ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - MLS announced the 2023 Best XI Tuesday and includes two crucial St. Louis City SC players.
City SC center back Tim Parker and goalkeeper Roman Bürki were named to the league's best XI Tuesday. St. Louis City SC was one of four clubs to have multiple players named to the Best XI, with FC Cincinnati, Nashville SC and Atlanta United being the others to have multiple players named.
St. Louis became the fourth expansion club to have multiple selections in the Best XI, but the first to have two selections as an expansion team since Atlanta United in 2017.
It was a successful season both the club and two of its crucial leaders in the locker room.
Bürki, the former Borussia Dortmund and two-time DFB-Pokal winning goalkeeper has a successful adjustment to MLS, with his 17 wins being the most of any goalkeeper in their first MLS season during the post-shootout era. Bürki's performance earned him being named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.
Bürki led the league in goals prevented at 11.9 per OPTA, an advanced metric stat that subtracts the number of goals a GK has conceded from the number of goals a GK would be expected to concede based on the quality of the shots they faced.
Parker had a career resurgence in his first season with City SC. After a disappointing end to his time with the Houston Dynamo, Parker got new life at City SC, with Parker intercepting 45 passes, his most since 2018, and being on the pitch for seven clean sheets, his most since 2019.
Parker's 2,556 minutes on the pitch this season for City SC was the the fourth-most minutes he was on the field in his career and highest since his career-high 3,060 minutes in 2021 in his first season with the Dynamo.
Parker was also a threat on the offensive side, racking up four goals this season for City SC, the most he's scored in his career. His rebound earned him being named runner-up to the MLS Defender of the Year voting, losing out FC Cincinnati's Matt Miazga.
