Western Conference regular season champions St. Louis City SC lost the first game in their best-of-three series against Sporting Kansas City 4-1.

St. Louis, which reached the playoffs in its first season of existence, couldn’t pull out a result for the home fans crowded into CITYPARK on a rainy Sunday evening.

Kansas City, which scored just three goals in its first 10 games this season and beat San Jose on penalty kicks in the Wild Card game, can advance to the conference semifinals with a win in Match 2 at home on Nov. 5.

But Tim Parker answered when he cleaned up a corner kick from Indiana Vassilev that was deflected by the Sporting defense to make it 1-1 moments later.

Sporting Kansas City upset the Western Conference champs St. Louis City SC 4-1

St. Louis scored only one goal after putting six shots on target, failing to convert at home

St. Louis made it a 1-1 game, but SKC scored three unanswered goals to take the victory

Rémi Walter scored in the 36th minute to give Sporting KC the lead for good and Gadi Kinda added a goal in the 39th to make it 3-1. 

Walter scored when Kinda’s shot from the left side of the box was kick-saved by goalkeeper Roman Bürki but the ball rolled directly to Walter at the top of the box and he threaded a roller through four defenders and past Bürki into the net.

Kinda’s corner kick was headed by Alan Pulido at the near post to Dániel Sallói, who tapped in from point-blank range to cap the scoring in the 61st minute.

St. Louis, which has lost three games in a row for the first time this season, is the eighth expansion team to reach the playoffs in its inaugural season and the first since Inter Miami and Nashville accomplished the feat in 2020.