San Diego, California: Dreyer Chip Lifts San Diego FC to 1-0 Win at St. Louis City

San Diego FC will not reach the MLS playoffs this season, but the club closed its last road trip of the regular season with the kind of win that had been hard to find for weeks. Anders Dreyer scored late in the first half and Pablo Sisniega protected the lead the rest of the way in a 1 to 0 victory over St. Louis City at Energizer Park on Saturday.

San Diego improved to 9 wins, 13 losses and 11 draws. The club had already been eliminated from postseason play with a loss at Vancouver on Wednesday, and it arrived in St. Louis on a long winless run. St. Louis fell to 14 wins, 10 losses and 9 draws and has lost four straight matches. That slide follows a 19 match unbeaten run that tied the MLS single season record and ran from May 9 to October 11, and it comes ten days after St. Louis won the U.S. Open Cup on penalties in the final at Columbus on October 21.

One goal, finished from distance

The only goal came in the 39th minute, and it came on a counterattack. Alejandro Alvarado and Marcus Ingvartsen combined to send Dreyer through, and the Danish forward raced behind the St. Louis defense. With goalkeeper Ben Lundt off his line, Dreyer lifted a left footed chip over him from about 30 yards and into the open goal.

Lundt finished with two saves for St. Louis, which began the day in third place in the Western Conference. The home side pushed harder after halftime, but the equalizer never came.

Sisniega holds the clean sheet

Sisniega made six saves to earn his first clean sheet of the season in his fifth start. It was San Diego's eighth shutout of the season and the club's first in 11 matches, dating back to a 3 to 0 home win against Colorado on August 22.

St. Louis tested him most in the final stretch. Tomas Totland forced saves with a shot from distance in the 71st minute and a low shot from inside the box in the 78th. Tomas Ostrak drove a long range effort at him in the 83rd. In stoppage time, Simon Becher got behind the defense and lifted a shot over the beaten Sisniega, and defender Manu Duah raced back to the goal line to clear it away and preserve the win.

What comes next

Both clubs close the regular season next Saturday, November 7. San Diego hosts Sporting Kansas City at Snapdragon Stadium in its finale. St. Louis travels to face the Houston Dynamo.

For San Diego, the result changes nothing in the standings race that matters most, since the playoff places are already settled for the club. It does send the team home with a road win, a clean sheet and a finish to build on in the last week of the season, after a stretch in which wins had stopped coming.