Following the victory against Toronto FC, St. Louis CITY SC concludes its two-game road trip with a bout against last season’s MLS Cup Champions LAFC this Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. CST. The match will be streamed on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and can be heard by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).
St. Louis CITY SC tallied their third consecutive win in Matchday 24, edging Toronto FC 1-0 at BMO Field. After a scoreless first half, Aziel Jackson scored the game-winner in the 50th minute to secure the three points for CITY SC.
Jackson scored the first goal of his MLS career with the help of Akil Watts who recorded the assist on the goal – the first assist of his MLS career. Jackson and Watts have helped CITY SC to three-straight wins, having started the last three matches. Jackson now has a goal contribution in two-straight matches after recording his first assist against Colorado Rapids. With his performance against Toronto, Jackson made his first appearance on the Team of the Matchday squad.
CITY SC goalkeeper Roman Bürki has started all 21 matches for CITY SC in the regular season, making 82 saves which is good for second in the league, three behind New England’s Djordje Petrovic who leads the league with 85 saves. With the shutout in the last match, Bürki recorded his sixth clean sheet of the season and the 150th of his professional career – 83 with Borussia Dortmund, 39 with Grasshopper Club Zurich, nine with SC Freiburg, four with the Swiss National Team, four with FC Thun, three with FC Schaffhausen, two with BSC Young Boys and six with St. Louis.
CITY SC has now seen 13 different players score in MLS action and 14 different players score across all competitions. CITY SC continued its strong start to its inaugural season, picking up its 12th MLS regular season win. The 12 wins are tied for the fifth most by an expansion team, tying Seattle, Orlando City and Montreal. With the win, St. Louis CITY SC (38 points) have accrued the most points by an expansion team after 21 regular season matches in MLS history, eclipsing Chicago Fire (1998) who had 37 points in the shootout era.
CITY SC has continued its undefeated streak when they tally the first goal, boasting a 10-0-2 record. St. Louis is the only team with at least five wins at home and on the road in MLS this season. After 21 matches, St. Louis sits in second place in the Supporter Shield standings, first place in the MLS Western Conference, leads the league with the highest goal differential (+16) and is tied for second with Atlanta for most goals scored (40). CITY SC is one of two teams with at least 12 wins this season, joining FC Cincinnati who has 13 wins.
St. Louis owns a 5-4-1 record in road matches this season and has scored 13 goals and seen eight different goal scorers on the road this season, with Jackson being the latest to record an away goal. With the win against Toronto, St. Louis joined Seattle (2009), NYCFC (2015) and LAFC (2018) as the only expansion teams to win on the road against Toronto FC.
LAFC currently sits in third place in the Western Conference standings with 33 points – five points behind St. Louis. LAFC comes into the match on a four-game winless streak (0-3-1 record), after tying their last match against San Jose at home. LAFC is 6-2-3 at home this season, with their only losses coming against Vancouver (3-2) and Houston (1-0).
Across their six matches in club history against expansion teams playing in their inaugural seasons, LAFC is 6-0-0 overall. In the home matches over that span, the team is 4-0-0 with a plus-10 goal differential.
