Brendan McSorley mad his first Major League Soccer start one to remember, as he scored two goals — and cleared a San Jose chance off the line at the other end — as St. Louis City SC pulled off it second road win in a row, beating the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1 on Saturday night at PayPal Park.
City SC is 6-0 against San Jose in its three seasons in MLS. The win keeps City SC mathematically alive in the race for a playoff spot, though its chances are so thin as to be non-existent, and it could be out as early as Sunday night if Real Salt Lake can win. And even if that doesn’t happen, a win by any of four teams in the final weeks of the season, or a City SC loss, would end it.
But for now, City SC is feeling pretty good about itself after winning twice in a row on the road for the first time since its first season. In addition to McSorley’s two goals, Marcel Hartel scored, his second goal in as many games and seventh on the season.
Though even with a two-goal lead, the final 45 minutes were nailbiting for City SC, as San Jose, needing a win to keep itself above the playoff line in the Western Conference, kept piling on the City SC goal, but to no avail. San Jose’s expected goals total in the season was a whopping 4.9. Roman Burki made nine saves in the game, and the only goal he allowed was on a penalty kick.
McSorley had eight goals and eight assists for City2, second on the team in goal contributions with 16, one behind Mykhi Joyner. He was signed to a first-team contract on Sept. 5 after using up the allowed number of callups on his Next Pro contract.
McSorley’s first goal came in the 10th minute, as he volleyed in a headed pass from Klauss after an overhead pass from Chris Durkin near midfield had kept the pressure on San Jose. McSorley figured in the second goal nine minutes later, knocking down a pass from Durkin and feeding it to Hartel, who spun just outside the top of the box to drive in his seventh goal of the season.
San Jose got a goal back in the 31st minute when Chicho Arango converted a penalty kick after being fouled by Celio Pompeu just inside the box. Arango blasted the ball to his left while Burki dove in the other direction.
McSorley got his second in the 45th minute. Conrad Wallem danced with the ball looking for an opening before passing it back to Hartel, who served a perfect ball into the box for McSorley to head in.
It was the third time in club history it had scored three goals in the first half, with one coming in each season. City SC did it against Cincinnati in Season One and against Portland in Season Two.
Critchley would have liked to have been able to stick with the same lineup that beat Montreal 2-0 the week before, but three players were unavailable. Sangbin Jeong had to go back to South Korea for a personal matter, and the team’s two center backs against Montreal, Henry Kessler and Fallou Fall, were both out with injuries. That created the opening for McSorley, as well as for Timo Baumgartl and Kyle Hiebert at center back.
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Tom Timmermann | Post-Dispatch
Soccer reporter
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today
