Sporting KC Earns 2-0 Win Over St. Louis

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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Earns 2-0 Win Over St. Louis

April 6, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Dejan Joveljic scored a scintillating second-half brace to propel Sporting Kansas City (1-5-1, 4 points) to a momentous 2-0 win over archrivals St. Louis City SC (2-3-2, 8 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park.

In Kerry Zavagnin's first match as Sporting's interim head coach, Joveljic fired the hosts ahead in the 71st minute off a Manu Garcia assist and iced the result with an opportunistic finish on 88 minutes as Kansas City snapped a 13-game winless run in all competitions and secured victory for the first time since Sept. 18, 2024.

Saturday's battle saw Sporting improve to 3-0-2 at home against St. Louis, giving Kansas City its first victory in the cross-state rivalry series since a memorable 2-1 playoff triumph at Children's Mercy Park on Nov. 5, 2023. With Joveljic's late double, Sporting also hit 400 regular season home goals scored at Children's Mercy Park.

Sporting's 1,100th match in club history delivered a predictably festive atmosphere as both teams approached the game with palpable fervor. The visitors were first to threaten in the 16th minute when Conrad Wallem pinged a shot off the left post, then forced an intervention from Sporting goalkeeper John Pulskamp before Akil Watts bundled his rebound attempt well over the bar.

All-action midfielder Jake Davis was involved in a pair of Sporting chances closer to halftime, seeing a 22-yard drive saved by Ben Lundt and teeing up Joveljic for a bouncing shot that was also corralled by the St. Louis goalkeeper. At the opposite end, Alfredo Morales and St. Louis captain Marcel Hartel brandished long-range bombs that narrowly missed the target.

Garcia was increasingly involved in the second half and clipped a dangerous ball into the area that fell to center back Joaquin Fernandez, whose venomous volley screamed wide in the 52nd minute. Seconds later, Davis tried to catch Lundt off his line with a chip shot that floated wayward into the Cauldron.

Pulskamp, earning his 50th career start for the club in all competitions, produced his finest performance of the season, highlighted by a clutch save in the 54th minute to deny Hartel from the left side of the box.

Sporting blew the roof off the stadium with a wonderfully orchestrated go-ahead goal on 71 minutes. Second-half substitute Nemanja Radoja played an incisive pass through to Garcia, who received on the half-turn and slipped an impudent ball into the box for Joveljic. The Serbian international made no mistake from there, slotting low past Lundt to make the score 1-0. It was the second time Sporting's freshly minted Designated Players have combined this season after Garcia assisted Joveljic's late equalizer in a 3-3 draw against Minnesota United FC on March 15.

With their tails up and momentum in favor of Sporting, left back Logan Ndenbe buccaneered down the left side and played a cutback pass to Joveljic, whose thunderous blast was blocked in traffic. Not to be denied a second time, the 25-year-old bagged his second goal of the night with two minutes remaining. Garcia latched onto a pinpoint cross from substitute Erik Thommy and rattled the woodwork with a strike that had Lundt firmly beaten, but Joveljic was on hand to steer the rebound into an empty net for his team-leading fourth goal of the campaign, all of which have come at Children's Mercy Park. Joveljic now has 11 goals in his last nine MLS home appearances dating back to last season with the LA Galaxy.

Pulskamp still had work to do to secure his first clean sheet of the season and did well to smother Simon Becher's piledriver two minutes into stoppage time. Joveljic then went agonizingly close to completing a hat trick, rounding the goalkeeper on the edge of the six-yard area only to see his shot blocked near the goal line by St. Louis defender Josh Yaro.

Sporting, which improved to 6-0-1 all-time in matches played on April 5, returns to Children's Mercy Park next Sunday, April 13, to host the Portland Timbers in the club's 29-year anniversary of its inaugural match at Arrowhead Stadium in 1996. Kickoff is slated for 1:15 p.m. CT with tickets available at SeatGeek.com and national coverage on FOX, FOX Deportes and MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin

On the second half performance...

The spirit of the guys - they were not going to give in. It's the first time in a while that I heard at halftime -- after what was a pretty tight first half -- walking out of the locker room and saying we're not losing tonight. And so, with that mentality and that spirit, you can overcome a lot of things. We created a lot more opportunities. But that was because, as the guys grew in confidence, which has been missing for a while now, we started getting in and around the goal. We knew that was going to be something that we would have to fix before we could move in a positive direction of getting points. And on the flip side, I think defensively, despite the fact that there were a few close calls, the commitment for the guys to defend all 11 players on the field was fantastic.

On creating more chances...

In the first half, we wanted to get Manu (Garcia) the ball a little bit more and even though he got it from deeper positions, he was involved and he was touching the ball. We had a few opportunities to find him between the lines in the first half where we just missed a little bit. But our ability to move the ball and our rotations on the wings, I think unbalanced them at times. The first half they were just so compact. But the determination and commitment of (Dejan Joveljic) to be just a non-stop horse up there, it's not a surprise that he scored 20+ goals last year. It was just a matter of breaking out and he did tonight. And credit to all the guys with their commitment to get forward and their commitment to get in the box and not just in the box, but to finish the opportunities.

On his first game as interim manager...

I think the entire week -- for all of us, not just me, for all of us -- has been an emotional one. I have had to compartmentalize a lot of my emotions and feelings because I knew what I needed to do and what we needed to do to get the result tonight. And so we've been focused just on that. The emotions for me are probably still inside somewhere. But to be able to do this against a rival; in my first time coaching; with the commitment that the players gave; and the confetti on the field that we've been missing for a little while. It's a magical night.

On the players emotions at full time...

I know how badly that they wanted to do well. They're a great group of men. They just needed to trust each other a little bit more. And you saw the emotion as it's been building throughout the week that they wanted to do well for each other. That little skirmish at the end is nothing new to the week. A couple days ago, we had a few skirmishes in training and that means that you're on the edge and you're playing on the edge and you're competing right on that edge. I didn't see what happened down there. It's no surprise. It's St. Louis and Kansas City. It seems to have happened over the course of history, so why not tonight? But I'm proud of the guys.

On the clean sheet...

Well, I think in order to have any success, defense wins. And you have to use that as your foundation. As much as you want to be entertaining and bring joy to the crowd, you have to have a foundational piece and that's the defending aspect. Wanting to high press and pressure all over the field doesn't mean you want to defend any better or more. It's more of a matter of being compact and giving up less opportunities in front of goal. One of the things that we had had issues with recently is that it wasn't the number of chances that we gave up, it was the incredibly high-quality chances that our opponents have been getting. You could see when it was 1-0 tonight, that the commitment to remain compact, even if it was lower in the field, really made the difference. And every man out there tonight sold his body to preserve the result. And that's what it takes. That's what it takes to win.

On the play of Jansen Miller and Jacob Bartlett...

We knew we had something special in Miller when we drafted him. It was probably in the first week. Day by day, you could see the player integrating himself and getting more comfortable with the group. He's got a great personality, so I'm not surprised by his performance tonight. He's been outstanding. It's still his first year, so the expectation for him is that he's just going to keep progressing because with the mentality that he has, he's one that I would anticipate would have a long career in the league. Jacob Bartlett is a special player as well. Special person, special player. He's one of those number sixes that we've usually gone overseas to find and it's fantastic that we have one here in Kansas City. His maturity for his age (because) the position itself requires a lot of reading of the game and with a lot of young players, it takes time for that. But he's hardly put a foot wrong this year.

On John Pulskamp in goal...

John has a spirit and a competitiveness and a drive that pushes the group along. As he matures as a player, I think he's going to be able to read situations even better. But for where he is in his progression, he is an incredible asset for us. That's not just in shot stopping, it's in terms of pushing the group each and every day in training. And that's a great thing to have in a team.

On the confusion with the substitution...

It was the sub card. I'd like to get clarification of how the other side felt about that. The sub card apparently had a number that was misrepresented on the card. I don't know if that was the case. Our assistant coach put that in. But at the end of the day, that's my responsibility and so I take it. That won't happen again. But as you said, it could have hurt us in a game. Luckily for us, our players pulled together and survived the moment. But that one's on me.

On the insertion of Nemanja Radoja...

We knew coming into the game that Khiry Shelton -- by the way, he had a fantastic performance -- Khiry Shelton was carrying a little bit of a knock and we didn't know how long we were going to be able to push him. Sixty minutes would have been probably the max and he pushed himself to that point or close to it. Jake (Davis) moved to right back and we needed a tough tackler in the midfield in a game like this and (Nemanja) did an unbelievable job. That tackle? Those are the little things that turn games. What is now a fantastic night with a 2-0 win, but without that tackle maybe they go in and they make it 1-1. Those are the little things. I told the group that you have to do the little things and that was one of the occasions tonight.

On his celebration with the players postgame...

I told the guys when I first stepped into the locker room on Monday that I was proud to be their coach. I will give them everything I have and in return I would expect that they would give the same back. And they did. And so that moment at the end of the game was a moment to celebrate together. Jake (Davis) and the rest of the guys, I think we all knew what we've been through this week, what tonight meant and the happiness of being able to feel that again.

On his history with the team and at the stadium...

I've been going to the wrong parking spot and the wrong seat in the locker room all week. And that was no different tonight, even with my name tag above it. I have been in a routine. I can get to the places, but once I'm there, it's still new to me. I remember when this stadium opened that I would come on game day at 11 o'clock in the morning and just walk around it. It still means as much today to walk in here as it did in those first few moments when it was shiny and new. And so to do that as now the coach of the team certainly is another emotion which you can add to the week.

Sporting Kansas City forward Dejan Joveljic

On the win...

It's been a while. I'm very happy about the team's performance and about my performance. I think we did well. It's always nice to win in derby games and it means a lot for us as you could see on the field. We go forward. We are happy. We are more confident and hopefully we are going to win more points.

On the team's confidence...

As you could see when we scored the first goal, we felt some relief and it was like a good injection of confidence. Especially when we scored the second one and we could have scored even more. I'm just happy and I'm looking forward for the next game.

On the emotions of the week...

For me, it was hard because coach Peter (Vermes) was the one who brought me here. But I have not been here long at this club, so it's not the same feeling for me as for the other guys. I think for them it's very hard and also for other people from the club. What he did at this club, it's amazing. And if the next coach tries to do something like Peter, it would be awesome. He completely changed the situation and the view for this club. I can just say thank you.

On playing more direct...

Yes, that was our idea. When we lose the ball and when we win the second balls to try to go immediately forward. Somehow in the last games, when we won the second ball we played back. So now it was maybe the first time that we played direct and we scored. So we are going to continue doing that.

On building off the win...

We are going to just take two days off and prepare for the next game. If you lose the next game, this win means nothing. So we need to take points in the next game.

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City (1-5-1, 4 points) 0 2 2

St. Louis City SC (2-3-2, 8 points) 0 0 0

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Khiry Shelton (Nemanja Radoja 59'), Jansen Miller, Joaquin Fernandez (Dany Rosero 79'), Logan Ndenbe; Jacob Bartlett, Jake Davis, Manu Garcia; Shapi Suleymanov (Erik Thommy 79'), Dejan Joveljic (Mason Toye 90+4'), Daniel Salloi (C)

Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Tim Leibold, Memo Rodriguez, Stephen Afrifa, William Agada

St. Louis City SC: Ben Lundt; Josh Yaro, Henry Kessler, Joakim Nilsson (Tomas Ostrak 26'); Akil Watts, Alfredo Morales (Cedric Teuchert 80'), Marcel Hartel (C), Kyle Hiebert; Conrad Wallem, Joao Klauss, Celio Pompeu (Simon Becher 65')

Subs Not Used: Christian Olivares, Timo Baumgartl, Michael Wentzel, Joseph Zelinsky, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Emil Jaaskelainen

Scoring Summary:

SKC -- Dejan Joveljic 3 (Manu Garcia 2, Nemanja Radoja 1) 71'

SKC -- Dejan Joveljic 4 (unassisted) 88'

Misconduct Summary:

STL -- Conrad Wallem (yellow card; delaying a restart) 28'

SKC -- Jacob Bartlett (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 39'

STL -- Tomas Ostrak (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 78'

STL -- Cedric Teuchert (yellow card; unsporting behavior) Postgame

STAT SKC STL

Shots 11 11

Shots on Goal 5 4

Saves 4 3

Fouls 11 14

Offsides 2 1

Corner Kicks 3 4

Referee: Tori Penso

Assistant Referee: Kathryn Nesbitt

Assistant Referee: Brooke Mayo

Fourth Official: Sergii Demianchuk

VAR: Michael Radchuk

AVAR: Meghan Mullen

-- SportingKC.com --

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