In a rematch of a 2023 Third Round US Open Cup draw, St. Louis CITY SC defeated Union Omaha, 2-0 Wednesday night in Round 4 of the 2025 Cup, to win a second straight over its USL League One foes.
It was a match that was dominated in most phases by St. Louis but they continuously came up short of a finish eventually saw the difference maker occur. After a free kick cleaned up by debutant Joey Zalinsky in the 68th minute ended up being the match-winner for St. Louis. It was Zalinsky’s first career start and first professional goal for St. Louis.
“It was insane. I couldn’t ask for much more. First professional goal, first start with fans that are amazing. I was so happy,” Zalinsky said, who was a Second Round pick for St. Louis in the 2025 SuperDraft. “I had three previous chances so I thought one of these have to go in. … I didn’t think I had enough power behind it and thought it was going wide of the post. I was shocked at first.”
St. Louis didn’t rest on the night of firsts by Zalinsky, though, as Union Omaha had begun showing more aggression after falling behind, allowing the field to open up and on the other end of their player spectrum, CITY’s designated player Klauss found net in the 87th to seal the deal for the MLS side, 2-0.
Klauss’ finish came during a transition after St. Louis forced a turnover in the Omaha attacking end, getting the ball to a fresh legged Cedric Teuchert who played Klauss in the left channel and between a couple of defenders, Klauss buried a shot in the lower right corner to put CITY SC up 2-0.
“This was a must-win game and a Cup that we want to take serious but at the same time it wasn’t pretty,” Klauss said. “A lot of things to improve and we have to go to the training field and get better.”
It took a while for this Round of 32 match to open up, as neither team seemed comfortable in the attacking third during the first half. St. Louis, in a rare feat given their MLS play, dominated with 66% of the possession during the first half and outshot Omaha, 10-3.
Each team had their share of chances generated as Célio Pompeu and Xande Silva showed their danger on the wings for CITY in 1v1 opportunities while Max Schneider, a former St. Louis CITY2 player during the 2022-2023 seasons, had the best chances for Omaha in both the run of play and from a corner kick against his former organization.
In the waning minutes of an otherwise uneventful first half, St. Louis saw a scary moment as midfielder Alfredo Morales went down in the 42nd minute with a non-contact injury. He gave way to Conrad Wallem, who entered and played the rest of the game in Morales’ midfield position. After the match, St. Louis head coach Olof Mellberg gave an update on Morales.
“I don’t think he’s ok, it could be some kind of strain but we’ll have to see tomorrow,” Mellberg said.
The second half started with a couple of dueling subs as St. Louis brought on Eduard Löwen for Tomas Ostrák, a move characterized by Mellberg as due to Ostrák feeling, “a little tight in his groin.” Union Omaha used the half to sub on defender Anderson Holt for Samuel Owusu.
In the 58th minuute, after a few chances generated by St. Louis, Omaha made two more attacking changes, bringing on their No. 9, Mehdi Ouamri and midfielder Sergio Ors Navarro for Josue Gomez and Kemy Amiche. It would prove eventful in the middle half of the period but there were fireworks for the home side before that.
St. Louis CITY SC subbed its third player of the game in the 63rd as Teuchert entered for Xande Silva and in the 68th, Zalinsky broke the scoreless draw with his heroics for the home crowd that began to open the game up a bit more after St. Louis went up 1-0.
Shortly after this, St. Louis made a couple more changes in the 74th as they brought on Klauss and left-footed defender Jannes Horn for Simon Becher and Zalinsky.
Union Omaha began to press higher and show more aggression than they had up until this point and it resulted in some of their more dangerous opportunities.
“In the second half we had a bad spell for 10 minutes when we were 1-0 up and they were close to scoring,” Mellberg said. “Wasn’t happy with that period.”
This period was most notable as in the 79th Union Omaha generated a sequence into the final third and earned a corner off of a cross into the box. This corner resulted in a Ouamri shot on goal, his first of three chances.
Ouamri followed it up with a bicycle kick chance just four minutes later, shot directly into the arms of CITY SC goalkeeper Ben Lundt. Shortly after, Union Omaha made its final sub of the game, bringing on Mark Bronnik for Brandon Knapp in the 84th minute.
The final blow of the game came athree minutes later when Klauss, having just entered the game, received a drop off pass from Teuchert in transition after a Union Omaha turnover in the opposite end, and had a clinical finish in the lower right corner that put St. Louis up 2-0.
For Union Omaha, their 2025 US Open Cup run comes to an end having defeated three opponents including USL Championship side San Antonio FC. They will next return home to USL League One play on Saturday against Portland Hearts of Pine.
St. Louis earns their second-ever US Open Cup win, both having come against Union Omaha, and now move on to the Round of 16 to face Minnesota United, which defeated Louisville City. This matchup has the unique opportunity to see these clubs face each other twice in less than a week later this month, with both matches being in Minnesota.
On that possibility, Mellberg said, “it’s a little bit of a strange run. You see it in Champions League legs, but when it’s two different tournaments it doesn’t happen as often.”