ST. LOUIS −There were two deluges at CityPark on Saturday. One came in the form of severe weather that delayed the start of the match by more than two hours, and one came during the 90 minutes as St. Louis City SC rained goals down on FC Cincinnati.
St. Louis City, the high-flying expansion franchise now leading all of Major League Soccer in the standings, toppled previously-undefeated FC Cincinnati, 5-1, Saturday at CityPark. The loss was the first of the year for FCC, which dropped to 5-1-2 and remained tied for first in the Eastern Conference.
St. Louis improved to 6-2-0 and moved ahead of Cincinnati in the lead for the Supporters Shield, which is a monumental accomplishment two months into the expansion team's existence.
The inundation arrived early in the match. Jared Stroud rocketed a goal in for 1-0 in the third minute. Two late first-half goals - one apiece from Eduard Löwen and Kyle Hiebert - effectively put the game out of FCC's reach before the intermission.
FC Cincinnati was shorthanded in the contest and played without the injured Luciano Acosta, as well as Brenner Souza da Silva, who appears headed for the exit to Udinese of Italy's Serie A. But even with those absences, FC Cincinnati's disappointed in the first half.
In a likely acknowledgement of that, FCC head coach Pat Noonan made three substitutions at halftime. Cincinnati's play improved marginally but the score didn't. By the 57th minute, a Nicholas Gioacchini goal followed by an unfortunate Roman Celentano own-goal he could do nothing about made the score 5-0.
Sergio Santos fought for a consolation goal in the 62nd minute. It was his team-leading third goal of 2023, and it wasn't much consolation.
The final whistle
It was a night FC Cincinnati fans will want to forget but probably won't be able to for all the most painful reasons.
St. Louis won, 5-1, and took the lead in the MLS Supporters Shield standings. FC Cincinnati's loss is its first in 2023 as it drops to 5-1-2. FCC will remain tied atop the Eastern Conference and tied with New England Revolution. The coming week will be more about sifting through the wreckage of this match than worrying about the standings.
Something to feel good about (62')
All three FC Cincinnati forwards combined as Sergio Santos tapped the ball over the line off a feed from Dominique Badji for 5-1. FCC could roll over and quit, but they're not. The goal for Santos was his team-leading third of 2023.
It's really a rout (57')
Continuing with the idea that this simply isn't FC Cincinnati's night: A St. Louis City shot from the top of the box hit off the post, caromed straight back into the back of goalkeeper Roman Celentano's head, and over the line for an own-goal. It's 5-0. Perhaps now it's time for FCC to close up shop on this game.
It's a rout (53')
FC Cincinnati had a nice period of possession going. Three were three corner kicks, too. But St. Louis went back down the field and Nicholas Gioacchini scored on the break for 4-0. It's just going to be one of those nights for FC Cincinnati.
St. Louis cruises into halftime
Tonight's severe-weather delay gave way to the worst half of soccer FC Cincinnati's produced in a long time. This is reminiscent of a bygone era in the team's history. Not only is FCC's defense leaking goals but it's attack is listless. There's been possession in the attacking third but rarely an end product. Cincinnati has one shot on goal and has a long climb to go to make this anything close to respectable.
The wheels are off (45+')
Kyle Hiebert heads in St. Louis City's third of the night and the rout is on.
2-nil (39')
Leaving the ball to bounce and carom around in dangerous areas isn't ever part of FCC's recipe for success, and especially not tonight. Eduard Löwen punished Cincinnati for failing to clear after John Nelson had a great run forward against his former club.
FC Cincy hanging on (35')
A lot about the tone of this match doesn't seem to suit FC Cincinnati, including the fact that it's surprisingly emotional and chippy. St. Louis has had a few good looks to double its lead but not recently. FCC's managing to hang around, which is the path forward for them to get a result out of this game while shorthanded.
St. Louis strikes early (3')
Jared Stroud rocketed a shot past Roman Celentano for 1-0. The goal came on the secondary phase of a free-kick for St. Louis, which resulted from a needless Alvaro Barreal foul.
Soccer, finally (1')
After a two hour, 11-minute delay for severe weather, including a tornado warning, FC Cincinnati and St. Louis City SC are underway.
We have lineups!
FC Cincinnati starting XI: Roman Celentano (GK), Alvaro Barreal (LB), Yerson Mosquera (CB), Matt Miazga (CB, captain), Nick Hagglund (CB), Santiago Arias (RB), Junior Moreno (MF), Obinna Nwobodo (CDM), Quimi Ordonez (F), Brandon Vazquez (F), Sergio Santos (F).
St. Louis starting XI: Roman Bürki (GK, captain), Jake Nerwinski, Tim Parker, Kyle Hiebert, John Nelson, Eduard Lowen, Indiana Vassilev, Jared Stroud, Rasmus Alm, Nike Giacchini, João Klauss.
We have a tentative kickoff time
Tonight's match will begin at 10:49 p.m. ET if no further major weather delays occur. The rain isn't falling as hard. Claps of thunder are less frequent and both clubs have coaches on the field preparing their respective halves of the pitch for warm-ups. There's light at the end of the tunnel, it seems.
The delay continues (8:50 p.m. ET)
A lightning-related warning continues to force fans from sitting in the CityPark seating bowl, though. MLS360 on AppleTV reports a scheduled start time for FC Cincinnati-St. Louis at around 10 p.m. but that hasn't been announced in CityPark or made official anywhere else.
Lightning in the area continues to make for quite a light show.
Storm reaches CityPark (7:50 p.m. ET)
It's dark as night, the wind is howling, rain is pouring down on CityPark and it now appears very likely the start time of the match will be impacted. Everyone in the stadium is still being told to shelter. No formal announcement has been made regarding the status of the match and how it might be delayed.
Tornado warning (7:30 p.m. ET)
Things have taken a serious turn at CityPark, which is under a tornado warning. Everyone in the stadium is sheltering.
The first weather delay of the night (7:15 p.m. ET)
There's no rain at CityPark yet but fans have been asked to clear the stadium's seating bowl due to severe weather in the area. This was more or less expected at some point tonight.
There's no official word on whether this will impact the scheduled 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff. Neither team has set up their half of the field for warm-ups, though.
The weather
A large swath of Missouri including all of St. Louis is under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CT, although the sun is out through the city's Downtown areas including near City Park as of about 5:30 p.m. There's no reason to think FC Cincinnati-St. Louis won't get their match in tonight but there's severe weather moving through the region that could impact the west side of downtown St. Louis at or around tonight's scheduled 7:30 p.m. kickoff time. League officials are likely monitoring the weather situation relative to the match at this point.
More:Source: FC Cincinnati's Brenner Souza da Silva nearing transfer to Italian club Udinese
Pre-match team news:
We don't have to wait for the starting lineups to know FC Cincinnati will see some major changes to its regular starting lineup for its first-ever match against St. Louis City SC. Captain Luciano Acosta and midfielder Yuya Kubo have both been ruled out due to injury. Acosta suffered a shoulder injury in last week's match against Philadelphia Union while Kubo hasn't played in a month. Brenner Souza da Silva, who appears to be close to finalizing his transfer move to Italy's Serie A side, Udinese, wasn't seen by media members during the team's Friday training session, meaning his status is very much in doubt.
More:Preview: FC Cincinnati preps for first-ever match against St. Louis City SC
Weather stat
FC Cincinnati's never had a match postponed or rescheduled due to severe weather since it entered MLS.
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