Sporting Kansas City kicks off the team’s home slate this weekend when the club hosts its home opener against the Columbus Crew at Sporting Park on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream on Apple TV, while the game will also be broadcast locally on the radio via Sports Radio 810 WHB. Tickets are available via SeatGeek.com.
1. HOME OPENER BECKONS
Sporting Kansas City shifts full attention this week to the club’s home opener set for this Saturday, Feb. 28 with a matchup against the Columbus Crew at Sporting Park. Both sides began the season with challenging road trips as Sporting fell 3-0 in San Jose and Columbus suffered a 3-2 defeat in Portland on opening weekend.
Sporting is coming off a disappointing 2025 campaign that sparked major changes at the club, with 13 players departing under the leadership of new President of Soccer Operations & GM David Lee and new head coach Raphael Wicky. Columbus has had turnover of their own as wildly successful head coach Wilfried Nancy departed to join Celtic in Scotland for a brief period, with Swede Henrik Rydstrom stepping in as the new Crew head coach.
Sporting is 16-4-10 in MLS home openers all-time and 5-2-8 in home openers played at
Sporting Park, with the only losses coming against New York City FC in 2018 and the San Jose Earthquakes in 2025.
Six of Sporting’s 10 new players debuted during the season opener in San Jose, with only Ethan Bartlow, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Stefan Cleveland and Cielo Tschantret yet to see action among the newcomers.
2. HOSTING CREW FOR FIRST TIME SINCE ‘22
Sporting Kansas City is set to face off against the Columbus Crew in the club’s home opener at Sporting Park this Saturday, Feb. 28 for the first matchup between the two sides in KC in almost four years.
Sporting’s last regular-season showdown against the Crew came on June 22, 2024 at Lower.com Field in Columbus, resulting in a tough 4-0 setback. A free-flowing Columbus side scored twice either side of halftime, with star striker Cucho Hernandez scoring a hat trick to go along with a further goal from Christian Ramirez.
The last time Columbus visited Sporting Park was on April 23, 2022 when the two sides played out a defense-dominated 0-0 draw. With the game ticking into the latter stages, inclement weather forced a 47-minute delay in action before the two sides returned for the final 15 minutes as each side took a point from the contest.
Sporting leads the all-time regular-season series against their fellow MLS charter members 26-23-9, including a 14-9-4 mark at home. The two sides have hardly played each other in recent years, with Sporting’s last 12 meetings (7-2-3) against the Crew dating all the way back to the 2013 season.
3. SIX PLAYERS MAKE DEBUTS IN SAN JOSE
Sporting Kansas City saw six newcomers make their debuts for the club in the season-opening defeat against the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park on Saturday night: Kwaku Agyabeng, Taylor Calheira, Calvin Harris, Wyatt Meyer, Jayden Reid and Justin Reynolds
From the start, head coach Raphael Wicky handed debuts to defensive trio Meyer, Reid and Reynolds, while Harris also earned his debut further up the pitch at left wing. Meyer (90’), Reid (90’) and Harris (89’) all played the majority of the match, but Reynolds was unfortunately forced to exit with an injury in the 38th minute of the match.
With Reynolds departing the game, it provided an opportunity for the club’s fourth overall selection from the 2026 MLS SuperDraft, Agyabeng, to make his professional debut. The Ghanaian midfielder showed well in his 52 minutes on the field, playing in a more advanced midfield role as Jake Davis showed his versatility by shifting to take Reynolds’ spot at right back.
Late on, freshly-inked striker Calheira made his debut for the club as he entered the match in second-half stoppage time in place of Harris.
4. ROSTER OVERHAUL SEES 13 PLAYERS DEPART, 10 ARRIVE
Under the guidance of new President of Soccer Operations & General Manager David Lee, Sporting Kansas City has overhauled much of the club’s roster heading into the 2026 campaign.
To date, 13 players have departed the club: defenders Andrew Brody, Joaquin Fernandez, Tim Leibold, Alan Montes, Logan Ndenbe, Khiry Shelton and Robert Voloder, midfielders Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez and Erik Thommy and forwards Santi Munoz, Daniel Salloi and Mason Toye.
Sporting has added 10 players during the offseason, filling in open roster spots with MLS experience and young players with high potential as the team continues to improve the squad throughout the primary transfer window: Kwaku Agyabeng, Ethan Bartlow, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Taylor Calheira, Stefan Cleveland, Calvin Harris, Wyatt Meyer, Jayden Reid, Justin Reynolds and Cielo Tschantret.
5. SKC BOASTS YOUNG & DOMESTIC SQUAD
While Sporting Kansas City’s roster remains a work-in-progress as the primary transfer window stays open through late March, the 22-man roster available to head coach Raphael Wicky at the moment is full of young and domestic talent.
Of the 22 players on the roster, only five did not spend their prime development years within the domestic game in the United States: Lasse Berg Johnsen, Manu Garcia, Dejan Joveljic, Shapi Suleymanov and Zorhan Bassong - who played youth soccer in Canada before continuing his development in Belgium at the age of 13. The other 17 players on the roster have all developed either in MLS Academies, the NCAA college system or both.
- MLS Academy: Jake Davis, Ian James, Jack Kortkamp, John Pulskamp, Justin Reynolds and Cielo Tschantret.
- NCAA: Stephen Afrifa, Kwaku Agyabeng, Ethan Bartlow, Taylor Calheira, Stefan Cleveland, Calvin Harris, Wyatt Meyer and Jansen Miller.
- Both: Jacob Bartlett, Jayden Reid and Ryan Schewe.
The average age of Sporting’s roster is 24.1, which ranks seventh youngest of Major League Soccer’s 30 teams. This past weekend’s match in San Jose marked the first MLS match in club history in which all 11 starters were age 28 or younger, with 10 of the starters 26 or younger.
