3,683 See Saint Louis FC And Fresno FC Draw On Cold Night At Soccer Park

Saint Louis FC and Fresno FC played to a 1-1 draw in United Soccer League action over the weekend at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton, Missouri.

STLFC stands at 1-2-1 on the season after four matches. Fresno FC sits a 2-2-1 after five matches.

Saint Louis FC is back in action at Toyota Stadium at World Wide Technology Soccer Park just outside St. Louis this Saturday night. The match with LA Galaxy II is set to kick off at 7:30 pm.

Tickets for Saturday’s match can be purchased in advance at SaintLouisFC.com

Saint Louis FC and Fresno FC played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday April 7 at Soccer Park in St. Louis.STLFC’s Corey Hertzog converted a penalty kick just before the end of the first half to put the home side up 1-0.  The Chupacabras were awarded the penalty  for an inadvertent Fresno FC handball in the penalty area.

Austin Martz’s shot on goal forced a diving save from the Fresno goalkeeper and the deflected ball went off the forearm of the defender.

Fresno’s Juan Caffa evened the scoring minutes into the second half. Caffa’s head connected with a teammate’s cross near the top of the penalty area and the ball beat a diving Jake Fenlason.

Saint Louis FC head coach Anthony Pulis admitted after the match that his team may not have been fully prepared for the Fresno FC attack.

“For me, I think we started the first 15-20 minutes slow as they played a system that kind of surprised us,” said STLFC Head Coach Anthony Pulis. “Once we settled down and used our wide men I think we started to become more dangerous and deserved the goal. The message at halftime was to kick-on from there but we didn’t start the second half well and gave away a poor goal in my opinion. From that moment I thought we were the team in the ascendancy and unfortunately we could not break them down.”

According to the Opta  Box Score from the match STLFC held a significant edge in possession on the night, controlling the ball just shy of 61% of the match.

3,683 were on-hand at Soccer Park despite temperatures at kickoff dipping below freezing. STLFC is averaging 3,859 fans per match this season at Soccer Park after two home contests, both played in sub-optimal weather for watching an outdoor sporting event.

Watch highlights of the weekend’s match below.

Saint Louis FC Brings In Tony Rocha On Loan

The newest addition to the Chupacabra roster played a full 90 minutes on Saturday night. The club officially announced last Friday afternoon that midfielder Tony Rocha would be joining the club on loan from Orlanda City SC of Major League Soccer.

The 24-year old from Spring, Texas has made been used sparingly by Lions over the last three seasons, seeing MLS action just once this season.

Rocha is another player brought to St. Louis this season that has played significant minutes under Pulis. The Tulsa University product made 33 appearances over the last two seasons for the coach at Orlando City B.

The initial loan period lasts only until April 15th, giving Saint Louis FC two matches to evaluate Rocha before deciding if the club wants to extend the loan. Terms of the loan specify that it may be extended by mutual agreement of the clubs and Orlando City SC reserves the right to recall Rocha at any time.

USL Streams Moving To Newly-Announced ESPN+ Service

Back on April 2, ESPN announced that it will launch a new streaming service on April 12, ESPN+. Over the weekend the USL announced that match streams of all games would be moving to the service when it launches. Every USL match had previously been available to stream for free through YouTube.

The move to ESPN+ will not affect STLFC’s local television agreement with select away matches this season being televised on KPLR 11.

The new standalone service, which will cost $4.99 per month, will also be home to MLS games as well as select MLB and NHL contests, boxing events, college sports, PGA tour golf events, rugby, cricket, tennis and more.

ESPN recently signed a 10-year deal with the Ivy League to air more than 1,000 sporting events each year.

ESPN is also touting the fact that its streaming service will give subscribers access to an “unmatched on-demand library”, which will presumably include many of the company’s award-winning sports documentaries such as those in its 30 For 30 series.

Disney, ESPN’s parent company, has announced plans to introduce a streaming service in 2019 that will give viewers access to films from the Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar libraries.

The USL has put a FAQ page out about the ESPN+ move.

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