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Saturday night figured to be an emotional night at CityPark: the final home game in a season that has lived up to no one’s expectations but has shown plenty of promise at the end.

As the game went on, there were St. Louis City SC players mad at Houston players, Houston players mad at City SC players, City SC players mad at other City SC players and maybe a coach.

But in the end, the prevailing emotion was unbridled happiness.

City SC closed its home season with a 3-0 win over Houston behind two goals by newcomer Simon Becher and a goal by Jake Nerwinski, who may well have been playing his final game in CityPark — and with the club. Nerwinski’s goal may have been largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, a 92nd-minute goal in a game City SC already had in hand, but it mattered a great deal to everyone with the club.

Then, when the game was over, players hung around on the field for the postgame fireworks show, while the children of players took penalty shots at Roman Burki.

In a season filled with frustrations, this night seemed to bring back all the feelings of joy that had marked the first season.

“It's sad,� Burki said, “that we didn't have more of these moments when we had a great game, when we won a game after that, celebrating with the families, with the kids. You’re way looser and you can way more enjoy the whole stadium and the fans than when you're after a loss or a draw. It's just we had not enough wins this season to actually celebrate with the fans.�

“Winning's fun,� said interim coach John Hackworth. “It's a great night for all of us, great night for our community, for our club. So just happy to be a part of it.�

City SC has one more game to go, on Oct. 19 in Minnesota, but this game closed the home season with both a bang and a whimper. As well as City SC played, as it won for the third time in four games, it can’t be overlooked that the team will not make the playoffs and, after finishing first in the Western Conference last season, will do no better than 10th this time. A rash of ties early in the season cost it points, and then, when a barrage of injuries hit midseason, it didn’t have the cushion to survive until the reinforcements showed up in the summer transfer window.

Becher, one of those summer reinforcements, scored in the 14th minute on a nice one-touch in the box, putting the ball over the head of charging goalkeeper Steve Clark. He scored again in the 47th minute, running on to a long ball from Hartel and touching it twice before shooting it in with the outside of his right foot to up his season total to four goals. It was Becher's first start after three games coming off the bench.

"When a player makes a coach look good, yeah, you got to just love it," Hackworth joked.

"Definitely excited to be back in 11," Becher said, "and whether for me I'm in the lineup or coming off the bench, just trying to impact the game as much as I can. Really happy with my performance and 10 other guys out there with me. I think everyone else had really put in a shift, worked for the guy next to him and executed on the game plan.

"In the last five games, we talked as players, and we really wanted to get wins, get clean sheets and really win games at home for these fans. On the last home game of the season, just a good performance and, I think from me and all the players, one for the fans."

Becher wasn’t the only newcomer to play a part. Cedric Teuchert assisted on Becher’s first goal, giving him 11 goal contributions over 13 games in all competitions. Marcel Hartel had two assists for a team-high seven in just eight games. Jannes Horn picked up his second assist of the season.

But for emotion, you couldn’t beat the veterans.

Burki didn’t have much to do in the first half, facing no shots, but had to make five in the second half, with most of them tough ones that required athleticism or quick reflexes. Houston, battling for home-field advantage in the first round, had an expected goals total of 2.5.

“I think we chose the best timing to get a clean sheet,� Burki said, “especially also for the fans. It was a great game, and just happy the way we defended.�

“He had a lot of work to do in the end,� Hackworth said, “and thank goodness he is a goalkeeper that is world class and can make those kind of saves.�

But what may stand out more from Burki didn’t involve a save. In the 36th minute, after a foul by Teuchert near midfield led to the post-whistle jawing that had become a feature of the game, here came Burki running out from his net to midfield to angrily say something not to a Houston player or the referee but to two teammates, Teuchert and Eduard Lowen.

“In my opinion, we talked too much to the ref,� Burki said. “Every time the ref made a decision, we had four guys surrounding, explaining, trying to win something else out of it. And two or three times they just played the free kick fast and then we got a little bit caught off guard. So I wanted to prevent that. We have a really nice saying, that 'Hack' taught us, which is: If the ball goes dead, we come alive. So I just wanted to tell that to guys: Guys, we have to play a game actually and not talk too much with the ref.�

(Before the start of the second half, Lowen ran down to Burki in goal and the two exchanged fist bumps.)

“You could tell emotions are running high, right?� Hackworth said. “I think that's indicative of the work that these men do and the pride that they have and feeling like they didn't accomplish what they wanted to this year. ... You saw Roman and Edu have an emotional moment in the first half; that doesn’t happen if you’re just happily going through it. We felt like we needed to show this club, the fan base, everybody what we were about and what they could expect in ’25.�

Klauss unhappily came off the field in the 70th minute and, after talking to Hackworth and stopping at the bench, headed to the dressing room and then a few minutes later came out, talking to Hackworth some more before taking a seat.

“Klauss was pretty tired,� Hackworth said. “Klauss said, ‘Coach, I've played more as a six (defensive midfielder) tonight than I played as a nine (striker). Do you want me to play as a six?' And I said, ‘No, you played awesome, Klauss. Thank you.’ So he was a little frustrated. He's a goal scorer, and he wants to score goals but at the same time, we need to win games like this, where somebody else is finding the back of the net, and he is contributing, because he was doing so much work defensively. Huge credit to him. I would say that he's going to come in my office tomorrow, probably, and say, ‘Hey, we got to sort this out.’ And I'm like, ‘Listen, let's win 3-0 and then talk to me later.’�

And then there was Nerwinski, who is out of contract after the season (the club has an option) and played just six times under Bradley Carnell but now has made seven appearance under Hackworth. Though he played only a few minutes as a late substitution, he made them memorable by scoring in the 92nd minute, redirecting in a cross from Hartel. Nerwinski was mobbed by not only the players on the field but players such as Klauss who had come out of the game. It was the fifth goal of Nerwinski's career and his first since 2021.

“The goal meant a lot,� Nerwinski said. “This is one of the hardest seasons of my career. Disappointing that I didn't get a lot of game time. But this last month, I think that I tried to take my opportunities as much as I could, and I know that I'm known as a defensive guy, but to be able to push forward at left back and get a goal, it just felt great, especially, last game of the season at CityPark. I don't know what the future holds for me, but if that's it for me here, I'm pretty ... happy that that's how I go out.�