St Louis CITY2, the number two seed in the MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference will travel to Arlington, Texas to face North Texas SC, the number one seed, in the MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference Championship at Choctaw Stadium on Saturday, November 2. The match will kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
CITY2 earned a 4-2 win in overtime against The Town FC last Sunday at CITYPARK. St Louis opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a goal from Brendan McSorley. The Town FC responded in the 28th minute and the score remained 1-1 at halftime. In the second half, TTFC scored in the 67th minute but St Louis responded with a goal from Gabriel Mikina. After regulation the match was tied at 2-2 and went into two 15-minute overtime periods.
In the 103rd minute, Mykhi Joyner scored from an assist by Caden Glover. Joyner sealed the win for CITY2 with a goal in overtime stoppage time as CITY2 advanced to the MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference Championship. The goals were Joyner’s eighteenth and nineteenth of the season. Joyner leads the league in playoff goals with three.
Sunday night’s conference semifinal saw McSorley score his second consecutive playoff goal and earn two assists. In the last eight games, McSorley has recorded 11 goal contributions (nine goals and two assists).
Mikina scored his first professional goal. Glover earned his second consecutive assist and Jay Reid picked up his first career playoff assist. The match was the second consecutive time that Glover and Joyner combined to score the game winner.
Saturday’s match in Texas will be the fourth time CITY2 and NTX meet. The first meeting was back in March at CITYPARK with North Texas winning on penalty kicks. The teams met for a second time in late July with NTX again winning 2-1. St Louis got the upper hand in the final regular season meeting in late August at home, shutting out North Texas 4-0.
North Texas began their playoff route against Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in the conference quarterfinal, narrowly edging out 3-2 win. They went onto beat Tacoma Defiance 4-1 in the conference semifinal.
