St. Louis City looking up with new coach, faces Timbers

St. Louis City will try for consecutive victories under interim manager David Critchley when they visit a Portland Timbers side that returns from a well-deserved weekend off.

St. Louis City's 2-1 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes halted an 11-match winless run (0-8-3) in league play that resulted in the dismissal of manager Olof Mellberg after less than a half season in charge.

Joao Klauss and Eduard Lowen each scored their second goals of the season, and Klauss also earned the penalty in second-half stoppage time that Lowen converted to give St. Louis City (3-8-5, 14 points) the desperately needed result.

The matchwinner came only nine minutes after Josef Martinez leveled for San Jose. And for Critchley, who was promoted from his role as head coach of St. Louis' reserve side in MLS Next, it was the result of a more aggressive mentality.

"Yes, they equalized late and gave us a little bit of adversity," Critchley said postgame. "It's OK. We're changing things around here. We don't sit back in them moments, we go and try and win a football game. And that's what they done."

It was only the fourth time St. Louis had scored multiple goals in a 2025 league match, against eight times when they failed to score at all.

Meanwhile, Portland (7-4-5, 26 points) is coming off a rare 10-day layoff following a 2-1 home win over the Colorado Rapids on May 28.

Antony and Kevin Kelsy each scored their fifth MLS goals of the season in the win, with Kelsy's tally coming in the 76th minute and just seven minutes after Wayne Frederick's violent challenge reduced Colorado to 10 men.

Kelsy's winner marked the first time in seven matches Portland scored multiple goals in a league game, a dry run stretching back to late April. And it may have come at the ideal time to boost morale.

"I've got to say that it felt really good," Timbers boss Phil Neville said of the extended break. "We were on this treadmill of game after game after game, and I think after the Colorado game there was a huge sense of, one, the result was good, and two, was that the players were running on empty a little bit."