Welcome to Matchday 2 of the 2024 season, which has New York City FC facing St. Louis City SC for the first time in club history.
St. Louis surprised the league last season by fishing top of the Western Conference in their first year of existence, while NYCFC disappointed the faithful by missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Now the two will play each other at CITYPARK, the handsome St Louis stadium designed by HOK, the same architects NYCFC hired for Willets Point. We like the building, but not the insistence that the name must be written in all caps even though it reads LIKE SOMEBODY IS SHOUTING.
As in:
"Hey grandma, let's go to Citypark."
"What?"
"Citypark!"
"WHAT?"
"CITYPARK, GRANDMA, IN DOWNTOWN WEST. LET'S WATCH THE BEAUTIFUL GAME THEN GET A CONCRETE AFTER AT TED DREWES."
• Matchday 2: St. Louis City SC vs NYCFC
• Date and Time: Saturday, March 2, 8:30 pm ET
• Venue: CITYPARK in St. Louis
• Forecast: Crisp, dropping temperatures, 58F/14C
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Steve Cangialosi and Danny Higginbotham (English), Diego Pessolano and Daniel Chapela (Español)
• Listen: English and Spanish broadcasts on NYCFC Radio
• Officiating Crew: Erick Lezama Pavon (referee), Hayden Oscanoa
and Fermin Sanchez (assistant referees), Jorge Luna (fourth official), VAR referees TBD
NYCFC vs St. Louis H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The head-to-head between the two is a tabula rasa: There have been zero matchups to date between NYCFC and St. Louis, which joined the league last year.
The only other MLS team NYCFC have never faced is Austin FC, which joined the league in 2021, but that will be rectified in July when New York City travel to Texas. Maybe MLS commish Don Garber forgot until now?
NYCFC
- Player Availability: Defender Tayvon Gray (left leg), defender Rio Hope-Gund (abdomen), midfielder Maxi Moralez (ACL injury), and forward Talles Magno (left knee) are all unavailable.
- Will Hannes Wolf play at the No 10 again? He made some good runs last week, but the NYCFC attack still couldn't find the back of the goal.
St. Louis City
- Player Availability: Midifleder Rasmus Alm (hip) is unavailable — he has yet to feature this season. Kyle Hiebert (knee) is questionable — he was last an unused sub in the CONCACAF Champions Cup win over Houston on February 20.
- Speaking of, St. Louis played the Houston Dynamo on Tuesday in the second leg of that CONCACAF Champions Cup tie. They lost 1-0, and were eliminated from the tournament. Did the trip exhaust St. Louis? Or did the result put a fire under the squad?
- Want more intel on St. Louis? Matt Baker of Flyover Footy gives it to us straight in Oppo Research: 5 Things about St. Louis City SC.
Predicted St. Louis City Starting XI
