St Louis City II beat San Jose Earthquakes II 2-0 in their MLS Next Pro Group Stage fixture on Monday evening. The visitors took all three points from the contest, moving further clear of their hosts in the table.
N. Pickering opened the scoring in the twenty-fifth minute, a moment that shifted the momentum early. By then the hosts had looked comfortable enough, but Pickering's finish brought St Louis into the game. The second goal came in the fifty-fourth, again from Pickering, and here's the thing — the defence simply could not recover. A third goal in the fifty-fifth minute, though the scorer was not recorded, put the result beyond doubt.
There were substitutions around half-time, with S. De Flores and Yuichiro Ota both coming on at the break. The hosts tried to respond, bringing on P. McDonald in the fifty-ninth, J. Heisner, G. Bracken Serra and J. Spivey all together in the seventieth. But the game was already slipping away, and to be fair, St Louis had earned the right to rest players — T. Pearce, T. Clancy, N. Pickering himself and E. Mendoza all came off in the closing stages.
Two yellow cards came in quick succession, Z. Zengue in the fifty-sixth and an unnamed player a minute later. The discipline issues did not help a side already chasing the game. The hosts sat ninth with twenty-four games played and thirty-six points, while St Louis City II sat sixth with twenty-five matches and forty points. Both sides had lost twelve games and drawn none all season.
The result extended St Louis's position above the hosts, who had drawn their last two outings against Minnesota United II and Austin II before a heavy defeat to Los Angeles Galaxy II. The visitors, meanwhile, had ended a tight run with a clean sheet against Colorado Rapids II and a comfortable win over Real Monarchs. The gap between them now stood at four points, and for San Jose, the search for their first draw of the campaign continues.
