Sporting Suffers Late 2-1 Home Loss to Austin
MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Suffers Late 2-1 Home Loss to Austin

Published on September 7, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (7-16-6, 27 points) suffered a frustrating 2-1 home loss to Austin FC (11-9-8, 41 points) on Sunday night at Children's Mercy Park.

Dejan Joveljic moved into sole possession of third place in the MLS Golden Boot race with his 17th goal of the season, converting an early penalty kick, but Austin leveled terms on a first-half strike from Owen Wolff before securing an 82nd-minute winner off the head of substitute CJ Fodrey.

Sporting will look to rebound on Saturday by visiting longtime rival Real Salt Lake in an 8:30 p.m. CT kickoff on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

Interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin made two changes to Sporting's starting lineup from a 4-2 home win over the Colorado Rapids last weekend. With midfielder Zorhan Bassong and defender Ian James absent on international duty with Canada and the U.S. U-17s, respectively, Academy product Jacob Bartlett and on-loan center back Alan Montes entered the fray-the latter earning his first start for the club.

Both teams threatened within the first 10 minutes. Former Kansas City striker Diego Rubio curled a free kick high for Austin, while Sporting left back Tim Leibold dragged a left-footed effort inches wide from 20 yards.

Sporting was awarded a penalty kick at the quarter-hour mark, but not before Austin midfielder Nicolas Dubersarsky's foul on Shapi Suleymanov inside the box initially went unpunished by referee Sergii Boiko. VAR Ismail Elfath prompted the head official to take a second look at the play, and Boiko promptly pointed to the spot.

Joveljic converted the ensuing penalty with a cool side-footed finish into the right corner. The Serbian striker's 17 goals this year are third most in MLS, third most by a Sporting player in a single regular season in club history, and the most by a Kansas City newcomer since Preki bagged 18 goals in the club's inaugural 1996 campaign. Joveljic now has 38 goals in MLS play since the start of 2024, second most in the league behind only Lionel Messi (39).

Suleymanov created more danger at the half-hour juncture, setting up Leibold for another 20-yard drive that deflected narrowly over the crossbar. Shortly thereafter, Suleymanov's in-swinging corner kick was nodded marginally wide by Montes.

Austin restored parity with eight minutes left in the first half. Guilherme Biro sent a long ball over the top to Wolff, who did well to cushion the ball down on the edge of the area, elude a pair of Sporting defenders and fire low into the right corner. Wolff now has five goals in his last seven MLS matches after scoring just three times in the first 109 league appearances of his career.

Sporting goalkeeper John Pulskamp-who ended the game tied with Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver for second in MLS with 99 saves this season-did well to thwart Osman Bukari on the cusp of intermission, producing a reflex stop at the near post as the contest remain deadlocked.

The hosts had two fleeting opportunities before the 60th minute on a pair of crosses from the right flank. Montes saw his leaping header saved off a Jake Davis delivery and Joveljic was unable to put clean contact on Daniel Salloi's low, driven service.

Fodrey opened his MLS scoring account late but could have done so in the 73rd minute, his header caroming off the left post much to the relief of a helpless Pulskamp. Three minutes later, Sporting captain Erik Thommy made a substitute cameo for his first appearance since July 4 after missing two months through injury.

Thommy had a positive impact on proceedings and Sporting almost went ahead in the 79th minute. Salloi found a pocked of space on the right side of the box, received a pass from Joveljic and uncorked a shot that was parried aside by the diving Stuver. Thommy was on hand for a rebound effort that was blocked behind for a corner kick.

Austin then broke on a quick counter-attack in the 80th minute as Robert Taylor forced an excellent stop from the outstretched Pulskamp. The visitors cashed in on the ensuing corner kick, however, as Fodrey's glancing header at the near post nestled into the opposite corner of the net.

Sporting conjured two good looks at an equalizer in second-half stoppage time. Substitute Mason Toye did well to intercept a pass near midfield and dart goalward before spreading to Joveljic, who then laid the ball off to Thommy, but the German's left-footed attempt cannoned high and wide. In the final minute, Joveljic embarked on a superb solo run into the penalty area, cutting past multiple defenders only to see his 12-yard shot repelled by Stuver.

QUOTES

Sporting KC interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin

Thoughts on the match...

I think we started off well and I think the tempo for the game started out well. I think both teams, over the course of the rest of the game -- give the 25th or 30th minute and the 37th minute is when they scored it -- it's like the game settled in and it was a little bit lifeless for both teams. It didn't really look like a lot was happening. And a very easy ball played over the top made the game 1-1. I think the game played out in a way, as we approached halftime into the second half, we lacked that punch that we usually see in the second half and that energetic kind of explosion of just bombarding the goal. We had a lot of the ball tonight, but I don't necessarily think we created incredible chances with it. I think we leave a lot to be desired from the game, knowing that with a better performance we could have gotten a better result. All the players on the field gave effort. I just think the game played out in a very lifeless way.

On the two goals conceded...

It's kind of a microcosm of the season. You give up a goal that's very much preventable and set pieces have done us in over the course of this year. If I'm not mistaken, that might be the 13th set piece (goal) that we've taken this year. Going back all the way to the beginning of the year, they won 1-0 on a set piece and now we find ourselves in a similar fate. But having said all that, we're on the doorstep at the end. We can make it 2-2 and maybe a tie in this game is a fair result. But at the end of the day, we weren't good enough on the day to get anything more out of the game.

On Alan Montes...

I think with the amount of ball possession that we had, you can see his quality and his ability to set the game up and generate advantages with the ball. I think the game played out in a way that was perfect for his skill set. We saw a lot of good things from him. Obviously, he's a commanding presence in the air. He wasn't asked too many times -- as the game didn't really open up and stretch itself -- to have to chase down a lot of their speedsters, so we need to see more from that and how he copes there. But I thought his first start within the group, after not having played many minutes over the course of this season, I thought he accounted himself really well.

On the final whistle...

So much had already happened in the game that to go on about that and look at that one moment, I think it had already gone past the four minutes if I'm not mistaken. We weren't really urgent getting the ball in the box. We created a foul there, but I just wish that we had a little bit more determination to get the second goal. We tried, but I think we were just left wanting more.

On the inconsistency in starting lineups this season...

There's no doubt that consistency and continuity within a group is something in the makeup of a lot of the great teams. Every line we've had to maneuver this year -- whether it be the back four, we've had probably 20-some different lineups over the course of this year -- with many different formations. But I think when you look at the progress that's been made with the group, tonight was an outlier in terms of the spirit, the energy, the determination to come back in the game. I think we were missing a little bit of that tonight, but the consistency of that -- of the commitment, the trust, the belief to keep going -- has been ever-present, and I'm proud of that. But you do bring up a good point that we've lacked consistency and continuity in lineups and certainly that chemistry will be affected. Some of that's our doing, but some other things are out of our control.

On not winning back-to-back games this year...

I think that was brought up during the course of the week, not by us, but externally. And I thought about it for a second, but it didn't really factor in. You're trying to give your best performance on the day and put the players on the field that are going to help get the result. I think that's the approach that we took. But that consistency of getting two games in a row, it's kind of the makeup of where we are as a group right now in that we're working from week to week to become better versions of ourselves as individuals but also as a collective. There's no doubt that there are consistency issues within the group.

On conceding from a corner...

Our set piece coach, Ash Wallace, has done a fantastic job and sometimes it's personnel related and sometimes it's strategy but I think we were well prepared. We understood what they were going to do and how they were going to go about their set pieces. I don't think we were surprised by that. We just didn't make the play when it counted.

On the positioning of the wingers...

The idea was try to become more vertical, right? We've been good at advancing the game, certainly from our defensive half. We haven't spent much time in the first phase, in the build-out and the slow build-up. We've gotten to the opponent's final third pretty quickly over the course of these last number of months. The idea of keeping them wide was to try to stretch their back four. They played with a back five in the last game, but regardless we were going to try to get both Shapi (Suleymanov) on his dominant foot and Daniel (Salloi) on his dominant foot to really get in behind, because we thought their two center backs would be left open a little bit and there would be space there to go into. There were a couple moments in the first half, I think, where Shapi got in behind and certainly Daniel stretched the game, but not enough of them. We changed them back as the course of the half went on to try to generate, as I was saying earlier, what we were lacking: just a little bit of oomph in the game. I tried to spark it by changing them back around to their natural positions. I think we pulled a lot of levers tonight. We made a few different substitutions to try to generate that fourth and fifth gear. I just felt like we were in third tonight.

On Jacob Bartlett...

I think Jacob Bartlett, after having played probably close to 2,000 minutes in his first year, hasn't played in recent weeks and part of that, it wasn't necessarily a physical, it was more an emotional and mental situation with him. He's been asked to do a heck of a lot over the course of this year, and so his insertion back into the lineup was welcomed. He covers a lot of ground, he did again tonight. I thought he had a really good game. And Jake Davis, you know what you're going to get from him. He covers a lot of ground as well. Not exactly the Bassong-Davis relationship, it's a little bit different but I thought Jacob Bartlett made really good decisions on the ball and I thought he accounted himself really well in the game.

Sporting Kansas City's forward Erik Thommy

On the ovation when he entered...

Obviously it felt good to be back on the field with the guys. I missed it a lot. It was quite hard for me to watch it from the stands. A wish for me would be the end result at the end. Everybody's sad and upset with the game. We deserve more today. But like I said, for me personally, of course, it's nice to be back.

On how the match ended...

We had with that last action, a great opportunity with a free kick, and where you can get the equalizer. From my perspective, they wasted a lot of time. It was just four minutes. Then you also need the right feeling for the game. I think we deserved the chance or the set piece at the end. He had a different opinion about it. That was the discussion at the end. But it's not about the set piece at the end, why we lost the game. It was more about the details. That's why I was a little bit frustrated, still a respectful conversation.

On the goals conceded...

It's soccer. It's all about the details. It decides games at the end. It was an easy set piece, at the end, where we conceded. It's obviously hard against a good defending opponent like Austin, who didn't receive a lot of goals across the season. Even though we had a lot of chances, we could have closed it down earlier. We had enough opportunities even in the second half. What I missed was that we played without fear after 1-0. I had a feeling that we wanted to possess the ball and didn't take the right chances to attack. Austin came back then and then it's an open game at the end with a better result for them.

On the team's effort...

It's always a good question. I mean, if you see the entire season right now, we dropped a lot of points in the beginning. If you drop a lot of points in the beginning, you run behind and try to create something, try to do something. It's much easier if you have 15, 20 points after 10 games, then everybody is more confident. Everything is much easier. We cannot change that and we're still in the race now. It's obviously hard for us. We see the table, we know what to do. Not a lot of games left, but everybody needs to believe that soccer is sometimes a miracle and we need a small miracle to reach the playoffs. First of all, I think everybody needs to recover after the game and settle down. Then next week we're going to attack again.

On his contract...

It's not about me. I think we have 16 or 17 more players who run out of contract. My first step was to get back on the field. Everything around it doesn't matter right now. We have a lot of games and it depends how we end up this season. I'm here, and as I said it when I arrived, I'm here to be successful as a team. There are some steps to go and after that we can talk about my contract and maybe the contracts of other players.

2025 MLS Regular Season | Match 29

Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas

Attendance: 15,787

Weather: 77 degrees and sunny

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City (7-16-6, 27 points) 1 0 0

Austin FC (11-9-8, 41 points) 1 1 2

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Khiry Shelton, Alan Montes (Jansen Miller 83'), Robert Voloder, Tm Leibold (Logan Ndenbe 60'); Jake Davis, Jacob Bartlett (Nemanja Radoja 83'); Daniel Salloi (C), Santi Munoz (Mason Toye 61'), Shapi Suleymanov (Erik Thommy 76'); Dejan Joveljic

Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Joaquin Fernandez, Memo Rodriguez, Stephen Afrifa

Austin FC: Brad Stuver (C); Mikkel Desler, Mateja Djordjevic, Brendan Hines-Ike, Guilherme Biro (Zan Kolmanic 74'); Owen Wolff, Nicolas Dubersarsky (Ilie Sanchez 83'); Osman Bukari, Diego Rubio (Ervin Torres 83'), Jon Gallagher (Robert Taylor 68'); Jader Obrian (CJ Fodrey 68')

Subs Not Used: Stefan Cleveland, Antonio Gomez, Riley Thomas, Adrian Gonzalez

Scoring Summary:

SKC -- Dejan Joveljic 17 (penalty kick) 16'

ATX -- Owen Wolff 5 (Guilherme Biro 1) 37'

ATX -- CJ Fodrey 1 (Owen Wolff 7) 82'

Misconduct Summary:

ATX -- Mikkel Desler (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 19'

ATX -- Mateja Djordjevic (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 29'

SKC -- Jacob Bartlett (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 74'

ATX -- Zan Kolmanic (yellow card; time wasting) 86'

STAT SKC ATX

Shots 14 9

Shots on Goal 4 4

Saves 2 3

Fouls 12 13

Offsides 0 4

Corner Kicks 6 1

Referee: Sergii Boiko

Assistant Referee: Jeremy Hanson

Assistant Referee: Chris Wattam

Fourth Official: Malik Badawi

VAR: Ismail Elfath

AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

Check out the Sporting Kansas City Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from September 7, 2025


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