When will Sporting KC find its first win? Another difficult result came Saturday
It’s been a dismal start to the 2025 season for Sporting Kansas City. Saturday’s road match was par for the course — though it didn’t appear that way initially.
Despite several lineup changes and a positive opening 30 minutes that resulted in a lead, two goals in two minutes for FC Dallas made the difference.
Sporting fell 2-1. It was the second straight defeat for SKC, which hasn’t won a match in 2025.
“I think we played better, but we shut down for a couple of minutes, conceded two goals,” said forward Daniel Salloi. “Unfortunately, that’s not good enough.”
Dating back to last season, Sporting hasn’t won in its last 13 competitive matches. Sporting’s last win was a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids 192 days ago on Sept. 18, 2024. The club has lost 12 of 13 matches since, with one draw.
“We’re all disappointed,” manager Peter Vermes said. “The good thing is — like tonight— we keep searching and we keep working towards it.”
Sporting made a couple changes Saturday, hoping to shake things up and get a little closer to its best combination of a new-look lineup.
Khiry Shelton made his first start of the season at right-back, while Dany Rosero started in place of Robert Voloder at center back. Jake Davis finally moved to the midfield, and Jacob Bartlett returned as a defensive midfielder.
“I thought Khiry was very steady,” Vermes said. “For him to go 90 minutes like he did as well, very good. I thought Jake was good. He was good in the press, he was lively.”
Salloi also earned his first MLS regular-season start since the first match of the 2025 season. And he delivered. Salloi scored his second goal of 2025, a perfect finish with the outside of his foot off a cross from Shapi Suleymanov.
“Shapi played a great ball,” Salloi said. “I tried to separate myself from the defender and just take a quick touch and finish it. It came off perfectly.”
Moments later, while Sporting was in control and pushing for a second goal, a disastrous back pass from Manu Garcia was played straight to Dallas midfielder Luciano Acosta; Sporting was left exposed with players pushed forward.
Sporting seemed to recover as Acosta and Petar Musa went on a counterattack, but the SKC defenders got caught ball-watching and didn’t recognize the late run by Acosta. The former MLS MVP stuck his shot sweetly inside the far post.
Quite literally a minute later, Sporting gave up the second, a run from Sebastian Lletget along the end line and a cutback pass to a wide-open Leo Chu.
Sporting couldn’t find a second goal in the second half. Despite putting up 13 shots with five on target, Sporting’s chances totaled a meager 0.32 expected goals. Dallas, with two shots on goal, was able to create 1.34 expected goals.
So, what’s it going to take to turn things around?
“I think it comes down to goals,” Vermes said. “Like the two goals that we gave up, there’s so much more that we could have done in those situations. If we can do that, it would change things.”
The other part of the turn-it-around coin is belief.
“I feel like when you’re losing games, your confidence goes down,” Salloi said. “It’s very difficult to turn that momentum. It takes a lot more work than it usually does. So we just have to keep grinding and keep working hard.”
Asked point blank if he believed the team could still turn things around, Salloi gave a confident one-word response:
“Yes.”
Up next: Sporting KC will host St. Louis City SC next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Central.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 10:00 PM.