ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis City SC time in the CONCACAF Champions Cup came to an end in Houston late Tuesday night as a goal from Houston Dynamo center back Erik Sviatchenko following a free kick would knock City SC out of the tournament, falling 2-2 on aggregate with Dynamo striker Sebastian Kowalczyk away goal at CITYPARK in the first leg being the tiebreaker.
City SC radio analyst Dale Schilly joined Total Information A.M. to discuss the team's elimination from the tournament and thought the 1-0 loss to the Dynamo was unfortunately a fair result.
"(City SC) kinda sat a little bit lower, defended the goal more earlier in the game, and got through the first half, then bits of the second half, then lost a little of focus on the restart," said Schilly. "Then the game turned around, (City SC) started pressing higher to get a goal back, which would've put them through to the next round."
Schilly thinks injuries did play a factor into the loss, with defenders Tim Parker, Kyle Hiebert and Joshua Yaro all being unavailable for the game, and Joakim Nilsson being forced to sub out the game just right before halftime due to an injury.
"The Centre Back situation was dire going into the game, then Nilsson had to pull himself out," said Schilly. "Michael Wentzel, who plays on the St. Louis City 2 team, had an outstanding game and was one of the best players in the first-11 last night. He played and subbed in admirably, but (injuries) did play a big part and trying to adjust to the new faces in the back."
Despite the loss, Schilly thinks that while the team was knocked out, the team can now have singular focus on the MLS Regular Season from now until the summer, when the Leagues Cup begins in July.
"(City SC) can now have singular focus on their week-to-week games and gets better in the long term," said Schilly. "Let's figure out how they can last longer in the playoffs, but having a singular focus is helpful and I think it's important right now for the team."