ST. LOUIS – The 2026 Major League Soccer season kicked off at Energizer Park on Saturday afternoon, as St. Louis City SC hosted Charlotte FC for the first time since their MLS debut in 2023.
A new-look City under new head coach Yoann Damet had more possession, more shots, and more chances than the visitors. Despite their best efforts, City did not have more goals, and drew 1-1.
It was not a full-strength St. Louis side squaring off with Charlotte FC Saturday. Two presumed starting center backs, Fallou Fall and Mamadou Mbacke Fall, weren’t in the squad to kick off the season. Fallou Fall was dealing with a lingering leg injury, while new signee Mamadou Mbacke Fall hasn’t arrived in the city to join the team just yet. In midfield, City was without one of its biggest stars, Eduard Löwen, who missed most of preseason leading up to Saturday. Löwen has been away from the team caring for his wife who is battling brain cancer. Without those three starters, Yoann Damet’s City lined up in a 3-4-3 formation. Three center backs, from left to right: Dante Polvara, Timo Baumgartl, and Jaziel Orozco. Those center backs are supported by two wingbacks in defense: Rafael Santos on the left, and Conrad Wallem on the right. In attack, those wingbacks support the two central midfielders: Chris Durkin and Daniel Edelman, who feed the ball to one of three attackers, from left to right: Marcel Hartel, Simon Becher, and Sangbin Jeong. Roman Bürki captained the team and started in goal, just as he has for every City season opener to date. It took both teams a while to warm up to the task on a brisk Saturday in St. Louis. City dictated first half possession, but likely because Charlotte was more than happy to let them have the ball in the middle of the field. City had a few long shots, trying to test CFC keeper Kristijan Kahlina and maybe force a rebound on a loose ball, but Kahlina dealt with the long range efforts with ease. Charlotte’s Liel Abada tested Roman Bürki from range in the 40th minute, but City’s captain and keeper made a leaping save to his right to keep the score level at 0-0. Not to be outdone, Kristijan Kahlina denied Chris Durkin from close range in first half stoppage time to keep things goalless before the halftime break. The visitors came out of the locker room with more energy, and for the first 15 minutes of the second half, looked the most likely to score the opening goal. In the 60th minute, the opening goal came, at the other end of Energizer Park. As has always been the City game plan, a high press forced a turnover near midfield, sending City attackers running into open space. Daniel Edelman, in his City debut, turned and found attacker Simon Becher just in front of the Charlotte FC back line. Becher played a delicate first-touch pass into the path of Marcel Hartel, bursting into the Charlotte 18-yard box from the left wing. Hartel sent Kristijan Kahlina the wrong way, and slotted a shot into the bottom-right corner of Kahlina’s goal. “I think we need to celebrate those little moments,” said head coach Yoann Damet on the first City goal of the season. “Cello (Marcel Hartel) being the first on the scoreboard this season is a good sign. I love to see that. I’m happy for him. He works really hard… All the work he’s been doing during the pre-season and again today, to organize, to get in the structure when we don’t have the ball, that’s the kind of player he is. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder but at the same time he’s got the humility of the great player you want to work with. He puts the team first every single day, and today is a good example of that. He did it again and he’s rewarded with the goal.” Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and Marcel Hartel picked up where he left off to end 2025. Downtown West was jubilant for the first time in 2026. That jubilation lasted 13 minutes. Like City’s goal before it, Charlotte forced a turnover in midfield, and turned defense into offense in a flash. Wilfried Zaha, a former Premier League star who’s now the center of Dean Smith’s Charlotte team, ferociously held up the ball in attack, waiting for teammates to join the counter. He passed out to substitute left back David Schnegg on the left wing, who quickly passed back to Zaha to try to break through the City defensive front. Three City defenders became captivated by Zaha’s presence at the edge of their 18-yard box, and forgot about Pep Biel, who had drifted into open space in the City box. Biel opened up a bit of space for himself before smashing a low and hard shot. Roman Bürki got a big toe on the shot attempt, but not enough to direct it out of his net. With the game in the balance in the final stages, both teams emptied the tank in an effort to steal a late winner. What proceeded was 15-20 minutes of end-to-end soccer, where both teams created chances and both teams had chances to win the match. New City signing and left wingback Rafael Santos came within inches of a winning goal with a free kick in the 77th minute, but his curling effort smashed off the crossbar of the Charlotte goal. On replay, it looked as if Nathan Byrne got a glancing head to Santos’s shot that likely proved the difference between an amazing free kick goal and the shot smashing the bar. Moments later, Simon Becher created a big scoring chance of his own. The City attacker and former Saint Louis University Billiken left fellow former Billiken and Charlotte center back Tim Ream in the dust, running into the box with just Kristijan Kahlina to beat. Becher’s effort was solid, but Kahlina got down to the shot to keep it 1-1. In the 90th minute, second half City sub Brendan McSorley found himself in a similar position to Becher roughly 10 minutes before him. McSorley latched onto a long pass and only had Kristijan Kahlina to beat. His low shot didn’t quite have the juice to beat the Charlotte keeper. With seven minutes of stoppage time, there was still plenty of game left for either side to find the winner. St. Louis City came closest, with two shots in a mad scramble in the 97th minute. Both were pushed aside by Kristijan Kahlina, and referee Ismail Elfath blew their whistle for full-time. There was polite applause from the 22,000-plus following the 1-1 draw, if not a little bit of disappointment for falling just short of a win to start a new era of St. Louis City soccer. The new head coach, new sporting staff, and plenty of new faces on the field will have to wait for their first victory at Energizer Park. “It was an incredible atmosphere, it really lived up to the hype,” said City newcomer Daniel Edelman postgame. “I think it was amazing to be able to play here for my first game. I was trying to feed off the crowd, and I think all the guys on the field were really feeding into the energy as well.” Edelman even mentioned the difference from his former home stadium, Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, the home of the New York Red Bulls. “It was a bit of a shock for me. Red Bull was a great place to play, but it was never filled out.” Yoann Damet, leading St. Louis City in his first home game at Energizer Park, called the atmosphere “incredible”. “We spoke a lot about the fans going into the game, but also for the players,” Damet explained. “The players feed off the energy of the fans, but also give energy to the fans. I think that’s the collaboration we had today, where I thought the way we played gave that energy to the fans, but at the same time they gave us so much. “It’s an exciting asset to have, to play in a packed stadium like it was today and to feel the support of everybody. This place has to become a difficult place to play at for our opponents. when you have 20 plus thousand fans behind you, you can feel it. And then, of course, it’s up to us to perform to that level as well.” Performing to that level means improving on a 1-1 draw to turn these games into wins in the future. Yoann Damet pointed to his team’s handling of the moment in the second half as an area to improve moving forward. “The decision making in the second half is definitely something we have to get on the same page, especially going a way next week,” said Damet. “We need to understand those dynamics. When we’re playing at home, like I said, you have the energy and the support of the fans so you’re getting pushed and you still have to control those moments. “But when you play on the road in those moments, where you’re getting a little bit tired and a little bit stretched, you’ve got to be able to bring it back together and get compact, get organized. Keep the ball, calm the play a little bit, organize. “And then we’re speaking about a lot of details on the defensive structure and how we can get better from that standpoint. Offensively, I thought the buildup was good. I thought we were able to create some chances. “Could we have created more? Did we get into good areas? Those are the questions we need to answer. Again, it never stops. There is always stuff to work on.” The work continues for Yoann Damet’s St. Louis City SC on Sunday, March 1, when the club travels to SoCal to take on San Diego FC.
