St. Louis City 2-1 LA Galaxy: Hartel strike stuns Western Conference leaders
St. Louis City ended their five-game winless run in the MLS with a battling maiden triumph against the LA Galaxy on Sunday.
Marcel Hartel's second-half strike compounded Western Conference leaders LA Galaxy to a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of St. Louis City.
Cedric Teuchert's early strike was cancelled out by Gabriel Pec's equaliser 50 seconds into the second half, only for Hartel, who signed from St. Pauli in July, to net his third goal on his sixth appearance for the club.
Having failed to win in their last five MLS fixtures, St. Louis took the lead with just nine minutes on the clock as Teuchert punished John McCarthy's poor clearance.
In a fairly even contest, parity was restored shortly after the interval as Galaxy substitute Miguel Berry made an instant impact from the bench with his flick finding Pec, who finished emphatically.
But Hartel would have the final say, steering Jayden Reid's inviting cross home in the 68th minute, leaving Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney disappointed in the result and his players, who were unable to adapt to the conditions.
“I'm disappointed in the result for sure. More for me, it's being able to manage the conditions and still be able to perform on things that we need to perform on the day," Vanney said.
"That's what's important in this time of the season. That then also translates into results. I think you'll see across the league at this time of year, we see it all during the year.
"We've got to be at the point in the season where we have to manage whatever the conditions are and still perform and execute upon the things that we need to execute to have the game look how we want it to look and see it out in the ways we need to.
"I felt like we didn't do that today. So it's disappointing. It happens in the course of the season. We have to bounce right back."
Data Debrief: Hero Hartel to the rescue
St. Louis' triumph saw them end a run of consecutive draws against the Galaxy, having shared the spoils in their last three encounters in the MLS.
Hartel was the player to strike the decisive blow and now has three MLS goal involvements (one goal and two assists) since his move to St. Louis in July.
Joseph Paintsil was a particular standout for the visitors, recording the most touches in the oppositions box (13) as well as playing 18 passes into the final third.