How Sporting Kansas City managed to beat the L.A. Galaxy with zero shots on goal

Since play began in 1996, no Major League Soccer team had won a match without attempting a shot ... until Sunday night.

Sporting KC did exactly that, beating the defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

The lone goal Sunday was an own-goal that resulted from a kick by Sporting KC’s Daniel Salloi that was in no way, shape, or form a shot attempt.

For Sporting (3-7-1), the match’s outcome was reminiscent of a baseball team winning a game despite getting no hit. (For the record, that’s happened seven times in baseball’s century-plus of competition.)

“The collective of the group today showed a grit and a determination of what it takes to win games when you might not be at your best on the day,” interim Sporting KC head coach Kerry Zavagnin said. “That’s a look that we haven’t seen recently and something certainly to build off of, especially as we go on the road having to be in those situations.“

Sporting KC’s lowest shot total in a win before Sunday night was four, and it had happened twice. Once, in 2001, in a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy — a game in which Zavagnin had an assist — and again in 2004, in a 1-0 win over Dallas.

The goal awarded to Sporting KC was the result of a fortunate bounce. Salloi found himself inside the box and sent a low-driven pass across the face of the goal. The ball bounced off the back of Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida’s leg and into the visitors’ net.

For the next 77 minutes plus stoppage time, Sporting KC held its own defensively. Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp made two saves. The sporting midfield and backline held strong in their organization.

Pulskamp credited the group’s growing camaraderie, especially within the back line.

“We’ve been through so much already in such a short period of time with this group that we’ve gotten really close with each other,” Pulskamp said. “We’re in the trenches together. In that hardship is when you can either turn on each other or you get a lot closer with each other.

“We’re putting arms around each other’s shoulders and sticking together. When you have a relationship with your teammates and you’re in tough moments like tonight, it’s very easy to look to your left, to your right, and tell them, ‘I’m going to be playing for you, and you’re going to be playing for me.’”

Sporting KC’s Robert Voloder and Jansen Miller have shouldered their share of criticism this season, but each played his best game yet in a Sporting KC shirt. Miller made two blocks and 13 clearances (six via headers), while Voloder had six clearances and won three of his four duels.

The Galaxy took 11 shots, putting two on target but none into the net.

The win is the third in the last five matches for Sporting KC after going winless in its first six games. Sporting. It’s steps in the right direction, but Zavagnin wants to see still more improvement.

“We are still a flawed team, right?” he said. “We’ve gotten results in recent weeks, but we’ve had to prove that we can now create better scoring opportunities. We’ve had to now prove that we can defend well.

“And now we’re searching for a better version of ourselves and trying to put those aspects that we’ve improved upon and make a complete game.”

Up next: Sporting KC begins the first leg of three road matches in one week on Saturday when the club travels to Portland to face the Timbers (9:30 CT kickoff). Then it’s off to St. Louis to finish the season series with St. Louis City SC on Wednesday, May 14, before KC’s first matchup with San Diego FC on Saturday, May 17.

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

This story was originally published May 4, 2025 at 8:06 PM.