St. Louis CITY striker Simon Becher battles for the ball against the San Jose Earthquakes during his team’s 3-1 victory at PayPal Park on Saturday AUG 15, 2026. (St. Louis City)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Simon Becher had only scored two goals throughout the 2026 season.

Becher doubled his goal total with a brace as St. Louis CITY defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1 on Saturday evening at PayPal Park.

San Jose has lost three out of its last four matches and has only earned one point since coming out of the World Cup break. St. Louis CITY has won five of its past six matches and have earned points in 10 consecutive matches.

St. Louis CITY (8-6-5-29 points) drew first blood in the eighth minute. Sang Bin Jeong found Conrad Wallem inside the box. Wallem centered the ball into the middle where Daniel Edleman beat Quakes goalie Angus Gunn with a one-timer to the right corner for his third goal of the season.

It was another slow start for San Jose (10-6-3-33 points) as they found themselves chasing the game early in the match. They have conceded the first goal in three of its past four matches.

CITY doubled its lead off of a set piece in the 27th minute. Eduard Löwen sent in a corner kick perfectly to an unmarked Simon Becher who headed the ball past Gunn for his second goal of the season. San Jose was caught flat footed as Becher was able to get behind Quakes fullback Daniel Munie for the easy goal.

The Earthquakes had an uninspiring first half as they played on the heels defending St. Louis’ attack in the opening 45 minutes.

San Jose responded right away to start the second half by cutting their deficit in half. Timo Werner’s free kick into the box was headed out by CITY defender Timo Baumgarti. Quakes midfielder Beau Leroux one-timed the ball out of midair and past CITY goalkeeper Roman Burki for his third goal of the season in the 47th minute.

St. Louis regained its two-goal lead in the 55th minute. A long ball was chased down by Tomas Totland down the left wing. Totland calmly centered the ball into the middle of the box where a crashing Becher one-timed the ball into the back of the net with a high right footed shot to record his brace and fourth goal of the season.

Tempers flared late in the match when Wellem made a hard foul against Werner as he pushed him out of bounds along the sideline in the 78th minute. A skirmish ensued with players pushing and shoving. Wellem was issued a yellow card.

The Quakes weren’t able to muster any more offense the rest of the match as St. Louis controlled the possession and the scoring chances in the final 10 minutes of the match.

Burki finished with one save on the two shots on target to earn the victory. Gunn had four saves on seven shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with four corner kicks. St. Louis had five.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels down to Los Angeles for the 106th California Classico on Wednesday August 19th at 7:30pm Dignity Health Sports Park.