Saint Louis FC Falls To Richmond In Home Finale
Saint Louis FC Loses 1-0 To Richmond In Final Match Of 2017 At Soccer Park
The 2017 season started full of promise for Saint Louis FC back in March. The first two weekends of April featured wins in St. Louis at World Wide Technology Soccer Park amid a 3-0-1 start.
It seemed like with new coach Predag (Preki) Radosavljevic all was right in the land of the Chupacabra and the USL playoffs were well within sight.
On Saturday, Saint Louis FC played its final home match of the 2017 regular season. The team had been mathematically eliminated from the playoff race the week before and dropped to 9-14-8 with a 1-0 loss to the Richmond Kickers.
STLFC finishes the regular season this Sunday on the road against Bethlehem Steel FC.
Rudolph Named Louligan Player of the Year
Seth Rudolph was named the 2017 Louligan Player of the Year before Saturday’s match. Rudolph is a 26-year old native of nearby Belleville, Illinois who has scored seven goals in 20 appearances this season.
One of his goals gave STLFC the win against New York Red Bulls II back in April at Soccer Park.
The comeback on a comeback ?! @SZR10 provided the mayhem for @SaintLouisFC with his game winner #STLvNY #USL pic.twitter.com/BoMOWenscB
— USL (@USL) April 9, 2017
Rudolph grew up playing in the St. Louis Scott Gallagher program and was a two-time St. Louis Post-Dispatch All-Metro selection while staring for Belleville West High School.
After four years playing college soccer at George Washington, Rudolph began his professional career with Sandvikens IF in Sweden. He signed with STLFC in 2016 and played 10 matches with the club last season.
Sellout Crowd Packs Toyota Stadium
A sellout crowd on 5,725 fans packed Toyota Stadium over the weekend for the match against Richmond, despite the rocky road the season has taken. For the season, STLFC averaged 4,571 fans per match. That average put the club 11th overall in the 30-team league.
Matthew Bolduc scored the lone goal of the match for Richmond under a minute into the second half. A costly STLFC giveaway at midfield led to a quick Richmond attack.
Bolduc ran onto a pass in the penalty area and drilled a low shot that beat goalkeeper Devala Gorrick.
Preki told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the match that despite the record, he was pleased with how the team progressed over the course of the season.
“A lot of players grew this year,” Preki said. “I feel good about what I’m doing. If that’s not good enough, I understand that too. This is a results-oriented business. And some people could look at this as a total failure and I can respect that.”
Saint Louis FC closes out the 2017 season this Sunday against Bethlehelm Steel FC. Look for a preview of the match on RealLifeSTL.com later this week.
The St. Louligans will be hosting the final watch part of the 2017 season at International Tap House in Soulard for Sunday’s match. The Louligans raised $1,115 for charity at their tailgate before the match, pushing their total raised this season over the $20,000 mark.
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