Roman Bürki extends St. Louis City’s perfect defensive start to the season in 3-0 win over LA Galaxy

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Roman Bürki made eight saves while keeping his third consecutive clean sheet to start the season and St. Louis City kept the MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy winless with a 3-0 victory Sunday.

Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel and Simon Becher scored the first goals of the season for St. Louis, which began with two scoreless draws before this win over the Galaxy that was less one-sided than the score.

Bürki was outstanding in his 18th career shutout for St. Louis, turning away every scoring attempt by the injury-depleted Galaxy. The standout Swiss keeper had to make just one save in St. Louis’ first two games combined.

The defending league champions have scored just one goal in their three losses this season without star playmaker Riqui Puig and rampaging forward Joseph Paintsil. Both key components of last year’s team are out indefinitely with significant injuries, and LA has been unable to compensate even though healthy stars Gabriel Pec and Marco Reus repeatedly created scoring chances against St. Louis.

Christian Ramírez had the Galaxy’s best chance in the first half, but Bürki saved his left-footed shot in the box.

Teuchert got St. Louis on the board in the 44th minute, banging home a rebound after a scramble in LA’s box.

Hartel then connected a few minutes into the second half, taking a pass from Teuchert and beating Novak Micovic in the top left corner.

Pec missed a golden chance in the 64th minute, failing to hit a fairly open net after a setup from Reus. In the 74th minute, Reus got a free kick past the St. Louis wall from just outside the penalty area, but Bürki swatted it away.

Becher scored in the 84th minute.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer