Sounders take down St. Louis City SC to take over first place in Western Conference

In the 65th minute, the moment finally arrived.

After more than an hour of scoreless soccer on Saturday night at Lumen Field, Sounders midfielder Joshua Atencio took a pass from Nicolas Lodeiro, and let loose with a kick that sailed past St. Louis City SC goalkeeper Roman Bürki and into the net, giving the Sounders a long-awaited lead, and causing a majority of the 31,789 fans in attendance to erupt with joy.

It was the first goal of Atencio’s career, and put the Sounders ahead in an eventual 3-0 victory over St. Louis that put Seattle in first place in the Western Conference.

It is the second consecutive shutout loss for St. Louis, which started its inaugural MLS season with a 5-0 record before falling to Minnesota last Saturday, 1-0.

Seattle, which came into the match with the third-most points in the MLS, has still not lost a home match this season.

Six minutes after Atencio’s heroics, forward Raul Ruidiaz came through as well. After entering the game in the 61st minute, Ruidiaz made his mark in minute 71 with a score that pushed the Sounders to a two-goal lead against a St. Louis squad that came into the match with the top-ranked offense in the MLS.

St. Louis defender Jake Nerwinski put the finishing touches on the game with an own goal in the 89th minute to put the game at its final score.

While the second half provided the crowd with some much desired offense, the first 45 minutes were a different story, as the teams played their way to a scoreless tie.

Atencio took the first shot of the day for the Sounders in the 14th minute, but Bürki saved it in the bottom right corner to keep the Sounders off the board.

Burki had three more saves in the first half, blocking shots from Cristian Roldan, Albert Rusnák, and Léo Chú, and finished the night with four.

St. Louis was active but wild on offense in the first half, as the club took seven shots. But Sounders goaltender Stefan Frei had just one save in the first half, and finished the night with two.

Saturday was Frei’s club-record 323rd all-competition start, which broke Osvaldo Alonso’s club record of 322 starts, and with 17 more appearances, Frei will break Alonso’s club record of 339 all-competition appearances.

The Sounders will play their next game Saturday night at Portland.