Carlo Holse Hat Trick Powers St. Louis CITY Past LA Galaxy 6-2, Tying MLS All-Competitions Unbeaten Record

Most players spend a career waiting for a hat trick. Carlo Holse needed 21 minutes on a Sunday night.

St. Louis CITY SC demolished the LA Galaxy 6-2 at Energizer Park, with Holse scoring in the second, seventh and 21st minutes and Rafael Navarro adding two goals and two assists. According to MLS, the win stretched St. Louis's unbeaten run to 20 games across all competitions, tying the league record set by the 2016 Red Bulls. For a team MLS noted had one win in its first 10 games, that is a ridiculous sentence to type.

Three Goals Before the Galaxy Woke Up

It took two minutes. Navarro picked up the ball deep in the Galaxy half, drove into the box down the left and squared it, per the Galaxy's own description, and Holse finished from the middle of the box. Five minutes later, Navarro slipped a through ball behind the back line and Holse finished again from the left side of the box.

The Galaxy's night went from bad to worse in the 11th minute, when Kyogo Furuhashi came off injured and João Klauss replaced him. Klauss, who joined LA from St. Louis this past offseason, got a standing ovation from his old fans, per the Galaxy. He forced Roman Bürki into a save in the 20th minute. A minute later, it was 3-0. Chris Durkin clipped a ball over the top, Holse chested it down and buried it into the bottom right corner. MLS said it was the second-fastest hat trick from the start of a match in league history, behind only Hany Mukhtar's 16-minute effort in 2021.

A Brief Galaxy Pulse, Then More Pain

Robert Taylor had already been denied twice, with a blocked shot in the 24th minute and a Bürki save in the 26th, before he gave the visitors hope in the 31st minute, cutting inside and curling a shot from outside the box into the top right corner off an Erik Thommy pass. The Galaxy said it was his third straight match with a goal contribution. The hope lasted until the 43rd minute, when Pablo Ruiz fouled Alexandru Matan in the box. Navarro stepped up and sent the penalty into the bottom left corner.

Then, deep in first-half stoppage time, Matan curled a set piece in from the right and Lukas MacNaughton headed it into the top right corner. It was 5-1 at halftime. Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney sent on Lucas Sanabria for Sergi Roberto at the break, saying afterward that he had started thinking about managing the big picture, and the second half started with St. Louis still hungry. In the 53rd minute, Durkin found Navarro on the left side of the box and he finished into the bottom right corner.

The Galaxy had some moments after that. Justin Haak headed off the bar in the 55th minute, and Klauss scored in the 71st, heading in a chipped Marco Reus cross. Matan also hit the bar for St. Louis in the 75th minute. Holse and Navarro left together in the 80th minute to a standing ovation, MLS said.

The Main Characters

Carlo Holse scored three times on four shots. MLS said it was his first career hat trick, that he became just the fifth player in MLS history with a hat trick inside 30 minutes, and that he was named Player of the Matchday. "I've always had an eye for goal," he said.

Rafael Navarro finished with two goals and two assists. St. Louis said he became the first player in club history with four goal contributions in a single match, and MLS said the club-record signing has 7g/3a in six games for St. Louis.

Chris Durkin had two assists, including the long ball for the hat trick goal.

João Klauss scored against his former club, and the Galaxy said it was his eighth league goal of the season and his third in as many games. "It was beautiful to be back here," he said.

Roman Bürki made five saves for St. Louis, while JT Marcinkowski did not record a save for the Galaxy despite conceding six.

The Turning Point

This was over by the 21st minute, but the goal that truly sealed it was Navarro's penalty in the 45th. The Galaxy had just pulled one back and were starting to settle, and Vanney said his side was "maybe going to build out of it" before the fourth goal. Instead, the penalty and MacNaughton's header made it 5-1 before the break. Vanney was blunt about the start, too: "All three of the first three goals were defendable situations."

Stats That Matter

• Finishing: St. Louis scored six goals on six shots on target.
• Shots: The Galaxy actually outshot St. Louis 18 to 11.
• Possession: St. Louis 59.5 percent.
• Saves: Bürki five, Marcinkowski zero.
• Passes: St. Louis completed 545 of 609.

What It Means

St. Louis improved to 14-8-6 with 50 points, and MLS said the club sat one point behind first-place Vancouver heading into Wednesday's showdown with the Whitecaps. MLS also said the 6-2 result matched St. Louis's regular-season record for goals in a game and for largest margin of victory, and the club noted it remained unbeaten against the Galaxy since the teams first met in 2023. "All the credit goes to the players," head coach Yoann Damet said.

The Galaxy fell to 9-9-11 with 36 points, snapping a two-game winning streak. Vanney explained that he had rotated with three games in six days and prioritized the two home games coming up, against Portland on Wednesday and San Diego FC on Saturday. He was honest about the result: "we put ourselves in a hole that was difficult to get out of."

The Closing Take

Navarro may have summed it up best: "For me, it's crazy. A 20-game unbeaten streak is just a crazy thought." St. Louis are playing like a team on the cheat-code level of a video game right now, and Holse just showed what happens when you hand him the controller.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Records, milestones and postgame quotes as reported by MLSsoccer.com, St. Louis CITY SC and the LA Galaxy.