Last night (15 August), I was at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton for the USL Championship ( https://www.uslchampionship.com/) match between Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) and Sporting Kansas City II (https://www.sportingkc.com/sportingkcii).
Before the match, I joined the St. Louligans (https://stlouligans.com/) in their tailgate in the parking lot. I made a donation to the St. Louligans' Charity du Jour, Pride STL ( https://www.pridestl.org/). There was a bit of talk about the name and crest reveal two days before of St. Louis City SC (https://stlcitysc.com/), the Major League Soccer (https://www.mlssoccer.com/) team that will start play in 2023.
After the raffle drawing, the St. Louligans walked into West Community Stadium for the match. We were just settling into our seats when word came to evacuate the stadium, due to lightning in the vicinity. We had to go back to our cars to wait out the weather delay. The all-clear did come and the match kicked off about 50 minutes later than the scheduled 7:00 pm start time.
Russell Cicerone put the home side ahead five minutes in; however, Sporting KC II leveled it 35 minutes later. It began to rain as the first half came to an end, and the rain soon came down harder. A report of lightning in the vicinity meant another weather delay. We walked back to our cars to wait this out. It would be about one hour before the second half kicked off.
Mour Samb put Saint Louis FC back ahead in the 69th minute, after several earlier efforts came up short. Joaquin Rivas put the dagger in the 90th minute and Saint Louis FC came out 3-1 winners.
After the match, the Saint Louis FC players came over to the corner where the St. Louligans were located and they sang with us as they do after a win.
Saint Louis FC is on the road this coming weekend, then hosts Louisville City FC next Saturday, 29 August.
Later.
