14 March 2019

Saint Louis FC Opens 2019 With a Win

Last Saturday morning (9 March), after attending this month's Missouri Professional Communicators (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators/) at the St. Louis Artists' Guild (https://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/) in Clayton, I braved the rain to reach World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/SOCCERPARK) in Fenton. Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) was opening the new season against Indy Eleven (https://www.indyeleven.com/).

I made it to the St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/) tailgate in the parking lot. There was a great crowd there, despite the rain, including some Indy Eleven supporters from the Brickyard Battalion (http://brickyardbattalion.com/). The beer was flowing and there was plenty of food--biscuits and gravy, link sausages, scrambled eggs, and doughnuts. Everyone was in good spirits. Saint Louis FC Chief Executive Officer Jim Kavanaugh and Carolyn Kindle Betz from #MLS4THELOU (https://mls4thelou.com/) both came to speak to the crowd.





After all that, we marched into Toyota Stadium for the match. The rain let up and the sun appeared early in the match. After a scoreless first half, Indy Eleven had an opportunity to score with a penalty kick. Saint Louis' Jake Fenlason made the save, though. On the ensuring corner kick, Indy scored in the 61st minute. Phanuel Kavita equalized for the home side eight minutes later, then Russell Cicerone won it in the 77th minute for Saint Louis. This was the first opening match win for Saint Louis FC in its history.

After the match, the Saint Louis FC players came to our section to accept our congratulations on the win, and they sang to us in celebration. We St. Louligans were in such good spirits during the match, and certainly walked out happy after the win. We headed back to the parking lot to help tear down our tailgate camp.




Glad to get this win under our belts. Saint Louis FC is away to Nashville SC this Saturday night. The St. Louligans will have their first away watch party at Llywelyn's Pub in Webster Groves (https://llywelynspub.com/webster-groves). Looking forward to it.

Later.