St. Louis City break out of slump with shutout of Earthquakes

Eduard Lowen and Hosei Kijima scored first-half goals and St. Louis City halted a nine-match winless stretch with a 2-0 victory over the visiting San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night.

Indiana Vassilev had two assists for St. Louis City (4-7-10, 22 points), who controlled the match in their first effort under interim coach John Hackworth. Bradley Carnell was fired on Monday due to the club's 0-6-3 rut.

MLS-worst San Jose (3-16-2, 11 points) played its second match under interim coach Ian Russell, dropped its sixth straight contest and slipped to 0-8-1 in its past nine matches. Russell was promoted after Luchi Gonzalez was fired on June 24.

The Earthquakes have been outscored 22-6 during the six-match skid.

St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki made just one save while recording his sixth shutout of the season.

St. Louis City had a commanding 23-7 edge in shots and placed eight on target to San Jose's one while winning for the first time since May 11.

Earthquakes goalie William Yarbrough had six stops.

St. Louis City dominated the first half while outshooting the Earthquakes 15-1.

San Jose's lone first-half shot came in the ninth minute when Preston Judd delivered a left-footer that was saved by Burki.

St. Louis City scored in the 28th minute when Vassilev passed the ball to Lowen, who sent a right-footed shot toward Yarbrough.

The ball bounced just in front of Yarbrough, who seemed surprised, and skipped past him and went into the net. It was Lowen's third goal of the season.

St. Louis added on in the 41st minute on a trick play off a set piece.

Lowen and Vassilev were both near the ball on a free kick, and Lowen moved toward it before stopping. Vassilev then approached the ball and kicked it into the box, and Kijima got behind three Earthquakes and knocked it in with his right leg to make it 2-0.

It was the first MLS goal for the 22-year-old Kijima.

Four minutes later, St. Louis nearly made it a three-goal match, as Nokkvi Thorisson maneuvered in close and sent in a right-footer that was deflected by Yarbrough. The ball was en route to the net until San Jose's Tanner Beason cleared it just before it crossed the goal line.

San Jose nearly avoided the shutout in the second minute of second-half stoppage time, but Beason sent a close-range header just over the net.

--Field Level Media