Sporting KC’s draw with Columbus Crew produced two sensational moments

Sporting Kansas City was much improved in front of a packed house for its 2026 home opener against the Columbus Crew. Dejan Joveljic’s brace was bookended by Columbus goals in a wild 2-2 draw.

John Pulskamp’s late penalty save kept Sporting KC (0-1-1) from a second straight loss to open the season.

“I think overall it was a very interesting, intensive game,” said head coach Raphael Wicky. “We turned the game around. Columbus is a very good team that has played together for many years, who was difficult to play. And I think our boys did really well.”

Much like the previous match against San Jose, Sporting started out strong, establishing long spells of possession that led to dangerous chances. Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte made two big saves — one on a header from Ethan Bartlow and another on a free-kick from Shapi Suleymanov — to keep Sporting KC from opening the scoring.

But once again, a lapse in judgment after a positive spell put Sporting in trouble. The home side gifted Columbus a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute. Pulskamp took a short goal kick and received the ball back.

Columbus swarmed the SKC players at the edge of the box, and instead of playing long to immediate safety, Pulskamp played it straight into a swarm of yellow shirts to an unsuspecting Jacob Bartlett. The ball caromed off Bartlett’s foot, and Columbus pounced with Wessam Abou Ali eventually putting it into the back of the net.

“I made an error to goal, playing a pass that I probably shouldn’t be making,” Pulskamp said. “But I think the thing people need to realize is this is the style of footy we’re playing. Still a poor decision. I shouldn’t be making that pass. But if you look at the 35 minutes before that, we were playing some of the best soccer, I think, that’s been played in this stadium in a long time.

“... Sometimes it’s one of those risk-reward things that I need to judge.”

SKC made it to halftime at 1-0 and never let Columbus double its advantage — and then got on the scoreboard for the first time in 2026.

“After just one game, somehow we grew up,” Joveljic said. “After the first goal in San Jose, we started to rush, and then we conceded the second goal. Now we stayed 1-0 until halftime. In the locker room, we prepared the plan for the second half, and we were smart. We were ready to play for 45 minutes, and actually we turned around the game.”

Manu Garcia stripped Diego Rossi of the ball and unleashed a blazing counterattack, playing a give and go with Joveljic before turning Calvin Harris loose down the left side. Harris crossed it to Jake Davis, who cut it back to Joveljic in front of goal.

Joveljic pump-faked the whole stadium, sending Columbus’ backline and goalkeeper sprawling. He then tapped the ball into an open net.

Columbus responded by putting Sporting under immense pressure for the next 20-plus minutes. However, Sporting kept Columbus from getting a true chance on goal. And once again, a counterattack down the left to Harris ended up fruitful.

“Calvin Harris is fast, he’s vertical, and he can threaten and hurt all the teams with his strength,” Wicky said. “And that’s what we’re asking him to do.”

Harris sent the ball across the box to Suleymanov, who cut in on his left to shoot. The shot was blocked but fell right to Joveljic, who again made Columbus pay from inside the box. He slotted his shot into the net while Schulte was rooted to his spot. Sporting went up 2-1.

Harris said that with the way Columbus plays, he and his teammates anticipated there’d be space in behind the fullbacks. So he had to be patient and pick out the right crosses

“I always know that Deki’s (Joveljic) going to be there and (then it’s) giving time for the players to arrive in the box,” Harris said. “Because sometimes you can put it in too early.”

Columbus got one back, though, in the 82nd minute. Rossi ripped one past Pulskamp after a flicked header from an SKC defender fell perfectly to the Columbus player.

It looked like any points in the standings were going to be ripped away when a video review awarded Columbus a penalty kick in the 87th minute. But Pulskamp read Abou Ali’s attempt correctly and saved the penalty to keep the score 2-2.

“I think it’s something like 80% of penalties are scored,” Pulskamp said. “They’re a moment where the goalkeeper is really against the ropes. And luckily today I was able to come up with one.”

Neither team created a clear-cut chance in the final 12 minutes of game time including stoppage time. The match ended in a draw.

Up next: Sporting KC will play host to San Diego FC next Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Sporting Park.

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

This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 9:54 PM.