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Just when it’s getting to be too late, St. Louis City SC may be finally finding itself.

In a category that doesn’t have a whole lot of competition, considering City SC has now won five games out of 25, the team may have played its best game of the season on Saturday night, beating Nashville, which came into the game with the third-best record in the league, 3-1, at sold-out Energizer Park.

And even if it wasn’t the best game, it was the rare game where the breaks actually went City SC’s way, which they’d probably rather have anyway. City SC went up 2-0 at the half on a pair of goals that each hit the post and went in. Two of its three goals were the first of the season for the scorer.

City SC scored first, and then it scored second, and then scored third, taking a 3-0, following one goal with another. In the first nine games under interim coach David Critchley, City SC had followed a goal of its own with another only twice; on Saturday alone it did it twice.

“Too often I’ve sat in this chair and we’ve started a game well,� Critchley said, “we’ve scored a goal and we’ve had a little bit of a passive behavior, and today wasn’t the case. So that shows massive growth in the team.

“I felt like for the theme this year there’s been moments that have gone against us. But today the difference is we put ourselves in a position of such a controlled moment with 3-0 that even when it doesn’t go our way, we can still come away with three points.�

“I think when you score three goals, you have a big chance to win the game,� said Klauss, the only City player with a goal so far this season to score on Saturday. “So, we know that we are having ups and downs during the season, but yeah, you can see that the team is improving. Of course, the results are not there, so it’s difficult to really say, like, ‘Oh, this team is getting better.’ But we know, like, what Critch is doing with us, and we know what we’re doing day by day. Also, we’re getting healthy finally. So yeah, we are happy with the game that we played tonight.�

The win is just the third for City SC in its past 21 games and its second in the past nine. It was just the third for Critchley in 10 games as coach, one more than Olof Mellberg won in 15 games. City SC matched its season-high for goals and came within a late penalty kick and a video review of posting the first shutout of the Critchley Era. Instead, City SC had to endure a slightly frustrating 15 minutes of second-half stoppage time in which Nashville looked to have scored, only for a foul to be called on the play to negate it.

The game’s impact on the standings, however, was minimal. City SC remains in 14th in the Western Conference standings and sits 10 points below the last Western Conference playoff team. Meanwhile, it sits only five points ahead of the last-place Los Angeles Galaxy.

Jaziel Orozco was an unlikely goal scorer — he came into the game with two in his pro career and none at the senior level — who scored from an unlikely angle. Klauss followed with his eighth goal of the season and then Sangbin Jeong, who had been shut out with his previous team this season, gave City SC the goal that wrapped things up.

Orozco’s goal, in the 23rd minute, was totally against the grain. In a familiar sequence for City SC, it had had three chances in a matter of seconds, two of which were saved by Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis and the third cleared off the line by a defender. City SC did get a corner kick out of all that and Devin Padelford, who has been a big plus in his two games, headed the ball out to Orozco at the top of the box. He saw a gap in the defense so decided to dribble forward and when he got near the end line someone — he’s not sure who — yelled “Shoot.� So he did, even though it meant shooting with his left foot, his weaker of the two, from a near-impossible angle. Willis thought the same way too, so he cheated slightly away from the post, but Orozco threaded the needle to score his first MLS goal.

“I never use my left foot for anything at all,� he said. “And now I just felt it in my instincts, and just went through to the net. Once I saw it, it was a feeling that I can’t describe, to be honest.

“The goal was something like an adrenaline pump for myself in my career. Something that I’ll never forget, and with the fans, with everyone, with a huge crowd, it’s always so nice to do that. There was a lot of time left to play with, so we knew that we’ve been in this situation before. We wanted to get the second goal, and then after that, get the third goal, and keep on building from that. But it was something that I’m really, really proud of the group and of myself.�

Holding leads has not been City SC’s strong suit. It came into the night having scored first 10 times this season and had won just three of those games. But then in the 39th minute, Klauss made it 2-0, taking a pass from Eduard Lowen and again, putting the ball between Willis and the near post, this time from the other side.

“I think that was my only chance in this situation,� Klauss said. “I think we have to give a lot of credit to Edu, because he weighted the ball perfect. Gave me a chance to finish with my first touch. And, yeah, I think in this position, you have to finish strong, you have to put power (on it). And when I see this gap, I think that was my chance.�

The last time City SC had been up 2-0 at the half, against Sporting Kansas City on May 14, it gave up two goals in the second half and had to settle for a tie, a result that fast-tracked the firing of Mellberg. But this time, it was Jeong, in his second game with the club getting his first goal, after going goal-less in 15 games with Minnesota. Simon Becher took a shot that was blocked, got the ball back, took another and Jeong redirected it with his head into the net in the 66th minute.

“I was preparing this week with some desperation,� he said through an interpreter. “I really wanted to score this week. I was starting to think that maybe today is not the day because I had some chances that I missed. I’m really happy because I ended up scoring a goal tonight.�

City SC had a chance for its first shutout since Critchley took over, until Alfredo Morales took down Hany Mukhtar in the box in the 81st minute and Nashville was awarded a penalty kick. Mukhtar took the kick and went to his right, but a diving Roman Burki saved it, and then saved the followup shot. But on VAR review, Burki had moved off his line before the shot in response to Mukhtar’s exaggerated stutterstep approach so Mukhtar got another chance, this one he fired in.

“Sometimes the luck has not gone our way as a team this year,� Critchley said, “but the difference tonight than other days is that did not define the end result for us. What we have to try to control is be so dominant in games if even a little bit of a moment doesn’t go our way, it shouldn’t impact the end result. Roman’s clean sheet is coming pretty soon here. I can give you guys my word on that.�