Five matches, five losses: Sporting KC’s struggles continue to start 2025 season

Sporting Kansas City found a goal from open play but couldn’t find the win column, falling on the road to D.C. United 2-1 on Saturday night.

Sporting falls to 0-3-0 to start MLS play. The team is 0-5-0 in all competitions to start the 2025 season. Dating back to last season, Sporting KC has lost 10 straight games in all competitions.

A scoreless first half brought as much action as it did goals, with each team struggling to create concrete chances against the other.

Sporting broke the deadlock first, with Erik Thommy finishing a play he started. After a throw-in, and a quick possession win on the left side of midfield, Thommy drove a pass across the field to Shapi Suleymanov.

Suleymanov picked out Jake Davis’ overlapping run, and Davis played a cutback pass to the penalty spot. Thommy ripped a shot with his first touch to blast it past DC United goalkeeper Jun-Hong Kim.

“I tried to get around the box,” Thommy said. “It was a good cross from Jake and I scored. It was definitely something we trained on throughout the week.”

Manager Peter Vermes said he viewed the play as evidence the synergy between the front four is building.

“The combination is starting to get there,” Vermes said. “They have better timing with each other. They’re starting to really link up.

“The unfortunate thing in the game is we’ve got to be better defensively.”

For that, Sporting’s lead would last just seven minutes.

DC United winger Joao Peglow was tackled inside the box by Suleymanov to give the home team a penalty kick, which was converted by Christian Benteke. Eight minutes later, DC found the winner.

A cross into the box for DC would typically target Benteke. And while he was covered on Peglow’s cross, nobody from the Sporting KC midfield followed Hosei Kijima’s near-post run to flick a header past goalkeeper John Pulskamp.

“If a midfielder jumps between our defenders, we need to cover them and help them,” Thommy said. “We didn’t at the end. That’s something we need to improve on and do better next time.”

Vermes lamented the fact that both goals originated from the same side.

“They both came from our right side … and getting out and stopping service, clearing the ball,” Vermes said, “we’ve just got to do better with those plays.”

Sporting wouldn’t put another shot on target throughout the game.

With four of its next five games at home, Sporting knows it’s time to start picking up points. But Vermes doesn’t want to look beyond the next game.

“We’ve got to really be ready and prepared for the next game,” Vermes said. “It’s going to be a tough opponent, but we’ve gotta take advantage of (earning) points at home.”

Up next: Sporting KC hosts Minnesota United on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. match.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM.