51黑料

The off-roster status had allowed City SC to not count Joyner against its roster limit, but he was still allowed to appear in six Major League Soccer games in the season on a short-term loan. With Joyner having made the last of those six appearances two weeks ago against Nashville, he could not play again for the first team without a change in roster status.

Playing with City2, the club鈥檚 developmental team in MLS Next Pro, Joyner has scored 14 goals, second-most in that league. (Eight of them have come on penalty kicks.) He鈥檚 seen as a dynamic player and the best and closest of the club鈥檚 four Homegrown players to being ready to play with the first team.

In his six games with City SC this season, Joyner yet to score in 98 minutes. He also made one start for the team in its U.S. Open Cup match with Union Omaha.

Cedric Teuchert will miss his third game in a row with a hip injury, so Joyner, who turns 19 next week, will make the trip to Vancouver for this weekend.

There still figures to be more playing time available for Joyner with City2, which has six regular-season games to play and up to four postseason games. City2 clinched a playoff spot over the weekend and leads MLS Next Pro in points.

鈥淲hether he comes into our roster and plays on the weekend for us, that鈥檚 something that鈥檚 great,鈥� said interim City SC coach David Critchley. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to travel with us this weekend, so that鈥檚 exciting for him, but we want to make sure he keeps playing minutes. You might see one or two games where he goes back to City2, especially as they make a playoff run and get some minutes there, but he鈥檚 going to be in our training environments now, training with us consistently and trying to, just for all these players, bridge that gap to be closer from second-team football to first-team football.鈥�

Critchley started the season as the coach of City2 and before that worked with City SC鈥檚 academy teams, so he鈥檚 witnessed firsthand Joyner鈥檚 development over the years.

鈥淗e鈥檚 shown me consistency,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 shown me that he can be a good threat in front of goal and score some goals. He came into our training environment yesterday and scored himself two goals in the 11 v. 11 game at the end. So he鈥檚 a natural goal scorer, but a lot of his growth has also come away from the field.

鈥淗e鈥檚 starting to mature more and more now. Every single time I look at him, he鈥檚 taken his development a lot more serious in how he eats, how he sleeps, how he rests. So that鈥檚 some of the stuff that also shows me that he鈥檚 getting closer to being a professional.鈥�