Coming off the field Saturday after St. Louis City SC’s 3-0 loss to Los Angeles FC, Brendan McSorley found interim City SC sporting director and interim City2 coach John Hackworth and made a request: He wanted to play for City2 on Sunday.
McSorley had started and played 65 minutes for City SC but was eager to go back on the field. After consulting with director of sports performance Jarryd Phillips, they decided that was too quick — but it wasn’t too quick for Mykhi Joyner.
Joyner came off the bench to play the final 25 minutes against LAFC, then did the same on Sunday, playing the final 32 minutes, which included drawing a foul in the box in stoppage time and then converting the penalty kick to tie the game. City2 then won the ensuing shootout, and the two points it got were enough for it to clinch the best record in MLS Next Pro.
“Thank God we had Mykhi back today for at least 30 minutes,” Hackworth said.
While several players have suited up for City SC and City2 on consecutive days, most have played in only one of the two games. Only Joyner and Joey Zalinsky have played in both of the games. Joyner is the undisputed champ: He’s done it three times this season.
“I don’t really think about that, to be honest,” Joyner said. “I just go out there and have fun. I’m still a kid, I’m young, so I can still run a lot.”
“We have to look at the age of the player,” said City SC coach David Critchley, “the position that they play. Some guys, if they’re 24, 25, might not be able to put in 120 minutes on a weekend, where Mykhi, being a lot younger (19), can do it. Mykhi is also one that has been a key figure to the success of City2. I would like to see him go a playoff run with them as well. … I know he’s chasing the Golden Boot as well, which he wants. He’s let me know that.”
Joyner is likely to come up short for the second season in a row. He missed the scoring title by two goals last season and is down three with one game to go this season.
Still, it takes the right situation for it to happen. It works best when City SC plays on a Saturday and then City2 plays on Sunday. It also helps if both games are at the same venue, though Orozco started for City2 on Sept. 19 and played the full 90 minutes at Austin, then flew to San Jose and sat on the bench and wasn’t needed the next day.
There are only two more chances this season for someone to pull double duty. City SC is at Austin on Saturday, with City2 at Portland on Sunday, though with City2 having clinched everything there is to clinch, there’s no reason to have anyone go to unnecessary lengths. And then on Oct. 18, City SC closes its season at home against Real Salt Lake, with City2 opening the MLS Next Pro playoffs at home, most likely on Sunday. And for that one, City2 is likely to bring the players who started the season with City2 back for the playoffs.
“Even if they don’t want me to, I will,” McSorley said.
Hackworth multitasking
On Saturday night, when City SC was playing, Hackworth was in interim sporting director mode, so he wore a sport coat. On Sunday, as interim coach of City2, he was wearing a T-shirt.
“I tried to look the part (Saturday) night,” he said.
Hackworth has not been shorting either job. Since Lutz Pfannenstiel was fired and Hackworth moved into the sporting director role on an interim basis, Hackworth has been at both teams’ games each weekend.
“I have to,” he said. “There’s nobody else to do it. So when you go through all the changes we’ve gone through, we still have a lot of good people in that building, staff, and it would be negligent on my part not to try to be a good leader and give them everything that I can to help them be successful. So I’ll take it. I don’t want to do (both jobs) forever. I haven’t slept enough.”
Teuchert’s season over
Critchley confirmed Tuesday what has seemed obvious over the past month, that forward Cedric Teuchert is done for the season.
“We’ve shut Cedric down,” he said. “He’s just had the continuous groin injury that every time we seem to push up a gear, there is pain that comes around. So we think it’s the best decision for his health for the long term.”
Teuchert, the fourth-highest-paid player on the team, hasn’t played since July 26. It’s been a disappointing season for the German, who had seven goals in 14 games over all competitions last season but had only three in 22 MLS games this season.
Notes
Sangbin Jeong has been called in for South Korea’s two upcoming friendly matches, on Oct. 10 vs. Brazil and on Oct. 14 vs. Paraguay. Both matches are in Seoul, so while Jeong won’t miss any games (City SC, like most of MLS, is off on Oct. 11), he may just be getting over jet lag for City SC’s season finale on Oct. 18.
This is consecutive call-ins for Jeong after getting his previous call-up four years ago and the first time a City SC player has been called up by his country in consecutive international windows.
Fallou Fall, who was hurt in a collision with LAFC’s Denis Bouanga, didn’t practice on Tuesday, but Critchley said he hopes he’s back on Wednesday. Henry Kessler, who has missed the past two games, did some work with the team and some on his own Tuesday. Critchley put it at about 75-25 he plays Saturday.
City SC plays Austin on Saturday in its final road game of the season, but Austin has a game before that when it plays in the U.S. Open Cup final against Nashville on Wednesday.
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