“We probably played our best football the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes,” STLFC coach Anthony Pulis said. “It wasn’t the greatest of games and probably you could argue a draw was a fair result.”

Still, the start of the season is notable for STLFC. They opened the season by beating Indy Eleven at home, then went on the road to win at Nashville and got a tie with Tampa Bay that was a bounce or two away from being a win. They have allowed two goals in those three games, one on a penalty kick and another on a series of plays that were set in motion by a penalty kick. The offense has created chances, though it’s been harder getting the ball over the line.

“I think the fight, the togetherness, the spirit they’ve shown has been great,” Pulis said. “They don’t give in, they work extremely hard every day, they’re a great group of guys to work with, they’re hungry to learn. They want to get better, they want success, so they’ve all bought into the culture fantastically well. We’re three games into a 34-game season, so there’s loads of elements of the game that we need to improve on, and we’ll keep working on those on a week-by-week basis.”