Recap: Sporting takes 2-0 home loss to LAFC

Sporting Kansas City (0-4-1, 1 point) fell 2-0 to LAFC (3-2-0, 9 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park. The visitors struck on both sides of halftime through David Martinez and Aaron Long to keep Sporting winless in 2025 and extend LAFC's unbeaten run to nine matches in the head-to-head series.

In his milestone 700th match with Kansas City as a player or a coach, Manager Peter Vermes made two changes to the Sporting lineup from last weekend's 3-3 home draw against Minnesota United FC. Rookie Jansen Miller earned his first professional start, replacing the injured Joaquin Fernandez in central defense, while Memo Rodriguez slotted into the midfield with Zorhan Bassong away on international duty with Canada. Further up the field, captain Erik Thommy notably made his 100th appearance for Sporting in all competitions, having debuted against LAFC in July 2022 and scored in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final versus the same opponent last September.

LAFC opened the scoring on 18 minutes, surging ahead on a well-taken strike from Martinez. Shortly after Sporting goalkeeper John Pulskamp had produced a superb save to deny Ryan Hollingshead on the doorstep, LAFC's 19-year-old winger received a diagonal pass from Mark Delgado and lashed a left-footed strike high inside the near post for his second goal of the campaign.

Not long later, LAFC was denied by the woodwork as Turkish forward Cengiz Under latched onto a low cross and sent his first-time effort onto the the crossbar. Sporting then responded with a pair of looks before halftime, the first of which saw Thommy's turf-trimmer saved from the top of the box. Shortly thereafter, forward Dejan Jovejlic ran onto Miller's searching long ball into the penalty area and cushioned a header to fellow Designated Player Manu Garcia, who forced an impressive save from LAFC's World Cup-winning goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

Sporting went 2-0 behind in the 54th minute. Pulskamp made another brilliant stop on a Hollingshead header from a set piece, but Long was on hand to steer home the rebound for his fifth goal contribution in his last five matches as a visting player inside Children's Mercy Park.

The hosts were awarded a penalty kick in the 70th minute when Shapi Suleymanov appeared to be fouled by Martinez on his wind-up for a shot attempt on the right edge of the box. However, VAR intervened and referee Ismir Pekmic deemed that Martinez won the ball cleanly, thus overturning his penalty decision. Two minutes later, Sporting forward Mason Toye replaced Suleymanov for his club debut, having arrived as a free agent acquisition in Janaury.

Sporting's frustrating night offered one last bitter blow in second-half stoppage time when Memo Rodriguez's thumping free kick beat LAFC's four-man wall only to be cast aside by the leaping Lloris.

Vermes' men will travel to face FC Dallas next Saturday, March 29, in a 7:30 p.m. CT kickoff at Toyota Stadium. The Western Conference clash will be shown live on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

2025 MLS Regular Season | Match 5
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Attendance: 15,263
Weather: 60 degrees and cloudy

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Jake Davis (Khiry Shelton 86'), Jansen Miller, Robert Voloder, Logan Ndenbe (Tim Leibold 87'); Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez, Manu Garcia; Shapi Suleymanov (Mason Toye 72'), Dejan Joveljic (William Agada 66'), Erik Thommy (C) (Daniel Salloi 66')

Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Jacob Bartlett, Stephen Afrifa

LAFC: Hugo Lloris; Sergi Palencia, Eddie Segura, Aaron Long (C), Ryan Hollingshead (Artem Smoliakov 90+5'); Mark Delgado (Nkosi Tafari 87'), Igor Jesus, Timothy Tillman; Cengiz Under (Yaw Yeboah 75'), Nathan Ordaz (Odin Holm 87'), David Martinez (Adrian Wibowo 75')

Subs Not Used: Thomas Hasal, Maxime Chanot, Adam Saldana, Jeremy Ebobisse

Scoring Summary:
LAFC -- David Martinez 2 (Mark Delgado 1) 18'
LAFC -- Aaron Long 1 (unassisted) 54'

Misconduct Summary:
SKC -- Logan Ndenbe (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 11'
SKC -- Memo Rodriguez (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 24'
LAFC -- Sergi Palencia (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 60'
SKC -- Nemanja Radoja (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 65'
LAFC -- Yaw Yeboah (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 90+3'

Referee: Ismir Pekmic
Assistant Referee: Cameron Blanchard
Assistant Referee: Logan Brown
Fourth Official: Alexis Da Silva
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
AVAR: Fabio Tovar