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Through the first 15 minutes of St. Louis City SC’s friendly match with Aston Villa of the English Premier League on Wednesday night at Energizer Park, it had all the makings of a very long night for the home team.

Aston Villa pressed, and City SC kept turning the ball over deep in its own end. The Villans had chance after chance, eight opportunities in the first 12 minutes, and only the play of Roman Burki in goal for City SC and Villa looking very much like a team still in its preseason kept the game from quickly getting out of hand.

As the half went on, even after City SC gave up a goal, something seemed to click, and City SC hung in, even getting some scoring chances and, in the second half, actually finishing one. So the final score, a 2-1 loss by City SC, was an improvement over what might have been.

“I look at that performance tonight collectively from the group,� said City SC interim coach David Critchley, “and we got better as a team against a really good opponent. I always want to win, but sometimes you have to look at it and say, ‘Hey, we had a good performance against a really top-, top-level team in Europe.’ We’re happy with it, and we move on.�

Of course, the game means nothing in the standings, and its effect on the team might well be the same. City SC has had good performances before that didn’t lead to another good performance, but for a team with precious little to celebrate at any point this season, a one-goal loss to a definitely superior team should provide a little boost to a team that has not had much to celebrate this season.

The recent Club World Cup drove home the size of the gap between MLS and European teams. It’s large. And Aston Villa is an above-average team in the world’s best league, while City SC is in 28th in Major League Soccer. Critchley felt his team respected the caliber of the game it was in, even if it ultimately didn’t matter.

“One thing we spoke about is to try and enjoy this occasion,� he said. “You’re going against world-class players that I’m sure a lot of these guys watch weekly when they’re watching the games. So there’s always going to be, as much as I could say ‘guys don’t be nervous’ going into the game, they’re always going to be some nerves there, and I want that in the players. It shows excitement as well. Once we got past 15 minutes, the nerves started to settle a little bit, and we started to find some success. So I was really happy with that.�

“It was a special moment for all of us,� midfielder Eduard Lowen told the crowd at halftime.

There were two significant milestones in the game. Defender Fallou Fall came on in the second half, making his City SC debut. He arrived Sunday in St. Louis, had one practice with the team Tuesday and played 40 minutes before being subbed out. And City SC got a goal from Cedric Teuchert, who last scored a goal on May 14. It may be too late for this season, but City SC needs to get Teuchert going.

Critchley used two groups of players, the same 11 who started against Minnesota in the first half and then 11 different players in the second half (plus four late subs for a total of 26 players). The team played differently in the second half, moving its attack higher up the field and being more dangerous overall, with a lineup that included youngsters Mykhi Joyner and Brandon McSorley. And it worked. Teuchert got his goal in the second half.

“They play well,� said Aston Villa coach Unai Emery. “And of course, we try to share minutes with our players, playing everybody, and the result is not important now. And I think the environment as well was good. The people enjoyed the match. I think it’s positive.

“I think they played differently the first half, the second half. The second half, they were pushing more higher, and we needed our buildup to be better than we did even because we lost the ball and was a goal that we conceded. But of course, everything we are practicing and playing and everything was happening is positive to analyze and to try to get better.�

A somewhat predictable City SC turnover in the moment led to the first goal, in the 14th minute, by Morgan Rogers, and the second was an example of how good Aston Villa can be, with a perfectly placed ball from Matty Cash into the box that was headed in by Ollie Watkins. Aston Villa’s two goalscorers were the same players who had scored in a 2-2 tie with German club Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I want to add more players scoring goals,� Emery said.

Three minutes after Villa went up 2-0, a turnover led to a pass from Simon Becher to Teuchert for the City SC goal from the top of the penalty area.

“That’s something we spoke about a lot lately,� Critchley said, “is when we concede a goal, how do we respond over the next five minutes? We’ve had a couple of times this year where we’ve actually scored the first goal and then kind of let the team come back into it, but when we concede a goal, how do we respond? And the response from Cedric and the team tonight was good. It was great pressure high up the field. You have to be brave to put that much pressure on an EPL back for to try and strip them of the ball in that moment. And I think we did that.�

City SC has this weekend off and returns to action Aug. 9 against Nashville (which faces Aston Villa on Saturday).

“I think we took a lot away from this game,� Critchley said. “We know they’re in preseason. We know that they’re probably not at their most sharpest as a group, but again, these are world-class players, and we went on the field and actually competed with them today. It wasn’t like we just sat deep and absorbed all this pressure for 90 minutes and got away with a lucky 2-1. I thought it was a pretty competitive game. Both teams had chances. So we’ll take a lot of positives away, for sure.�