Ian Glavinovich’s early goal was all the Philadelphia Union needed Saturday night to hand St. Louis City its first loss, a 1-0 decision in Chester, Pa.
Philadelphia (4-1-0, 12 points) thoroughly controlled the match, outshooting the visitors 17-5 and putting eight shots on net to St. Louis’ one. Ben Lundt kept St. Louis (2-1-2, 8 points) in contention by making eight saves.
St. Louis’ chances of rallying were hindered by playing a man down after midfielder Eduard Lowen drew two yellow cards within 11 minutes and was sent off in the 66th minute. Union goalie Andrew Rick only had to make one save in his team’s second clean sheet of the season.
Quinn Sullivan squeezed off a match-high five shots for Philadelphia, which also got three shots on frame from Bruno Damiani. The Union possessed the ball for a whopping 73 percent of the match.
Cedric Teuchert managed St. Louis’ only shot on net in the 34th minute. St. Louis had a decent chance to equalize in the 82nd minute, but Marcel Hartel’s shot sailed over the crossbar.
Pregame storylines were almost too plentiful to mention. One was the teams’ first-ever matchup, as well as the first time Philadelphia coach Bradley Carnell has worked against the franchise where he coached for a year and a half before being dismissed last summer.
And St. Louis came into the evening with a chance to make MLS history. It hadn’t conceded in its first four fixtures and needed to play 68 more scoreless minutes to break Vancouver’s 13-year-old league mark of 427 consecutive minutes to start a season.
That quest didn’t make it past the eighth minute. The Union got a corner kick and Kai Wagner pounded it into the middle of the box. Glavinovich outpositioned a defender and headed it just inside the left post.
That highlighted a dominant half for Philadelphia, which outshot St. Louis 15-2 and put eight shots on frame to the visitors’ one.
–Field Level Media
