St. Louis CITY2 side dripped in disappointment following Sunday’s loss to Minnesota United 2. CITY2 entered the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs as the top seed, but a lack of finish doomed the young attack to a second-round exit. Although frustration radiated from the squad post-match, the season was largely a success.
CITY2 coach John Hackworth was honored as the MLSNP Coach of the Year, and CITY2 proved fruitful ground for Mykhi Joyner and Brendan McSorley, earning them extended runs in the first team. The club’s reserve side has provided ample opportunities for young players attempting to bridge the gap from the academy to the first team. Joyner is the face of the pathway’s early success, but providing a spot for homegrown signings has allowed Tyson Pearce, Caden Glover, and Miguel Perez opportunities to play through the ups and downs that come with player development. Academy players such as Lorenzo Cornelius, Emiliano Chavez, and MLS NEXT U15 MVP Eddie Niles also saw time this season.
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CITY2 has also become an avenue for the club to develop non-academy players. Past seasons have provided opportunities for NCAA veterans Johnny Klein and Jay Reid, while Seth Antwi and Real Salt Lake Academy graduate Jaziel Orozco made the jump in 2025. Hackworth also hinted at his desire for striker Emil Jääskeläinen to play in 2025 if they had an international roster slot. That additional avenue is one that the front office will likely continue to cultivate—it’s become a pivotal pipeline for some of the most successful clubs in MLS.
While CITY2 fell short of the MLS NEXT Pro title, the squad will continue to provide a foundation for the 2026 roster, in part thanks to Hackworth, who currently serves as the club’s interim sporting director.
Last week, Hackworth and president Diego Gigliani picked up the options of Chris Durkin, Sangbin Jeong, João Klauss, Brendan McSorley, Christian Olivares, Jaziel Orozco, and Perez, while declining the options of Rasmus Alm, Alfredo Morales, Akil Watts, Michael Wentzel, and Henry Kessler. (Kessler is continuing contract negotiations, but the calculus isn’t simple.) The duo also signed captain Roman Bürki to a two-year contract extension that will make Bürki a Designated Player (DP) and one of the highest-paid players at the club. It was a move that the club felt it needed to make but that further complicates the job of the incoming sporting director. The front office will have to decide whether to switch to MLS’s 3 DP/3 U22 player model or stick with the current 2 DP/4 U22 model.
“I would understand why anybody questioned the DP status part of it,” Hackworth said last week. Burki’s extension has been an ongoing conversation since former sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel started the discussion last season. “That conversation has been going on for over a year, as much as I would love to tell you that I am the person who brought Roman Bürki back,” Hackworth said.
Even so, the club can still find flexibility. Klauss’ contract option removed his DP tag, and Durkin graduated from his U22 contract distinction, opening a DP or U22 spot. Those distinctions leave the club with Bürki and Marcel Hartel as its DPs, as well as Sangbin Jeong, Fallou Fall, and Jake Girdwood-Reich as its U22 players, with Girdwood-Reich’s contract potentially being able to be bought down from that distinction by the time he returns next summer.
Looking ahead, Hackworth understands the situation: “When you make a decision like a Roman Bürki being a DP…you need to use every possible other avenue to build the rest of the roster.”
