Photography courtesy of St. Louis CITY SC

It was a disappointing ending, but an encouraging effort by City SC, which saw them dominate the match in its first 45 minutes. Akil Watts scored to give the club a 1-0 lead after multiple missed opportunities. Five minutes later, Portland tied the game, and for a moment, it looked like the game would end in a draw. But the home team shocked City SC capitalized on a late corner kick to steal a win in extra time. “We had a moment where we conceded late in the game, ” City SC interim coach David Critchley said after a tough loss. ” But I told the guys, my message was very clear to them that my emotions in this game were not disappointment, were not anger, were not frustration. My emotions are proud and excited for the very near future for this team.”

The good news is that their next series of matches has only one non-top 10 conference opponent, and one of them is the defending Major League Soccer champion LA Galaxy who sit in dead last place in the Western Conference with one victory that took place last weekend against Real Salt Lake. City SC scored its first victory of the season at LA 3-0 and hopes to have the same performance since the defending champions have the worst goal differential at minus 14 and average .22 points per game. Their next match is at home against Orlando City, who currently sit outside of the Eastern Conference playoff race in 8th place. While today’s match against the Galaxy is not a must-win, City SC needs to take this opportunity to score a victory’s especially at home. The next 10 matches will determine City SC’s playoff chances this season.