ST. LOUIS, MO (July 27, 2010) – AC St. Louis, playing in the USSF Division 2 Pro League, begin a five-game home stand on Wednesday evening, July 28, against the Portland Timbers. Game time is set for 7:10 p.m. CDT. The match can be viewed via live streaming at www.ac-stlouis.com.

AC St. Louis find themselves out of last place for the first time this season after winning the final game of a four game road trip on Saturday in Baltimore. The 1-0 win moved them past Miami FC, and back into playoff contention. While AC St. Louis still remain seven points back of a playoff spot the club does have something going for it that few others do. Home games, and lots of them. Having eight of their next nine matches at home will certainly help the team make a playoff push, but it also gives the club a chance to do something they haven’t been able to do for quite a while.

“The biggest thing for us about this upcoming home stand is that we get to train regularly, which is what we miss the most,” says Head Coach Dale Schilly. “Being able to train on a regular basis is going to help us a lot.”

Regular training is still a critical aspect to the development of this expansion franchise, an expansion franchise that is making progress quickly. The Portland Timbers visit Wednesday night will be a good gauge of just how far AC St. Louis has come. Portland enters the game with a record of 7-5-5, and winners of four out of their last five. Portland also brings to town the hottest goal scorer in the second division, Ryan Pore, who has 11 goals on the year.

These two clubs have met twice already this year. In their previous meeting AC St. Louis earned a 1-1 draw at Portland in May, but were beaten 3-0 at Portland in April. Portland, despite Ryan Pore’s numbers, is not a goal-scoring team. The Timbers have scored just 17 times this season, seemingly at odds with their 7-5-5 record. However, they have only allowed 11 goals, which clearly rectifies why they are a top half of the table club. Those numbers, plus a revamped AC St. Louis squad, make for an interesting mid-week encounter.

St. Louis, 14 goal scored, has tallied just three fewer times than Portland. The major difference is what AC St. Louis has allowed, which is 27 goals. Most of those 27 goals came early in the year. Since June 1 AC St. Louis has allowed just 10 goals in nine league matches, while scoring eight. Those are numbers that are much more respectable, and much more in line with the teams occupying playoff spots.

Shutting down Ryan Pore will be the one of the main defensive objectives for AC St. Louis, and they will also want to continue the defensive cohesion they displayed on Saturday in Baltimore.

“We got the entire team back into the defensive effort,” said team captain Jack Traynor. “The mind set was no goals for the first half in Baltimore, and overall we defended real well as a team in that game.”

“The guys had a good idea of how we are going to try and be successful defensively,” echoed Schilly. “They carried that out, and it was a marked difference. They took a big step forward.”

Taking the next step means banking some points. The opportunity to do that for AC St. Louis is now.

AC St. Louis next home match will be Sunday, August 1 at 5:00 p.m. against NSC Minnesota. Tickets are still available and can be obtained by calling 1-888-STL-GOAL, or by visiting www.ac-stlouis.com.