Sporting KC Earns Wild 4-2 Win Over Colorado
MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Earns Wild 4-2 Win Over Colorado

Published on August 30, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


A scintillating second-half display powered Sporting Kansas City (7-15-6, 27 points) to a wild 4-2 comeback win over the Colorado Rapids (10-13-6, 36 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park.

In-form striker Dejan Joveljic bagged a brace, Daniel Salloi moved into a tie for second place on Sporting's all-time goal scoring chart, and Mason Toye came off the bench to bury the game-winner as Sporting overcame a 2-1 halftime deficit to secure the team's first victory since prevailing in Colorado on July 4.

Sporting will return to Children's Mercy Park next Sunday, Sept. 7, to host Austin FC at 6 p.m. CT. The Western Conference clash will be shown live on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV and tickets are available via SeatGeek.

Joveljic opened the scoring inside five minutes with the 100th goal of his professional club career. Right back Khiry Shelton was afforded space to cross from the right edge of the box and curled his delivery to the near post, where Joveljic did brilliantly to drop low and steer a header past flat-footed Colorado goalkeeper Zack Steffen. Joveljic, who has now hit the 15-goal marker in two consecutive regular seasons campaigns, also scored the opener in Kansas City's 2-1 road triumph over the Rapids last month.

Colorado responded in earnest, nearly equalizing twice before the 15th minute as Rafael Navarro hit the crossbar and newly acquired attacking midfielder Paxton Aaronson saw his close-range effort blocked off the line heroically by James. Aaronson was at it again two minutes later, however, and won the Rapids a penalty on a foul from Sporting midfielder Zorhan Bassong, who received a yellow card on the play and will now serve a one-game suspension for caution accumulation.

Navarro stepped up to take Colorado's penalty kick and went low to his left, but Sporting goalkeeper John Pulskamp snuffed it out by diving at full extension for the vital save-his first penalty kick stop in an MLS match since September 2022. Navarro was first to react and attempted a tight-angle shot on the rebound, but Pulskamp spread himself to block the follow-up and ignite raucous celebrations inside the stadium.

Navarro wouldn't be denied in the 22nd minute. The Brazilian ran onto a Cole Basset through ball following a Sporting turnover at midfield and clipped his finish past Pulskamp to make the score 1-1 and reach 12 goals on the season.

Interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin made two changes to Sporting's starting lineup from a road loss at Seattle Sounders FC last weekend. At the forefront, 17-year-old center back Ian James earned his second career MLS start in place of Jansen Miller, who had started each of the club's last 23 matches since late March. In addition, Shapi Suleymanov replaced Toye with the team starting in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Sporting conjured a pair of decent looks near the hour mark-Santi Munoz teeing up Joveljic and Salloi cutting the ball back for Tim Leibold-but neither shot beat Steffen. The Rapids then landed another haymaker at the opposite end when veteran right back Keegan Rosenberry bundled home off a teasing Navarro cross in the 31st minute, giving his side a 2-1 advantage.

Zavagnin's side was desperately unlucky not to level terms four minutes later. Leibold's pinpoint service across the box found Suleymanov, whose initial shot was saved by Steffen. The ball stayed alive and Salloi forced an even more impressive stop from Steffen at a difficult angle before Suleymanov misfired on his open rebound effort.

In the 40th minute, Pulskamp did well to cast aside two headed attempts, one from Darren Yapi off a corner kick and one from Noah Cobb off Bassett's teasing delivery. Sporting threatened on a corner kick of their own early in the second half, but Joveljic's bouncing header looped over Steffen only to be nodded off the goal line by Rapids substitute Calvin Harris.

Joveljic turned playmaker in the 55th minute, driving at the defense and laying the ball off for Bassong, but the Canadian international's left-footed strike was smothered by Steffen. Shortly thereafter, midfielder Jake Davis dinked an impudent ball into the box for Munoz, who did superbly to absorb contact, pirouette in the air and poke a back-heel attempt on target that Steffen dove to save. The play preceded an impactful triple-sub as Zavagnin introduced Toye, Jacob Bartlett and Jansen Miller at the hour juncture.

In the ascendancy but down a goal, Sporting exploded for three goals during a rapturous eight-minute period that nearly blew off the stadium roof. With 73 minutes on the clock, Salloi received a ball wide from Miller, squared up his defender and burst into the box before sending a piledriver low across Steffen and into the far left corner of the net. Miller tabbed his first MLS assist on the play, while Salloi marked his 250th MLS appearance with his seventh goal of the year. The homegrown forward has scored 67 goals for Sporting in all competitions, tying both Dom Dwyer and Johnny Russell for second on the club's all-time chart. Salloi notably has nine goal contributions in nine career home appearances against the Rapids.

Smelling blood, Sporting surged ahead two minutes later. Joveljic kickstarted a counter-attack in valiant fashion with a sacrificial header, suffering a knock to the face but allowing Munoz to break free unencumbered. Munoz then slipped a gorgeous ball through to the on-running Toye, who took an excellent first touch and sent a sublime finish into the far corner for his third goal of the year. Toye now has goals in back-to-back games and goal contributions in three straight matches dating back to Aug. 16.

Colorado was decidedly second-best in the second half yet could have restored parity in the 76th minute. Harris was unmarked at the near post but poked his shot wide on the doorstep following an incisive cross into mixer. The Rapids were made to pay for the miss five minutes later when Sporting sealed the win on Joveljic's second headed goal of the night. Jacob Bartlett's out-swinging corner kick was met by the Serbian assassin on the right edge of the six-yard box, culminating with a superb diving header that was glanced into the opposite corner of the net.

Joveljic's team-leading 16 goals this year are tied for third in the MLS Golden Boot race and third most in a single season in Sporting history, tying him with Dom Dwyer (2016) and Daniel Salloi (2021). His 16 goals are also the most by a Kansas City newcomer since Preki scored 18 in the team's inaugural season in 1996, while his 37 MLS goals since the start of 2024 rank second behind only Lionel Messi.

With the momentous victory on Saturday, Sporting enjoyed its first multi-game regular season sweep of the Rapids since 1997.

QUOTES

Sporting KC interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin

Thoughts on the match...

First of all, in the first half I think we started extremely well. That's been something that we've been working on. It's not a tactical thing. It's just how we emotionally come out of the locker room and I think we were ready to play. I think as we scored the goal and they settled in a little bit. We gave up an easy goal, even after a penalty kick. We still looked dangerous in the final third in the first half when we were able to circulate the ball. I thought we were maybe a little bit too patient in possession of the ball, circulating a little bit too much and that was a two-way street. Number one is it was the recognition of the player on the ball, but I don't think we had really good movement in behind. When we brought that into the second half, I think we just got in behind them a little bit more and created more danger with more numbers in and around the box. We've been good at that this year. I thought in the second half, we were great.

On limiting Colorado in transition in the second half...

I think it was getting more numbers around the ball and being better in possession. I think in the first half, we gave some really silly balls away that no matter how well-positioned you are, you're going to be countered. Colorado has a lot of dangerous players in transition. They punished us in that first half. But I think in the second half overall, the mentality of the guys and the commitment to go forward and not just score the third goal to make it 3-2 but 4-2. I think we were still going after it as the game went on.

On Dejan Joveljic...

I think when we brought him into the club, we had an idea from the outside what he was capable of. He's done it in the league. He's done it at a high level and he raised a trophy last year so what we expected is what he's delivering. Goal scorers like Dejan, they don't need clear-cut chances and that's what makes them special. I think he's been a consistent player in front of goal for us over the course of the year. It's as we thought he would be.

On Santi Munoz...

No matter where you put him -- if you put him underneath like he was against San Diego and tonight or you put him off to the left -- It's kind of what I was saying the other day, is that the formation is just a formation. It's the characteristics and the players and how they move around the field. Santi has a little bit more freedom right now, considering we don't have Manu (Garcia) in the game. He's that extra player that allows us to not just keep possession, but to penetrate through the middle. The idea of putting him in the game versus not starting Mason (Toye) was probably twofold because I think Mason's been absolutely outstanding and we saw it again tonight. We needed an extra number in the midfield. We've been punished a little bit by having just two midfielders and Santi is a little bit more of an underneath second striker that does a little bit more defensive work. So that was the idea, but we moved him, as you can see, around in different areas of the field and he still had a very similar contribution.

On the two headed goals from Joveljic...

I think it's probably two things. One is the recognition of the service. Sometimes we're a little bit too patient in and around the goal and we don't want to serve balls in the box. We took a few chances tonight and Dejan has an opportunistic mindset. He's always trying to get in front. Whether we see it game to game, and we're getting goals at the near post, I don't think it's always due to his lack of movement.

On the key plays in the game...

I think the penalty save certainly raised our level of involvement in the game. Not just the crowd and their energy, but the players on the field. John Pulskamp has come up really big for us this year and I think that was a really defining moment in the game. Although we took a couple goals going into halftime, I think that was a key moment. But I think our ability to come back from 2-1 to make it 2-2 and start injecting more players into the game that had energy and will. Mason's goal really, really put them on their heels and brought us into the path of victory.

On John Pulskamp...

There's no doubt that a lot of our victories this year have come from him coming up big, not just when the game is out of reach but in key moments. This was one tonight, as we earlier spoke about. I think his maturity as a player, he's growing over the course of this year. He can handle the pressure as a No. 1. He understands the responsibility. He's been mostly consistent throughout the course of the year and that's not always easy for a young player. I think he has a lot of room, even more to go, but we're happy he's in goal. When you talk about individual mistakes that cost goals, I don't like to think of it that way because it's so much of a collective. The goalkeeper gets singled out from time to time, but there's a lot of things that happen for him to have to come up with a big save or a goal to happen. I think there's a lot of opportunity for him to continue to grow.

On Ian James...

I think Ian deserved the opportunity because no matter what your age is, if you're working hard and you're making an impact then you will get your opportunity. He was called on tonight. I think we can already see, despite his age, he has tremendous athleticism and ability to compete against some of the most physical strikers in the league despite his age. He needs more minutes and that's the case for a lot of young players, but fortunately as we've gone through this season, we've gotten a lot of minutes for a lot of young players and that bodes well for the future of this club.

On the team finding a rhythm in the game...

You would hope from minute one that that would be the case, that you can be the protagonist and you can really dominate possession of the ball and create good opportunities from the beginning. But I think it's a combination of a couple things. Obviously, the relationships between the players are very important. The capabilities of the players to play in tight spaces through the midfield is important. Over the course of 90 minutes, it's important that you recognize what areas of the field are you able to expose. In the first half, as we were circulating the ball from side to side, sure we had width in the game and we were able to circulate slowly from side to side but we couldn't generate any real combinations through the middle. So in the second half, we put more players there that have the ability to do that and it generated a lot more for us.

On Mason Toye's run of form...

There was always a plan to use him tonight, because he's been so good in the last three games. He's been outstanding, but his mentality over the course of this year has been just as good. I think as we've gone over the last couple of games, we haven't had a lot of bullets come the 60th minute to really take the game to the next level. We thought tonight, if we could bring this game at least to half or 60 minutes in a positive way, that he would really cause problems for a team that's pushing numbers forward. I think we saw that when he came on the field. It took one moment. I think his speed and his athleticism to get him behind is something that we would probably look for more of throughout the group as we move forward but he's a really good reference point of how we can get in behind teams. I'm really happy for him because he has been committed each and every day to become better and to contribute to the team. Although he started on the bench tonight, we didn't see any mentality issue of how he approached the game.

On the team's final six games...

I've maintained this from day one and as we approach this game tonight, it's the same mindset. We can't bring this game tonight to the next game and we can't bring the negative results into the day. I think as we approached the game tonight, we got off to a really good start. We live in the moment. We stay in the moment and we do the best we can on the day. And the important thing now is that we continue to move forward, take the opportunity with both hands and go after it. I think we've seen, and I think we're all convinced, that this team just doesn't want to give up. When you have that kind of mindset, you can go a lot of far places in this league.

Sporting Kansas City forward Mason Toye

On the mentality during the game...

I felt great. The whole year I've been working really hard. When they brought me here, I told them, when I'm called upon, I just want to make a difference and come up for us when they need me whether that's starting or coming off the bench. I just tried to come on today and do the same thing, try to make a difference. I was able to get a chance and put it away. Dejan secured it with the fourth and we were able to get a dub so that was a massive win for us. I'm just stoked for the boys. We really needed this one.

On three straight games with goal contributions...

I've thankfully been able to stay healthy this year. It's a testament to myself and the training staff. They've been super great with me. I'm feeling really good, training really well, and I'm just trying to keep it going and continue to contribute in any way I can.

On his goal...

As a striker, you try not to think too much. You just try to allow instinct to take over. Thankfully, in warmups, I took a shot exactly the same, in the exact same spot, and I hit it the exact same way. You talk about practicing perfect, and that ended up working out well as a striker.

On the difficulty of the goals...

A diving header, actually two of them in the game. The second one, especially, was crazy. I'll take a little bit of credit. He told me to stay. Then Daniel (Salloi's) goal as well. He told me to come, and I was like, "Nah bro, you got it." We have amazing talent on both sides of the ball. Jansen (Miller) came in and played really well. We have great midfielders. We have got Zorhan (Bassong) and Jake Davis as well. Jacob Bartlett came in and did a great job. Everybody came in and contributed and I'm just really proud of the guys.

On the Taylor Swift news...

I'm a supporter of love. I love to see people in love and happy. I think hopefully we'll get some of her best music out of this. Obviously, she makes some sad songs but hopefully she can make some happy ones because I'm in a loving relationship as well. It'll be good to hear some good stuff.

-- SportingKC.com --

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Major League Soccer Stories from August 30, 2025


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