Published for St. Louis CITY2 fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ St. Louis CITY2 Fans — Five Postseasons and Counting!
The only club to reach every MLS NEXT Pro postseason, a Best XI star promoted to the first team, and a summer loan signing who kept the streak alive. Navy shirts, red pinstripes, full voice — this is the season to wear CITY2’s colors.
The Club
St. Louis CITY2 — CITY2 to everyone in the Lou — is the reserve team of St. Louis CITY SC, announced on December 6, 2021 and playing from MLS NEXT Pro’s inaugural 2022 season, a full year before the first team ever kicked a ball in MLS. That head start matters: CITY2 is the foundation the whole St. Louis project was built on — and the only team to have appeared in every MLS NEXT Pro postseason, in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Home is Energizer Park in Downtown West, the 22,423-seat stadium CITY2 shares with the first team. It opened in November 2022 as CITYPARK and took the Energizer Park name from January 1, 2025 — a fitting sponsor, since Energizer is headquartered right here in St. Louis.
The coaching story is a carousel with a happy ending. John Hackworth was the inaugural head coach in 2022 and took CITY2 to the first Cup final. Bobby Murphy followed, then academy coach David Critchley was promoted in November 2024 — only to be pulled up as the first team’s interim head coach in May 2025. Hackworth stepped back in, finished the 2025 season and was named Coach of the Year. On January 6, 2026, Critchley resumed the CITY2 job, with Elvir Kafedžić as his assistant. The pathway works for coaches here, too.
The honest trophy line: CITY2 has never won the MLS NEXT Pro Cup — its best run is still that inaugural 2022 final, a 4–1 loss to Columbus Crew 2. What it has won is everything around the Cup: the 2025 regular-season title, Western Conference regular-season titles in 2022 and 2025, the 2022 Western Conference playoff championship, and Frontier Division titles in 2022 and 2025. And the pipeline keeps delivering — by October 2025, St. Louis had signed 14 CITY2 players to first-team contracts, second only to FC Dallas and North Texas SC. The current CITY2 home shirt has its own identity: an adidas navy shirt with thin red diagonal pinstripes across the front, a plain navy back with the name and number in solid white, the split navy-and-red CITY2 shield on the chest and no front sponsor at all. It looks nothing like the first team’s red primary — and that is the point. This fan-inspired apparel belongs to CITY2.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#42 Ault — St. Louis CITY2 Style Jersey
$59.99
The Best XI breakout. Ault’s 15 goal contributions in his first pro season earned a first-team promotion — the navy No. 42 is the shirt of CITY2’s 2026.
Last Season (2025): The League’s Best Team, Stopped at Home
The 2025 CITY2 were, by every regular-season measure, the best team in MLS NEXT Pro: first in the Western Conference and first overall, 17 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses, 60 goals scored, 37 conceded and a league-best 62 points. That record delivered the regular-season title, the Western Conference crown and the Frontier Division title — and a target on their backs for the playoffs.
The postseason started like a coronation: a 3–0 home quarterfinal win over Ventura County FC on October 19, 2025. It ended a week later in the cruelest way this league knows. On October 26, Minnesota United FC 2 came to Energizer Park and beat the No. 1 seed 2–0 in the conference semifinal — Logan Dorsey on 17 minutes, Darius Randell on 80. The individual honors underlined what was lost: teenage Homegrown Mykhi Joyner scored a team-best 15 league goals, Miguel Perez added 10, Joyner and defender Gabriel Mikina both made the Best XI, and interim coach John Hackworth was named Coach of the Year. CITY2 began 2026 as the West’s nearly team: regular-season champions, still chasing the Cup that slipped away in 2022.
Best Players Right Now
Palmer Ault — #42, forward. The headline act of 2026, in his very first professional season: 8 goals and 7 assists in 17 appearances — 15 goal contributions that earned the 22-year-old from Noblesville, Indiana a place in the 2026 MLS NEXT Pro Best XI. The reward was the one this club exists to give: a mid-summer promotion to the first team, after which he appeared only three more times for CITY2. The star of the first half of the season, gone upstairs by design.
Zach Zengue — #91, winger/midfielder. The midseason game-changer. Zengue had already scored 10 goals with 3 assists in 16 games for Columbus Crew 2 when St. Louis acquired him on loan from Columbus Crew in July 2026, with $50,000 in GAM going the other way and an option to make the move permanent. The Georgetown product — the 58th overall pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, out of North Oaks, Minnesota — added 4 goals and 3 assists in 10 CITY2 appearances and was the most dangerous man in navy down the stretch.
Riley Lynch — #48, winger/forward. The chief creator. Lynch’s team-high 9 assists, plus 4 goals in 26 appearances, came with the most minutes of any CITY2 outfield regular — 2,122 of them. The Chandler, Arizona native joined as a free agent for 2026 and ran the right wing all season, the man whose final ball the forwards fed on.
Mykhi Joyner — #59, forward. The Homegrown standard. Joyner set the club record with 18 goals in 2024 and led CITY2 again with 15 in 2025; in 2026 he spent most of the year with the first team, but still scored 4 goals in just 5 CITY2 appearances.
Zack Lillington — #66, defender. The defensive anchor of the rebuild: 3 goals in 22 appearances from the back line, and the captain’s armband for the August 17, 2026 win at San Jose.
Patrick McDonald — #88, midfielder. The engine room’s ironman: 26 appearances and 1,995 minutes in 2026. Behind him, goalkeeper Colin Welsh (No. 34) posted a team-high 6 shutouts in 14 starts.
Star Spotlight
October 2022 — one game from the Cup in year one. CITY2 won the Western Conference in the league’s inaugural season, beat Tacoma Defiance 2–1 in the conference final, and reached the first-ever MLS NEXT Pro Cup final — losing 4–1 to Columbus Crew 2 in Columbus. No CITY2 team since has gone as far. That run is still the standard every St. Louis reserve side is measured against, and the reason the Cup chase feels personal in this city.
2025 — the best team in the league, stopped at home. A 62-point regular season, the Coach of the Year on the bench, two Best XI players and 15 goals from a teenage Homegrown — and it still ended on October 26, 2025, in a 0–2 home semifinal loss to MNUFC2. The season that proved CITY2 could dominate this league, and the night that showed how cruel its playoffs are.
Summer 2026 — the loan signing that saved the streak. When Palmer Ault’s Best XI first half earned him a first-team promotion, CITY2’s attack went with him. The answer was Zach Zengue: 10 goals for Crew 2, acquired on loan in July, then 4 goals in 10 games for St. Louis as CITY2 locked up a fifth straight postseason — the only club in MLS NEXT Pro history to qualify every single year.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
The loan star and the creator, in navy and red.
This Season (2026): The Rebuild That Kept the Streak
The honest numbers first. CITY2 finished 7th in the Western Conference — 10 wins, 10 draws and 8 losses from 28 matches, 42 goals scored and 40 conceded, 44 points. Against 2025’s 60 goals and 62 points, the story is clear: a transition year. The roster was rebuilt on the run — seven non-academy players and ten academy players made their professional debuts in 2026 — and David Critchley’s returning side learned on the job.
The run-in tells the tale of a team that refused to fold: a 2–2 home draw with Houston Dynamo 2 on August 23, a 1–1 draw at North Texas SC on August 29, a 2–1 win at Sporting Kansas City II on September 6 that completed a season sweep of the rivals, and a 1–1 draw at Portland Timbers2 in September that went to a shootout. Decision Day brought a 0–2 home loss to Austin FC II on September 20, but the 44 points were already enough. The No. 7 seed was CITY2’s, and with it the streak: five straight postseasons, every one this league has ever held.
The season ended on Friday, October 16, 2026, Portland Timbers2 winning the Western Conference Quarterfinal 2–0 at Providence Park — Maximilian Kissel on 12 minutes, Noah Santos on 69. No excuses, and no disgrace: the Best XI star was promoted, the attack was loaned in midstream, and the most consistent development club in MLS NEXT Pro is still waiting, patiently, for its first Cup.
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Mark Your Calendar
St. Louis CITY2’s 2026 season is complete — it ended with the 2–0 conference quarterfinal loss at Portland Timbers2 on October 16, 2026, and there are no further CITY2 fixtures this year. What remains is the tournament CITY2 helped fill.
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Conference Semifinals. In the East: Chattanooga FC vs CT United FC at Finley Stadium (5:00 p.m. ET) and Crown Legacy FC vs Columbus Crew 2 at the Sportsplex at Matthews (7:00 p.m. ET). In the West: Austin FC II vs Los Angeles FC 2 at Parmer Field (8:30 p.m. ET) and Portland Timbers2 vs Ventura County FC at Providence Park (10:00 p.m. ET). Every match streams live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Conference Finals. Four teams become two, with the finalists decided in one match per conference.
November 6–8, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Cup. The championship match, hosted by the finalist with the highest regular-season points total. CITY2 reached this game in the league’s first season, in 2022; the wait to get back is the story of every winter in St. Louis — and 2027 planning starts the moment this Cup is lifted.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Sporting Kansas City II — the I-70 war. The reserve-team echo of the fiercest senior rivalry in the region: St. Louis vs Kansas City, three hours apart on Interstate 70. CITY2 owned it completely in 2026 — a 4–0 win in the season opener at Energizer Park on February 28, a 2–0 win in Kansas City on March 28, and a 2–1 win there again on September 6. Three meetings, three CITY2 wins, an 8–1 aggregate, while SKC II finished 13th in the West.
2. Minnesota United FC 2 — the team that ended the dream season. Frontier Division rivals who keep meeting when it matters most. The wound is October 26, 2025: the conference semifinal at Energizer Park, the league’s best regular-season team shut out at home, Dorsey and Randell scoring in a 2–0 MNUFC2 win. The 2026 meetings stayed wild — a 3–0 CITY2 revenge win at home on March 8, a 0–0 draw in Minnesota on May 2 that went to a shootout, and a 5–2 MNUFC2 win on June 20. No fixture in the division swings like this one.
3. Austin FC II — the new kings of the West. Austin were the league’s best team in 2026, regular-season champions with 65 points, and they beat CITY2 in all three meetings: 4–1 in Austin on May 18, 2–0 at Energizer Park on June 28, and 2–0 again on Decision Day, September 20. If CITY2’s streak is ever going to become a Cup run, it now goes through Austin. Honorable mention: Portland Timbers2, who took the September shootout and then ended St. Louis’s season in the October quarterfinal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does St. Louis CITY2 play?
St. Louis CITY2 plays at Energizer Park in St. Louis, Missouri — the 22,423-capacity downtown home it shares with St. Louis CITY SC. The stadium opened in November 2022 as CITYPARK and took the Energizer Park name from January 1, 2025.
Did St. Louis CITY2 make the 2026 playoffs?
Yes — for the fifth straight year. CITY2 is the only club to have appeared in every MLS NEXT Pro postseason since the league launched in 2022. The No. 7 seed in the West, their 2026 run ended in the conference quarterfinal, a 2–0 loss at Portland Timbers2 on October 16, 2026.
Who is St. Louis CITY2’s best player?
Forward Palmer Ault (No. 42) in 2026: 8 goals and 7 assists in his first professional season, a place in the league’s Best XI, and a mid-summer promotion to the first team. Right behind him: loan winger Zach Zengue (No. 91), who arrived from Columbus in July after scoring 10 goals for Crew 2, and creator Riley Lynch (No. 48), whose 9 assists led the team.
What trophies has St. Louis CITY2 won?
St. Louis CITY2 won the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro regular-season title (the league’s best record, 62 points), Western Conference regular-season titles in 2022 and 2025, the 2022 Western Conference playoff championship and Frontier Division titles in 2022 and 2025. The club has never won the MLS NEXT Pro Cup — its best run is the inaugural 2022 final, a 4–1 loss to Columbus Crew 2.
⚽ St. Louis CITY2 Fan Shop
The full CITY2 trio — Ault, Zengue and Lynch in navy and red.
Sources & official links: St. Louis CITY2 official site · MLS NEXT Pro official site · St. Louis CITY2 tickets
Navy shirts, red pinstripes, five postseasons running — all for CITY, St. Louis.
