João Klauss scored in the 86th minute and St. Louis City SC made its first match a memorable one with a 3-2 victory over Austin FC on Saturday night.

It was a stunning loss for Austin, which advanced to the Western Conference final before losing 3-0 to eventual champion LAFC in its second season of play last year. St. Louis became the first team to win its inaugural match since LAFC beat Seattle 1-0 in 2018.

Tim Parker scored St. Louis' first goal on a header in the 24th minute. Jared Stroud scored in the 78th minute to pull St. Louis even at 2-2.

"So yeah, just extremely grateful to be sitting here tonight and to start off the season with three points is extremely humbling," said Bradley Carnell, City SC coach after the game. 

Sebastián Driussi found the net in the 45th minute to get Austin on the scoreboard. Jon Gallagher gave Austin a 2-1 lead with a goal in the 72nd minute.

Klauss said City SC was making some mistakes when they fell behind but was proud of his team for rallying. 

"This is perfect game to grow the team, to grow the mentality of the players. To show that we have to believe to the last minute. This is soccer and everything can happen, and I'm so proud of the team," said Klauss. 

Roman Bürki didn't make a save for St. Louis City. Brad Stuver had six saves for Austin.

St. Louis outshot Austin 18-13 with a 9-2 edge in shots on goal.

Nearly 200 City SC fans were in the stands to cheer on the team in its first game. 

"So for us to come out here and for the fans to come support us all this way, it's truly emotional and humbling at the same time. So we just are looking forward to next week against Charlotte," said Carnell.

Parker says he and his team know they need to focus for playing in front of the hometown crowd next week. 

We kind of talked about a little bit this week, right? Like where we said, you know, Austin is going to be an absolute riot. And then if we're able to play well here and get a result here, we're going to have an absolute riot waiting for us in St. Louis next week. So, the adrenaline is obviously really high. Everyone's really happy in the locker room, but we have to regroup this week and recreate that feeling and that buzz again in training," explained Parker. 

Both teams next play Saturday. St. Louis hosts Charlotte FC and Austin hosts CF Montreal.