ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Saint Louis FC fell 2-0 against FC Tulsa at West Community Stadium in Match 7 of the USL Championship regular season.
FC Tulsa opened the scoring in the 43rd minute as Eric Bird hit a shot from distance that took a deflection to wrong-foot STLFC goalkeeper Kyle Morton. They would close out the game in second half stoppage time as Darío Suárez slotted home from the top of the penalty area to claim all three points and FC Tulsa’s first win at West Community Stadium. The result sees Saint Louis FC drop to 3-3-1 with 10 points in Group E while FC Tulsa remains undefeated at 2-0-2 with 8 points in Group D.
The first half saw Saint Louis FC on the front foot while FC Tulsa remained compact and used the space out wide to counter. The first chance would fall to Kadeem Dacres as he took a shot from the right side that was palmed away by Tulsa goalkeeper Sean Lewis in the 7th minute. FC Tulsa would respond with a shot from distance from Lebo Moloto which forced a diving save from Morton in the 14th minute. The STLFC goalkeeper would be called to make another save, this time from Ariel Martínez at the near post, in the 22nd minute. Saint Louis FC then nearly broke the deadlock in the 37th minute as Kyle Greig got on the end of a corner kick but his header crashed off the back post. FC Tulsa would then capitalize just before halftime as Bird let loose from distance and the ball hit off Wal Fall and past a helpless Morton to see the away side up 1-0 going into the break.
The second half was more of the same and Saint Louis FC looked to break down a compact and physical FC Tulsa side. Phanuel Kavita, the hero from Wednesday night’s game, nearly equalized in the 68th minute but his shot dipped just over the crossbar following a throw-in. Just as Saint Louis FC continued to put the pressure on and look to replicate their last-gasp draw with Sporting KC II midweek, FC Tulsa would put the game away in the 91st minute as Suárez found the bottom corner for his first goal of the season.
“It’s kind of like the last game, I thought we did enough – especially in the first half – to control the game and they caused us some problems in transition, but it’s the same problems in the final third to get quality service and quality runs in the box,” said STLFC Head Coach Steve Trittschuh. “It’s one of the things we worked on in training leading up to the game, but something is not clicking right now, so we just have to keep going.”
