't take what San Jose was giving us, but I think it's part of what this team has to get through, and we did it tonight. We watched their team come back against Seattle on Wednesday night, so we didn't give up that second goal. And that's a big step forward."

"We started very well," Teuchert said, "and after 20 minutes, I think we lost a little bit of the game."

City SC may still be working on finishing well, but it's got the quick start down. Teuchert's goal was the second straight game he scored in the fourth minute. He also has a goal in the ninth minute among his four goals.

"I love our start," Hackworth said. "The last thing I said to the guys when I was in the postgame was, we need to finish the last 20 minutes the same way we start the game in the first 20 minutes."

And the team continues to reap the benefits of its new faces from the summer transfer window. Teuchet and Hartel scored, Hartel drew the penalty that led to the PK and Horn's pass set up Teuchert's goal. The past seven goals for City SC have been scored by a summer acquisition. Hartel has two goals and five assists in five matches, and his seven goal contributions is one behind team leaders Klauss and Lowen, who have been here the whole season.

Hackworth has talked about the team's lack of ruthlessness and inability to put teams away. It didn't exactly put San Jose away, but it didn't manage to hold on, which has to count for something.

"I'm sitting there saying we were pretty ruthless in our defending of the box for that last 70 minutes," Hackworth said. "So you got to give credit where credit is due. And we haven't been good at that. And we were really good at that tonight."

Soccer reporter