João Klauss has first career MLS hat trick for St. Louis in 3-3 tie with Galaxy
João Klauss scored three goals — the 28-year-old's first MLS hat trick — the last of which came in the fifth minute of stoppage time for St. Louis City on Saturday in a 3-3 tie with the LA Galaxy.
Goalkeeper Roman Burki played a free kick from beyond midfield to the edge of the box, where Timo Baumgartl flicked a header toward goal. Klauss ran onto the ball at the right edge of the 6-yard box and slipped a first-touch shot inside the back post to cap the scoring.
St. Louis (3-9-6) has one win — a 2-1 victory over San Jose on May 31 — in its last 14 games.
Klauss near the left corner of the area, played a short pass to Marcel Hartel and darted toward goal as Hartel tapped it back to Klauss for a rolling finish from the edge of the 6-yard box to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute.
Gabriel Pec scored his second goal of the season and his first since March 2 to tie it at 1-1 in the 41st. Pec put away a one-touch finish off a centering pass played by Marco Reus from the right side of the area. Pec stole a misplayed back-pass after St. Louis defender Jayden Reid slipped and fell and then cut back to evade Bürki, who had charged off his line, before casually rolling a shot into a wide-open net to give LA a 3-2 lead in the 87th.
Celio Pompeu played an arcing one-touch ball ahead, off a Galaxy giveaway, down the right side to a streaking Klauss, who blasted a rising shot inside the near post and under the crossbar to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute.
Matheus Nascimento scored his first MLS goal in the 21-year-old's third career start to make it 2-2 in the 51st minute. John Nelson played a centering pass to Rues, who tapped a back-heel pass from a few yards outside the area to Nascimento for a one-touch finish from near the penalty spot.
The Galaxy (1-12-5), the defending MLS Cup champions, beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 last time out to snap the longest winless streak to begin a season in MLS history at 16 games.
St. Louis, which beat the Galaxy 3-0 on March 9, is unbeaten in four straight against LA.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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