Sporting KC Falls to Austin in MLS Opener
February 23, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City (0-1-0, 0 points) opened the 2025 MLS regular season with a late 1-0 loss to Austin FC (1-0-0, 3 points) on a dreary Saturday night at Q2 Stadium. Austin winger Osman Bukari nodded home the 76th-minute winner to hand Sporting its fifth defeat in as many visits to the Texas capital.
Playing the second of four competitive matches in 11 days to begin the season, Sporting fielded a lineup featuring three changes from Wednesday's 1-0 home loss to Inter Miami CF in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Center back Joaquin Fernandez slotted in for Dany Rosero, left back Logan Ndenbe replaced Tim Leibold and striker William Agada entered for Dejan Joveljic. Sporting's midfield trio of Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez and 19-year-old Academy product Jacob Bartlett remained unchanged, with Bartlett making his first career MLS appearance after landing his club debut against Miami at midweek.
In the earliest regular season start date for both clubs, Austin translated an early edge in possession into three fleeting chances as newly acquired striker Brandon Vazquez forced a comfortable save from John Pulskamp, Guilherme Biro headed wide off a teasing cross and Owen Wolff dragged a long-range effort narrowly amiss near the 20th minute.
The best chance of the first half fell to the visitors, who went agonizingly close to opening the scoring in the 37th minute. Forward Daniel Salloi raced in behind the Austin backline, received a clever lob pass from Agada and sent a low drive goalward from the right side of the box, prompting a smart save from Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver. Agada was on hand for the rebound but sent his 18-yard effort over the crossbar with a gaping net at his mercy.
Sporting's 2024 team MVP created another good opportunity on the stroke of intermission as Jake Davis, making his 50th career regular season start, curled a tantalizing delivery to the far post. However, neither Agada nor Ndenbe could steer the ball on target.
Manager Peter Vermes introduced his freshly minted Designated Players at halftime as Joveljic and MLS debutant Manu Garcia entered the fray. Garcia's undeniable quality was on full display on 57 minutes when the Spaniard spun his way out of pressure in the defensive third and carried the ball 50 yards before seeing his shot from the top of the box smothered by Stuver.
Austin wasted a good look early in the second period when Dani Pereira hammered his shot wayward off a Vazquez layoff pass near the penalty spot, but the hosts would ultimately cash in with 76 minutes on the clock. Wolff's in-swinging corner kick flashed across the face of goal without a touch before skipping to Bukari, whose header planted into the right corner of the net to break the deadlock. VAR TJ Zablocki took an extended look at the play to see if Bukari's extended hand touched the ball in flight, but the goal was upheld and Sporting faced a 1-0 deficit.
Two minutes after Vazquez rattled the woodwork for Austin, Sporting newcomer Shapi Suleymanov entered as an 84th-minute substitute for his club and MLS debut. The Russian winger involved himself in Sporting's late wave of pressure, which could have resulted in an equalizer two minutes into stoppage time. With Suleymanov and Garcia standing over a free kick on the left wing, the latter sent a pinpoint service into the mixer for second-half substitute Rosero, whose leaping header glanced marginally wide.
With Week 1 of the MLS campaign in the rearview mirror, Sporting will travel from Austin to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Tuesday's decisive second leg against Miami in Round One of the Concacaf Champions Cup. Miami takes a 1-0 aggregate lead into the contest, which will kick off at 7 p.m. CT with an English-language broadcast on FS2 and a Spanish-language livestream on Vix. The series winner will advance to face Jamaican side Cavalier FC in the two-legged Round of 16 on March 6 and 13.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match...
It's an opening match at somebody else's place. I thought they obviously had more of the ball. We could have scored one in the first half and they could have scored one in the second half. It was a similar play. Willy (Agada) had his and they had one. The game was one in which they had more of the ball for the most part. We suffered a little bit defensively just because we kept defending and defending, which is what you have got to do sometimes in situations like that. I thought that, in a lot of situations, we were very good for the majority of them. Unfortunately, we give away a set piece with a corner. We probably could have done something else in that situation. You always have got to limit as many set pieces as you can against you, whether it be corners, wide free kicks, free kicks in and around your box. You're trying to limit the amount that you give and unfortunately we did on that situation and we lose the game based on a set piece. We have a long way to go and we have got a lot to build off of.
On the play from the newcomers...
It's going to take some time. We have to get all those guys together. They have to get 90 minutes fit. The reason why all those guys didn't play is because they're not there yet. And right now we have got to try to keep increasing their minutes each game. And it's a little bit of a strategy and sometimes you're kind of forced into what you're doing with those guys in regards to when they play and how much they play. Do you start them in the second half? Do you start them in the first half? What do you do? You can see at times there are really good things there, but we need time and unfortunately we just started the season and now we have got to find that time as we go into each game.
On the halftime substitutions...
We're trying to move some guys around and get them time. We're also trying to keep, as best we can, some continuity because we're just starting the season off. And when you're changing, changing, changing and you're not sticking with a group of guys to start to get sort of a rhythm with each other, it's also difficult. We're trying to move some guys around and we're trying to get guys fit now by playing games because they missed some of the preseason or some of them missed all of the preseason.
On the team's defensive performance...
Obviously, it's been a big point of emphasis for us. I think there's a good attitude within the group to do that. You see it all around the world. Defending takes discipline. It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of focus and concentration. And I think for the most part, in a lot of situations, we were good. I still think that we can get out a little bit more and put a little more pressure up the field on teams, but that's going to be, again, a little bit of timing and a little bit of work for guys to understand some of the triggers when you want to put teams under pressure. They're all parts of the game that we want to get better in and we need to. So defensively, I think we were good but we have got to get better with the ball.
On the schedule congestion...
We start the season off where it's a little bit much for the guys, but we'll take inventory after this game. The good thing on Tuesday is after that game then we have an extra day because we play on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, which is good. It would have helped this past week if we didn't have to push one more day. We lost another day of training, but we'll just keep taking inventory of the guys. We'll try to get through this the best way we can and making sure that we're increasing minutes and we really don't come out with any injuries from overuse on any of the guys.
Sporting Kansas City defender Joaquin Fernandez
Thoughts on the match...
The performance obviously is not like what we expected because we came here to win the game but it's the first game in the season. I'm sure that we will improve in the season. Of course, it's not the step that I expected but we have time now to improve the team and the things that need to be better.
On conceding from a set piece...
Obviously, it hurts that the rival scored on a corner because corners are always about concentration and to be in the space. We need to improve. We were (defending) too much from the corners, the fouls and the free kicks. We cannot permit this goal. It's not the start that I expected but we have like 30 more games. We need to improve to win the games for us, for the club and for the fans.
Attendance: 20,738
Weather: 40 degrees and cloudy
Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Jake Davis, Joaquin Fernandez (Dany Rosero 72), Robert Voloder, Logan Ndenbe; Jacob Bartlett (Manu Garcia 46'), Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez (Zorhan Bassong 73'); Daniel Salloi, William Agada (Dejan Joveljic 46'), Erik Thommy (C) (Shapi Suleymanov 84')
Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Ian James, Tim Leibold, Stephen Afrifa
Austin FC: Brad Stuver; Mikkel Desler (CJ Fodrey 90'), Julio Cascante, Brendan Hines-Ike, Guilherme Biro; Ilie Sanchez (C) (Besard Sabovic 78'), Dani Pereira, Owen Wolff (Diego Rubio 78'); Jader Obrian (Jon Gallagher 72'), Brandon Vazquez, Osman Bukari
Subs Not Used: Stefan Cleveland, Zan Kolmanic, Oleksandr Svatok, Leo Vaisanen, Nicolas Dubersarsky
Scoring Summary:
ATX -- Osman Bukari 1 (Owen Wolff 1) 76'
Misconduct Summary:
SKC -- Joaquin Fernandez (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 35'
ATX -- Mikkel Desler (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 36'
ATX -- Ilie Sanchez (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 58'
SKC -- Nemanja Radoja (yellow card; delaying a restart) 60'
ATX -- Brandon Vazquez (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 62'
SKC -- Dejan Joveljic (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 85'
SKC -- Jake Davis (yellow card; dissent) 90+3' STATSKCATX Shots712 Shots on Goal22 Saves12 Fouls1612 Offsides02 Corner Kicks14
Referee: Chris Penso Assistant Referee: Cameron Blanchard Assistant Referee: Jeffrey Greeson Fourth Official: David Barrie VAR: TJ Zablocki AVAR: Elton Garcia
-- SportingKC.com --
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