CITY SC snaps winless streak, beats San Jose in 1st match for interim head coach John Hackworth

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - St. Louis CITY SC broke their nine-match winless streak Wednesday in a home match against the San Jose Earthquakes. It was the team’s first win since May 11 in a match against the Chicago Fire.

The win was preceded by a news-filled week for the club. On Monday, the team announced the firing of the team’s first head coach, who led the team during their remarkable inaugural season, Roman Bürki, made the All-Star team for the second year in a row.

The following day, the team announced the g of a new Designated Player, 28-year-old German midfielder Marcel Hartel.

The Wednesday night match started with a more familiar starting 11 than the club’s previous match against Vancouver, a match in which they lost 3-4 after having a two-goal lead in the first half.

Returning to the starting 11 were both the team’s captain, Bürki, and co-captain, Tim Parker. Bürki had been out for a rest day while Parker had suffered an injury, although he was available as a sub for the Saturday match.

CITY midfielder Eduard Löwen started the scoring Wednesday night in front of the home crowd 28 minutes into the match. After a series of es up the field from CITY’s end of the pitch, Indiana “Indy” Vassilev made a to Löwen, who was left wide-open by San Jose defenders at the top of the box. A quick, low shot by Löwen bounced over the mits of the San Jose keeper to get CITY on the board.

CITY midfielder Hosei Kijima doubled the team’s lead in minute 41, earning his first MLS goal. The goal came from a set piece a few yards outside of San Jose’s box. Vassilev crossed the ball into the box where Kijima was able to redirect it into the back of the net.

CITY continued to press San Jose during the entire 90-minute match, with 23 shots, eight of those on target.

The 2-0 win gave CITY its first win since May and Bürki his sixth clean sheet, with five of those clean sheets coming from matches at CITYPARK.

San Jose sits at the very bottom of the Western Conference with three wins, 16 losses and two ties this season. CITY has faired slightly better this season, with four wins, seven losses and 10 ties. CITY sits in 11th place in the Western Conference standings with 22 points. This puts CITY five points under 10th place Austin.

Before Wednesday’s match, CITY was in 12th place, tied with 20 points against FC Dallas.

Despite the win in front of the home crowd, it has been a difficult week for the club following the firing of Carnell, according to some of the players.

“For me, it’s been difficult,” Vassilev said in a post-game interview. “But at the end of the day, it’s part of the job, and in situations like this, you kind of have to compartmentalize and move on to the next game. Having said that, I think Bradley [Carnell] was a fantastic coach for this club. I think he set so many records for us. I think at a certain stage, players have to respond and back their coach up, and sadly, that came a little bit too late for us.”

Vassilev told reporters that he feels guilt following the firing of Carnell, but that guilt is motivating him as the season goes on. Vassilev also told reporters that he has known interim coach Hackworth for nearly a decade.

“He was probably the one person that you could have put there right now for me, to where I can go in there and I can give everything for him,” Vassilev said. “So that made it easier for me to play for him, because I’ve known him, and we have that.”

Interim coach Hackworth started his post-game interview by saying that it has been a difficult week for the CITY players, but their resiliency signed through.

“So for us, while it’s very satisfying, it’s not a game that we are going to go crazy about and celebrate and say we’ve turned our season around,” Hackworth said. “We haven’t. It’s the first step in trying to get us back in the right direction.”

Before his time in front of reporters during post-game interviews ended, Bürki took time to thank previous head coach Carnell.

“From me to Bradley, thank you,” Bürki said. “Thank you for trusting me.”

CITY plays again on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Colorado sits in fifth place in the Western Conference standings, which will be a true test of CITY’s interim coach.

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