Joao Klauss scored a pair of second-half goals as St. Louis City SC stayed unbeaten and untied with a 4-0 victory over Real Salt Lake in Sandy, Utah on Saturday night.
Nicholas Gioacchini and Rasmus Alm each scored goals after halftime as well for City SC. Roman Burki earned his second consecutive clean sheet.
St. Louis (5-0-0, 15 points) scored on 50 percent of its shots on goal.
Salt Lake (1-3-0, 3 points) lost its second straight home match and has dropped three straight overall. RSL has scored just one goal in the three. Salt Lake generated 19 shots and put eight on frame but couldn’t find a way to break through.
St. Louis got on the board in the 47th minute with Gioacchini’s goal. Indiana Vassilev crossed a corner kick in to Gioacchini, and he buried a left-footer from the center of the box to open the floodgates for City SC’s offense.
Klauss put home his first goal in the 61st minute. He blasted a right-footer from outside the top edge of the box and spun the ball inside the right post to give St. Louis a two-goal lead.
Then, in the 66th minute, Klauss latched onto an errant pass and broke away from three defenders. He threaded the ball past Zac MacMath and buried it inside the left post.
Alm put the icing on the cake for St. Louis with his first goal of the season in the 76th minute.
Salt Lake and St. Louis both had near misses on potential goals during a scoreless first half.
City SC’s best chance came when Lucas Bartlett uncorked a header from the center of the 6-yard box in the 10th minute. His shot landed right in the arms of MacMath.
RSL nearly got on the board in the final minute before halftime. Brayan Vera blasted a line-drive right-footer inside the 6-yard box. Burki dived to his right to deny the goal.
Salt Lake had an 6-3 advantage in total shots in the first 45 minutes. Both clubs placed two shots on frame in that stretch.
–Field Level Media
