St. Louis CITY SC closed out their Coachella Valley Invitational preseason tournament with a 3-3 draw against New York City FC. First-half goals from Akil Watts and Indiana Vassilev along with Eduard Löwen’s late strike ensured CITY took a point from the game.
CITY got off to a hot start and took a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the match through Watts, who powered a shot home from distance. In the 33rd minute, Isak Jensen was brought down in the box after being played in by Niko Gioacchini. Vassilev took the subsequent penalty kick and buried it in the left corner of the net. New York City FC got on the scoresheet to split the lead two minutes before the halftime.
CITY continued to create chances, but it was NYCFC that equalized in the 68th minute. NYCFC took a 3-2 lead in the 87th minute before Löwen slotted home a shot in the bottom corner to tie it up 3-3 with a minute left.
St. Louis CITY SC returns home to face Atlanta United in a closed door scrimmage on Saturday, February 18 to conclude their preseason preparation ahead of the season opener against Austin FC.
STARTING XI
Ben Lundt (Michael Creek 58’), Owen O’Malley (Njabulo Blom 58’), Josh Yaro (Kyle Hiebert 73’), Lucas Bartlett (Kyle Hiebert 73’), Selmir Pidro (John Nelson 73’), Akil Watts (Jake Nerwinski 78’), Miguel Perez (Eduard Löwen 73’), Indiana Vassilev (Aziel Jackson 58’), Celio Pompeu (Rasmus Alm 73’), Isak Jensen (Tomáš Ostrák 73’), Niko Gioacchini (Klauss 73’)
