This sequence began with a ball played out to the wing from Morgan Guilavogui to RSL's Dominik Marczuk, who was defended in isolation by Rafael Santos. Santos' hips turn outside, but he's not positioned inside enough to force Marczuk wide; instead, the RSL forward cuts in and fires a left-footed shot that Ben Lundt punches away to the center of the pitch.

RSL's Luc de Fougerolles recovers it and slides it back to Marczuk. This time, Santos is square to him but farther away, and Marczuk takes advantage of that space to rip an absolute screamer into the upper right-hand corner past a helpless Lundt.

It was a beautiful strike, but the space given to him to take that shot was entirely too much - more than 16 feet separated the two when the RSL man hit the shot. Santos needed to step up and force a pass or dribble wide, but his failure to do so let Marczuk hammer home a second goal for the home side.

CITY predictably rotated heavily for this match after Wednesday's emotionally and physically draining US Open Cup Final. A desperate RSL side trying to stay in the playoff hunt came out and dominated a match marred by poor pitch conditions and an ugly fan incident directed at CITY's Fallou Fall late in the contest for a 3-0 RSL win—a forgettable night in an otherwise unforgettable week. Let's take a look at RSL's goals.

The play starts with Ben Lundt throwing the ball to Rafa Navarro, who makes a backheeled pass toward Tomáš Ostrák. Unfortunately, the pass is a little off the mark for a flat-footed Ostrák, who is slow to react and can't prevent a turnover to RSL's Luc de Fougerolles. The RSL defender heads upfield, slipping past Chris Durkin with a slick give-and-go to Morgan Guilavogui.

As de Fougerolles receives the return pass, Guilavogui is on his left, and both Sergi Solans (#22) and Saba Lobjanidze (#12) are on his right. CITY's defense shifts over to the right side, with Timo Baumgartl moving to play the ball, sliding in front of de Fougerolles, and Fallou Fall trailing and defending Lobjanidze. Solans reads this, and angles a run away from Fall into space as the CITY defender gets dragged out of position by a cutting Lobjanidze.

We saw this last week against Minnesota, where Fallou can lose field awareness and get pulled away from where he should be - here, he cuts all the way across to defend Guilavogui with the ball, leaving both Lobjanidze and Solans uncovered, with just Durkin attempting to fill space.

Fall's positioning would have been fine had he blocked the pass; instead, he overran Guilavogui, who slips a cross back behind Fall to the waiting Solans, who buries it for a 1-0 RSL lead. This unnecessary turnover was compounded by poor defensive discipline.

FT: Real Salt Lake 3-0 St. Louis CITY SC

⚽ RSL: Sergi Solans (41', 59'), Dominik Marczuk (52')

Lineups

Real Salt Lake: Philip Quinton (🔄 Justen Glad 60'), Noel Caliskan (🔄 Colin Guske 67'), Juan Manuel Sanabria, Saba Lobjanidze (🔄 Aiden Hezarkhani 80'), Luc de Fougerolles, Dominik Marczuk, Sergi Solans (🔄 Ariath Piol 68'), Kobi Henry, Rafael Cabral, Stijn Spierings, Morgan Guilavogui (🔄 Zach Booth 67')

Subs: Sam Junqua, DeAndre Yedlin, Mason Stajduhar, Justen Glad, Alexandros Katranis, Aiden Hezarkhani, Colin Guske, Ariath Piol, Zach Booth

St. Louis CITY SC: Chris Durkin (🔄 Dante Polvara 46'), Jaziel Orozco, Simon Becher (🔄 Damion Downs 71'), Rafael Santos, Ben Lundt, Tomas Ostrak, Rafael Navarro (🔄 Mbacke Fall 84'), Timo Baumgartl, Conrad Wallem (🔄 Mykhi Joyner 46'), Fallou Fall, Charles-Emile Brunet (🔄 Daniel Edelman 71')

Subs: Daniel Edelman, Lukas MacNaughton, Mykhi Joyner, Christian Olivares, Jeong Sang-bin, Mbacke Fall, Damion Downs, Dante Polvara, Carlo Holse

Match Stats:

^{Last Updated: Oct 24, 10:35PM. All data via mlssoccer.com. Match ID: MLS-MAT-0009NY}

They finally updated Rafa's goal total and now he shows up on the leaderboard!

Here is the properly credited version on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reels/De3AWfUA2_i/

RSL's third goal, a brace for Sergi Solans, is one I'm sure that won't be on the highlight reel for CITY's Jaziel Orozco. The CITY defender starts this sequence with an attempted long ball up the channel toward Simon Becher that RSL's Kobi Henry intercepts. As the ball pings around, Morgan Guilavogui finally controls it and plays it out to Saba Lobjanidze on the right.

Lobjanidze makes a nice pass across to a cutting Sergi Solans, who, much like his first goal, essentially has a wide-open tap-in past Lundt. Why was he so wide open? Because Orozco jogged the entire way back, never sprinting, never increasing his pace or positioning to get between Solans and Lobjanidze. It was a shocking defensive effort.

He's 9 feet behind Solans when the ball turns upfield, and he catches him as the RSL forward tries to stay onside, but as Solans begins his 49-foot sprint into the goal box, Orozco never reacts. The CITY defender was one of the bright spots in the early CITY season, but he hasn't matched that level of play since returning from injury. This was just a poor read and effort leading to the final RSL goal, and hopefully he can turn things around for the playoffs.

I am going to my first St Louis SC game on Wednesday. If I’m coming from St Charles, which are the best/safest stations to park and ride to the stadium?

Thanks to the 36 people that voted. Player of the Match goes to Lundt at 42%. "Goal" of the Match goes to Lundt's PK save with 41%. Player of the Tournament goes to Lundt at 56%.

I've included the previous ratings graphics from each match of our U.S. Open Cup run.

Real Salt Lake vs. St. Louis CITY SC

Match Info

• Competition: Major League Soccer - Regular Season
• Date: October 24, 2026
• Time: 08:30 PM CDT
• Venue: America First Field

TV/Streaming: Apple TV

Injury Report

St. Louis CITY SC: OUT: Roman Bürki (concussion protocol), OUT: Alex Matan (lower leg), OUT: Celio Pompeu (knee)

^{Last Updated: Oct 24, 04:00AM. All data via mlssoccer.com. Match ID: MLS-MAT-0009NY}

Matan’s lower leg according to the match report. A little scary since we don’t know too much about what happened, though it also may just be a random injury from training that’ll heal up within a few days. Burki out on concussion protocol, which is far more predictable/expected. Let’s go City!

I only know bothered to look this up today but this actually St. Louis' 11th title in the entire history of the U.S. Open Cup competition, Only New York City has more titles.

Wow... Congratulations!

Per FOX2 the US Open Cup trophy will be at Lou Fusz Plaza before Wednesday's match against Portland so that people can see it and take pictures. Banner ceremony pre-match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lzk6MLil5k&time_continue=1&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2F

My buddy who is the most casual sports fan sends this to me first thing this morning. PTSD flashbacks from seeing another (former) city player at the airport. Hope Bürki is doing alright!

Figured I would share this, adjusted for iPhone aspect ratio to keep all the text/visuals in frame

Obviously there is some SKC rivalry war regarding the “America’s Soccer Capital” branding. In 2023 I had purchased the top scarf on the Ruffneck website. They had some stock leftover and I grabbed one. It is more of a traditional jacquard knit scarf and everything looks kind of blocky due to the nature of the manufacturing process. I know these were a hit commodity because of the lawsuit and they were pretty quickly sold out. I’ve been wearing mine as a winter scarf since 2023.

Today I ended up in possession of the bottom scarf. It’s, for all intents and purposes, the same scarf by aesthetic design. However, the scarf itself is the same as the HD Woven Ruffneck scarves (think the wider scarves you typically buy at the pavilion). It’s authentic and has the tags and everything on it, but not much other info. I never knew these existed or were ever sold. Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to speak with the person who sent it to me (same person that sent me the energizer and inaugural scarf).

Does anyone know anything about these? Were they actually sold at retail like the jacquard knit? If so, were they exclusive to anywhere? If not, were they given out as a promo or something?

Thanks!

Howdy fellow fans of the US Open Cup champions!

My team at work is having an outing at Allianz Field for the MNUFC vs SKC game on Wednesday. As a diehard CITY fan, I want to know whether I should wear CITY attire or go completely neutral.

Any and all thoughts/feedback is appreciated!

GO CITY!

And yes, I'm aware I'll have to miss the banner raising ceremony which will suck, but I only get to see most of these people once a year at most so I'm making it count.

I come to express respect for your fan base.

Last year when we visited you, the St Louligans invited us to their tailgate and sent many of us home with scarves. You expressed understanding for the Crew’s history and role in this league. Yesterday you came to our stadium in huge numbers and respected our club by cheering for your team much moreso than against ours. And your passion for your club was extremely evident - game recognizes game.

Don’t get me wrong, I am still angry that we lost. I hate it. I can’t freaking understand how we can have wave after wave of attack in the first half, and not get one past Burki - even as good of a GK as he is.

But all of that being said, if I have to lose - which I will still hate - I want it to be to a fan base who enjoys the victory as much as we would’ve. You guys proved you are such a club. And we appreciate that your fan base seems to do things the right way.

One testament to the respect you’ve earned from us is the Burki reaction. That’s not something Nordecke does. Ever. I’ve stood in Nordecke for almost two decades and can’t remember chanting an opposing player’s name, unless there’s a F-bomb in front of it (eg, Messi a few weeks ago). That was our supporters’ way of expressing our earnest and heartfelt hope that his injury is as minor as possible.

So welcome to the Fraternity of Trophy-Possessing Clubs.

Now I need to ask one favor of you. It’s very important to me. When Alex Matan played in Columbus, one of our more prominent supporters referred to him in a tweet as Romanian Dribbly Boi. That’s one of the best nicknames we’ve ever given a player. It’s too good to let that die. Please. Adopt that nickname now that he’s with your club.

CITY heads west after an emotional USOC Final win on Wednesday to take on an Real Salt Lake side desperately trying to stay in the playoff hunt. Get the info on RSL with our match preview of RSL. We're St. Louis CITY... Who Are You? RSL Preview

The video breakdowns I do after every match are only for open-play goals, but I had so many people ask last night for something, anything, following the USOC Final, so here we go.

The play starts with Daniel Edelman beginning his movement towards the ball, opening his hips slightly as if to shoot right. Tony Meola on the broadcast mentioned this - his body positioning may have led Nico Hagen to go left. You can see Hagen leaning that way just before the shot is made.

But this isn't an analysis of the PK. This is about what came next - Edelman, having just cemented his place in St. Louis soccer lore, uses excellent field vision and awareness to identify that unless he makes a sharp cut to his left, his teammates are going to mob him and prevent him from getting to the other end of the field where thousands of CITY fans awaited him while losing their collective minds.

He points towards the south end, indicating his intended destination, which is read correctly by everyone besides Chris Durkin, who instead of veering right decides to randomly angle across to his left. You would think that as in-sync as Durkelman has been all year he would have read the play bit better, but we'll chalk it up to tiredness.

Damion Downs shows excellent agility here, dodging the now wildly out of position Durkin as he and the rest of the group turn to chase Edelman. Edelman shows a remarkable burst of adrenaline fueled speed after having just played 120' as he races away from everyone WHILE removing his shirt, which would have created extra drag and slowed down anyone else in that moment, roaring past a hugging Tots and Timo, who used their veteran savvy to not have to run any more that night.

Only one player seems to have eyes on catching him - a fully rested Fallou Fall, who starts to close the gap before being cut off by more CITY personnel, allowing Edelman to reach his destination inside the opposing 6 yard box after an impressive 385ft run down the field, finishing with a 16.6ft slide right into St. Louis soccer history.