The Bowling Green Football Club got embarrassed after their final home schedule by St. Louis City Soccer Club Academy to the score of 5 to 2. With the loss, the Golden Lions miss out on hosting a playoff game next weekend but will now have to travel to St. Louis to face this same MLS academy team. 

The first half for BGFC started very disorganized, lacked communication, and they had no energy. St. Louis City Academy pressed the Golden Lions from the opening whistle. This led to STLCA delivering the first goal of the match in the 12th minute. 

The goal for St. Louis seemed to wake the Golden Lions as they started playing a little better but it was STLCA that kept turning over BGFC and kept building with their press. However, BGFC drew leave in the 27th minute off a corner kick by #10 Swierkosz that was beautifully headed in by #5 Ahamad. Now that they had a goal, BGFC started to come back to life.

However, STLCA broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute to go back into the lead. This goal put BGFC in an uncomfortable spot and a spot they were not used to being down late in the first half. Things got worse in the 42nd minute as BGFC captain #10 Swierkosz was booked for a foul and shown a yellow card. And that is how things ended in the first half, two to one in favor of STLCA.

The second half started way better as the Golden Lions seemed to resemble the team they had been most of the rest of the season. Their communication and energy especially were turned up. I was not able to hear what BGFC Head Coach Evan Sutherland said but it worked; for the start of the second half at least. The Golden Lion drew level again with STLCA in the 47th minute as #20 Beganovic scored against his former team. This is where the excitement for BGFC ended.

St. Louis City Academy responded immediately in the 49th minute and you could feel the life being taken out of BGFC players and fans. STLCA scored again in the 53rd minute off a shot that went between BGFC Keeper #1 Gonzalez’s legs. The final nail came in the 71st minute as St. Louis took a commanding 5 to 2 lead.

Overall, this was BGFC’s worst performance of the season. Most surprisingly, was their lack of communication as well as the disappearance of their young star #11 Bryan. This loss makes their match tomorrow at the Midwest Hooligans a pointless fair as the plays are set with BGFC locked into their place in the Kentucky/Tennessee Conference. 

Heading into next weekend’s match in St. Louis, the Golden Lions will need to improve their communication and they will need their stars to step up. While Beganovic did score in the match and Swierkosz had an assist, Bryan was not as productive. BGFC will need the three of them to step up the attack in the rematch.

To see if BGFC can right the ship to make it to the conference final or to follow all of our favorite teams, stick to Bluegrass Soccer Cast (@BGSoccerCast on all social media platforms) for all things soccer in our beautiful Commonwealth.