ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis City SC striker João Klauss has had tough start to the season heading into Sunday's game against Austin FC, only scoring a lone goal, a penalty kick in his last 12 MLS matches dating to last season.
In fact, the last time Klauss scored a goal without needing to hit a penalty kick, you have to go back to his two-goal performance against Sporting Kansas City at CITYPARK back on Sept. 30, 2023.
Sunday afternoon, Klauss finally returned to the scoresheet in the field of play, scoring the eventual game-winning goal in the 57th minute against Austin FC, ending his long drought for a goal in the run of play, and helping City SC snap their five-game winless drought Sunday afternoon at CITYPARK to get City SC first win since March 2.
City SC head coach Bradley Carnell was happy too see Klauss finally be able to score a goal in the field of play for the first time in in almost seven months.
"Extremely delighted to keep the three points at CITYPATK and happy for Klauss," said Carnell on Total Information A.M. Monday.
Carnell says seeing Klauss on the scoresheet Sunday after a tough start to the season for the 27-year-old Brazilian was a happy moment and a sense of relief for him to finally get the monkey off his back.
"He's a selfless teammate, he does everything for the team, and you could see what (the goal) meant for him, his family, for his teammates," said Carnell. "That's been weighing on his shoulders. You haven't really seen it visually through training or through anything, you could see when the ball went over the line, it was for sure a relief for him."
