St. Louis, MO – Saint Louis FC fell to a 1-0 loss to the Richmond Kickers in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,725 at Toyota Stadium in Week 31 of the USL regular season.
Richmond broke the deadlock shortly after halftime as Matt Bolduc was found in space on the right side of the box and slotted the ball underneath the diving Devala Gorrick. Saint Louis FC would look for an answer and had a number of opportunities at the end of the second half but could not find the equalizer. The final game of the 2017 season will be played away to Bethlehem Steel FC on Sunday, October 15th at 2:00 pm CT.
The first half saw Saint Louis FC dominate possession and have a majority of the goal scoring chances. A counter attack in the 11th minute finished with an Emir Alihodzic shot from outside the box but his effort went just wide. In the 29th minute, Wes Charpie created space for himself on the left wing and put in a great cross that found the head of Christian Volesky but his header was collected by Richmond goalkeeper Travis Worra. The final opportunity for the home side came in the 44th minute as Eric Cabalceta connected with the corner kick taken by Emmanuel Appiah but the shot went wide.
The second half saw Richmond grab the lead after just 33 seconds as Bolduc collected the ball on the right side from a counter attack which started from a misplaced pass in the midfield from Saint Louis FC. Head Coach Preki made a couple of substitutions to turn the tide in the 55th minute as Tyler David and Tyler Feeley replaced Ivan Mirkovic and Emmanuel Appiah, respectively, but the home side struggled to create chances. In the 77th minute, fellow substitute Max Alvarez had a great free kick effort that was deflected wide for a corner kick. However, STLFC could not find the equalizer and ended the 2017 season with a 7-6-3 record at Toyota Stadium.