In a year of firsts, MLS expansion side St. Louis CITY SC are once again in unchartered territory ahead of Sunday’s game with Sporting Kansas City for Game 2 of their Round One Best-of-3 series (5:00 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
Following a shocking 4-1 home loss in the series opener, CITY SC have no option but to win at Children’s Mercy Park to maintain their historic 2023 inaugural season alive and force a decisive Game 3 on November 11.
“It’s something we kind of haven’t been challenged with the whole year because it was never a question or was ever in the equation,” head coach Bradley Carnell told reporters two days before the club’s most important game in their short history. “Now we’re left with a question, and it’s almost an exciting one.”
As a club that never backs away from a challenge, St. Louis has defied expectations from the start – setting several league records along the way. One of which is them winning their first five games in MLS and becoming the first-ever expansion team to secure their conference’s top seed.
Now, the West’s No.1 side must defeat their inter-state rival if they hope to keep their magical debut season going.
“We know how it felt last week and there’s no reason to believe that we can’t do the same thing going into their stadium,” Carnell stated. “… Again, problems we’ve never been faced with before.
“So it’s about us now coming to put us on display against all odds, which pretty much the whole season was. And that’s how we’re going to start the game.”
Sporting Kansas City, on the other hand, are not taking anything for granted after experiencing a lopsided victory that according to manager and sporting director Peter Vermes was debatedly somewhat flattering for his team.
“We’re playing against the best team [in the West]. We have to be on our A-game,” Vermes said. “I don’t know if they have to be. That’s the difference.”
Veteran midfielder Roger Espinoza also debunked the notion that Kansas City has the series essentially locked down after last week’s statement victory at CITY PARK.
“The score in the game was 4-1, but it was a very good game,” the former Honduras international argued. “… If you look at both teams, it doesn’t look like it should’ve been a 4-1 [win]”.
Deserved or not, Game 1’s result left Carnell and St. Louis laser-focused on the mission at hand.
“Have we learned from it? Damn right,” Carnell said. “And we’re looking forward to putting the next one to bed.”
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