City wins second game in a row

The road still seems bumpy for St. Louis City SC, but the results have started to get better.

Twelve games into the season, City SC can finally claim a winning streak, beating Los Angeles FC 2-1 on Wednesday night at Energizer Park. This being City SC, the team got goals not from its forwards but from two left wing backs, Tomas Totland in the fourth minute and Rafael Santos in the 64th, in beating LAFC for the first time in club history in its eighth try. The team lost center back Jaziel Orozco, who was playing on the right wing Wednesday, to injury just seven minutes in, and coach Yoann Damet said he doesn’t expect him to play in any of the three games before the World Cup break.

With not many roster changes between the end of last season and the start of this season and certainly no big ones, St. Louis City SC’s payroll hasn’t changed much either, dropping the team from 13th-highest in Major League Soccer to 18th overall.

According to numbers released Tuesday by the Major League Soccer Players Association, the team’s payroll, including bonuses factored over the life of the contract, is $18,809,928, up $703,217 from the end of 2024. That number pales in comparison to the $54,574,541 spent by Inter Miami, which has two of the three highest-paid players in the league. Miami’s payroll dwarfs every team in the league: The next highest payroll is City SC’s opponent on Wednesday, Los Angeles FC, at $32,648,541.

The way this season has gone, St. Louis City SC is in no position to be picky. So even though the team managed to turn a rare early lead and a man advantage for most of the second half into a frantic finish, the team welcomed its 1-0 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night in Commerce City, Colorado, like the rare gem it is.

“We’ll take it,” said defender Jaziel Orozco, “we’ll take the three points. But for sure, it’s something that the team has to build on, learn from it for sure, and then in the future we can learn from that and put it to work.”