How Sporting KC rallied around kickoff & legend’s speech for 2nd win of ‘26 season

At kickoff of Sporting KC’s match against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night, Dejan Joveljic rolled the ball two yards backward to teammate Lasse Berg Johnsen — who promptly smashed it out of bounds, as close to the corner flag as possible.

Sure, this resulted in a Galaxy throw-in. But Sporting KC wanted to send a message, maybe to its own ranks as much as the Galaxy, in this Major League Soccer showdown at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

“For us, it was all about taking a step forward today,” Johnsen told The Star after the match. “That’s a signal we wanted to send to L.A., to ourselves, to the fans, that we are here to press them and take a step.”

That they did. Sporting KC won its second game of the season in rather dominating fashion, claiming a 3-1 victory that improved the Major League Soccer club’s record to 2-8-2.

Capita Capemba and Calvin Harris each scored their first goals for the Sporting, bookending Joveljic’s sixth goal of the 2026 season. Harris picked up assists on the other two goals.

Gabriel Pec netted the Galaxy’s consolation prize with a world-class goal just before the final whistle.

Watching Sporting Wednesday was whiplash-inducing, especially in contrast to the team’s 6-0 loss a few days before. So what led to the flip? It all started before the match, according to Sporting’s Zorhan Bassong.

Club legend and current assistant coach Roger Espinoza gave the pre-game speech. He talked about the club’s start to the 2011 Major League Soccer season.

That team had won just once in its first 11 matches.

“They were able to change everything,” Bassong said, echoing what Espinoza said in his speech. “Nobody believed in them but themselves. So at some point, you’ve got to stop listening to what’s outside, and you’ve got to do the job on the inside … We’re the only ones who can actually change our destiny.

“I think it worked.”

That it did. Combined with the message sent just after the game’s opening kickoff, it created the perfect environment for an improved Sporting KC mindset.

“It’s been too long to wait for this,” Sporting KC coach Raphael Wicky said. “But I’m very proud of the reaction of the team. I think (with) the results we are coming off of … it’s not easy to react like that.”

The formation with which Sporting KC played — a traditional 4-4-2 — allowed for a more aggressive shape. Wicky said the game plan during last weekend’s 6-0 loss at Portland was not to just sit back.

“Something was missing,” Wicky said. “Then their first shot went in, and then the courage was not there.”

Before Wednesday’s game, Wicky told his players he didn’t need them chasing every pass. But he did want them to put pressure on the opposing team.

“From the beginning,” the coach said, “we wanted to step forward and not step backward.”

Taylor Calheira started at striker next to Joveljic and Bassong started in the midfield. Manu Garcia came off the bench.

Both of those players put in major shifts off the ball. Bassong’s partnership with Johnsen was clearly missing to start the year. Wednesday night’s match was Johnsen’s first start of the season.

Bassong’s defensive work freed up Johnsen to operate as a passer and line-breaker. He completed 55 of 59 passes in the game. None was more important than his lead to Calvin Harris in the 32nd minute.

Bassong dribbled into the box and laid the perfect pass onto Capita, who tapped in the ball for his first goal.

Right before halftime, Harris picked up a long pass from Bassong and laid it off to Joveljic, whose defender slipped. Jakob Glesnes essentially ignored Harris, so he waltzed in on goal and chipped the Galaxy goalkeeper.

Sporting KC’s belief grew and was capped by Harris’ expert finish into the bottom corner, courtesy of an insane dribbling move by Garcia.

“We have two more games before the (World Cup) break,” Bassong said. “And honestly, winning two games could actually change a lot. So (we’ve) just got to go game by game and focus on the task.

“Honestly, if we keep believing in ourselves, if we keep showing up the way we did today, we can do something really, really good.”

Up next: Sporting KC heads to Austin this weekend (7:30 p.m. Saturday) before closing out its pre-World Cup slate of games at home against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, May 23.

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