The Villages SC 5–1 St. Louis City 2
A preseason friendly, at home, against the reigning MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference champions — and we put five past them.
Who they were. St. Louis City 2 won the MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference in 2022 and came to us as the reserve side of St. Louis City SC, weeks away from their MLS debut.
The match was free and open to the public. Bring your own chair, as ever.
5–1.
Our eleven:
1 Andrew Muller · 3 Yago Lopes · 4 Joel Hernandez · 5 Austin Lukasik · 7 Juan Felipe Rojas · 8 Joao Ribeiro · 11 Lucas Mauro · 17 David Polanco · 19 Neel Islam · 20 Fernando Abreu · 30 Fabio Amaral
Substitutes: 12 Antonio Costa · 14 Nelson Felipe · 18 Payton Rausch · 22 Gabriel Franca · 23 Jaceson Goblig · 25 Luke Kawabe · 26 Leonardo Xavier · 29 Victor Garcia · 33 Michael Florian
And the referee gave our supporters a red card.
At half time, for fun, he walked over to the stand and showed it to them — because they had been loud enough all evening that he had noticed.
When your supporters are so supportive that even the referee decides to generously hand them a gift midmatch.
That is the night in one image. First home game of the year, a lot of goals, a lot of familiar faces, and a referee in on the joke.
