In their MLS playoff debut, St Louis City will host their state rivals, Sporting Kansas City, with the opening game of that best-of-three series taking place on Sunday at CityPark.
Despite losing their final regular season fixture 2-0 versus the Seattle Sounders, St Louis still topped the Western Conference table this year with 56 points, while earlier this week SKC outlasted the San Jose Earthquakes in the Wild Card round, 4-2 on penalties after that match ended 0-0.
Match preview
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They say that first impressions mean everything, and St Louis City have made a memorable first impression in Major League Soccer, becoming the first expansion side in league history to win their regular-season conference.
Racking up 17 victories in their inaugural campaign, Bradley Carnell is the clear front-runner for MLS Coach of the Year, as the South African guided his team to a place in the CONCACAF Champions Cup next season.
St Louis finished the regular season with the most goals in the Western Conference (56) and third-most in MLS behind the Columbus Crew (67) and Atlanta United (66), though they were not as decisive down the stretch of the domestic campaign, failing to score in their final two fixtures.
St Louis finished the regular season with the best goal differential out West, as their mark of +17 was tied with the 1998 Chicago Fire for the second-best goal difference in an expansion year, with only Atlanta United doing better (+30 in 2017).
Throughout the 2023 season, St Louis often gave their fans something to cheer about, winning 11 MLS games at CityPark, tied with Atlanta in 2017 for the most victories at home in an inaugural campaign.
They have hosted Sporting twice this season, and both matches were no contest, with the home team winning 4-0 and 4-1, respectively.
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In what was a challenging year for Peter Vermes and his side, Kansas City found a way to beat the odds and make the playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons.
On Wednesday, they did a masterful job at containing the San Jose danger men of Cristian Espinoza and Jeremy Ebobisse, as the Quakes did not have a single shot on target in normal time.
This weekend will be the first time since 2018 that they play a post-season match away from home, going unbeaten in their two road playoff contests that year.
Although they have not captured an MLS Cup since 2013, SKC are in the playoffs for the 11th time since 2011, the third-most in MLS over that span behind the Seattle Sounders (12) and New York Red Bulls (14).
They enter this contest having won two of their previous three away games, while KC have not been behind for a single minute in any of their last three encounters.
Sporting have only suffered one defeat during the 2023 domestic campaign when netting multiple times, losing 3-2 at Inter Miami in September.
Team News
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Carnell made plenty of changes to his St Louis starting 11 in their final regular season affair versus Seattle, with Jake Nerwinski, Tim Parker, Anthony Markanich, Njabulo Blom, Eduard Lowen and Nicholas Gioacchini being the only ones to keep their place in the opening lineup.
Parker is one of three players on this team to be nominated for the MLS end-of-year awards, as he was named a finalist for Defender of the Year, Lowen was a finalist for Newcomer of the Year, Roman Burki is a finalist in the Goalkeeper of the Year category and Carnell is in the running for Coach of the Year.
Klauss and Samuel Adeniran have two goals each versus SKC, with the former netting twice in their previous home triumph against them and the latter scoring the opener on that occasion, with Jared Stroud adding one in between.
On Wednesday, Kansas City were without Tim Leibold (groin), Kayden Pierre (hamstring) and Kortne Ford (Achilles surgery) because of injuries.
Alan Pulido was nominated for Comeback Player of the Year, with the Mexican leading Kansas City in the regular season with 14 goals, while the team improved to 8-1 in MLS on Wednesday when Jake Davis, Dany Rosero, Andreu Fontas and Logan Ndenbe are the starting back four.
Tim Melia has won every penalty shootout that he has been involved with in his professional career, stopping Espinoza from the spot this week, with Jackson Yueill firing his effort over the bar, while Johnny Russell, Erik Thommy, Gadi Kinda and Daniel Salloi each converted from 12-yards away allowing SKC to advance.
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Nerwinski, Parker, Nilsson, Hiebert; Blom, Ostrak; Stroud, Lowen; Klauss, Gioacchini
Sporting Kansas City possible starting lineup:
Melia; Davis, Rosero, Fontas, Ndenbe; Walter, Kinda, Thommy; Russell, Pulido, Salloi
We say: St Louis City 2-0 Sporting Kansas City
Even with their splendid regular season, it seems many are still doubting that St Louis City can keep their miracle campaign alive, which could motivate them to prove more people wrong.
How to watch
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Joel Lefevre
