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Austin FC defender Guilherme Biro, right, sends in a cross while being chased by St. Louis City defender Miguel Perez during Sunday’s game at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
John Rivera\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
St. Louis City weathered a hot start by Austin FC Sunday. But in the second half, Austin came up\u00a0with a pair of goals and handed City a 2-0 MLS defeat at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
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It ended a tough stretch for STL City, which went 1-2, including a 3-2 loss last Saturday to San Jose, then a 2-1 U.S.Open Cup win at Chicago Wednesday,\u00a0 followed by Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n
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Christian Ram\u00edrez and Myrto Uzuni scored second-half goals for Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was the third game of the week for us, and I think we lacked a little bit of freshness in some key moments,” STL City coach\u00a0Yoann Damet said. “It is (frustrating) not only for me, for the players, for the staff, probably as well for the fans. Again, it’s tough after that game to not look at the full week, we’ve had and how much work we’ve had to put in today.<\/p>\n
St. Louis created dangerous scoring opportunities, but\u00a0couldn’t finish them. Austin\u00a0outshot City 15-12 overall and 6-4 in shots on goal.<\/p>\n
“I thought we were a little bit in between in the first half with our p,” Damet said.”Thought we left probably a lot of energy in Chicago on on Wednesday, and with both travels, I thought we were in between and physically, probably not as fresh in terms of making the right decision and creating the intensity we wanted to create on the defensive side.”<\/p>\n
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Ram\u00edrez scored the only goal Austin needed\u00a0 in the 69th minute with a header from the center of the penalty area to give Austin a 1-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Uzuni added an insurance goal in the 81st minute off an assist from Ram\u00edrez.<\/p>\n
“We had to deal with some overload in the middle that made it difficult for us in terms of how we wanted to defend,” Damet said, “so we had to weather the storm a little bit like at the end and the at the start of the first half.<\/p>\n
“It’s part of playing on the road, and it’s that it’s also part of playing our third game when the other team had a full week to prepare. We knew that we were going to come up with clarity in terms of what we wanted to do, but it was a matter of executing that. And we had some issues that we fixed as the game went on.”<\/p>\n
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Eduard Lowen made his first start of the season for St. Louis. He missed the first part of the season because of the death of his wife. He had subbed in late in the last three games,\u00a0scoring two goals and adding an assist. Lowen left Sunday’s game in the 59th minute and was replaced by\u00a0Sergio\u00a0Cordova.<\/p>\n
City goalie Roman Burki and Austin keeper Brad Stuve each made four saves.<\/p>\n
“We knew that they were going to come out very aggressive and put us under a lot of pressure,”Burki said. “Obviously, they play at home, and they want to show from the beginning that there’s nothing for us to take away here, and they did that. But we know as a team that we have to go through this phase, and then they will back off a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we survived the first half, I would say. We had chances to score in the first half as well. I think the second half was more transition from their side and set pieces. Other than that, they didn’t have much.”<\/p>\n
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City is 3-6-3 overall on the season and 1-6-3 in MLS play, placing it in 14th place in\u00a0 the Western Conference. Austin is 3-4-4 overall and in 11th place in the West.<\/p>\n
“We had a tough week,” Burki said. “We played San Jose then Chicago, and then immediately traveled here to Austin. So, another good opponent. It was not easy, but we definitely had the chance to get something out of this game today.”<\/p>\n
STL City will play at 8:30 p.m. May 9 at Colorado.<\/p>\n
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