Sporting Kansas City (5-16-3, 18 pts.) produced a dominant performance to defeat LAFC (11-8-7, 40 pts.) 3-1 at Sporting Park on Saturday night. Record-signing Andre Luiz scored a brilliant opener before Taylor Calheira doubled the lead before halftime. After LAFC pulled a goal back early in the second half, Jacob Bartlett buried a third to seal the win.
Head coach Raphael Wicky was forced into a pair of changes to the starting lineup from last week’s 4-3 setback against FC Dallas as Wyatt Meyer and Calvin Harris were restored in place of the injured Or Blorian and Capita Capemba.
Following a back and forth start, Sporting’s record signing Andre sent the home crowd into raptures with a brilliant first goal for the club in the 18th minute. Moises Mosquera picked out Justin Reynolds down the right wing who in turn fed Andre inside the penalty area and the Brazilian showed his quality by cutting inside onto his left foot, eliminating former teammate Igor Jesus in the process, and rifling home a strike off the underside of the crossbar.
Andre almost added a second four minutes later when he latched onto Emir Karic’s pin-point pass but saw his volleyed effort from the edge of the area deflected narrowly wide.
Sporting continued to push forward and made their first-half dominance count with a second goal in the 31st minute through Calheira. A week after scoring his first two goals for the club in Dallas, Calheira reacted fastest when Stephen Afrifa’s looping back-post header came off the post and diverted the ball into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Afrifa almost got in on the act in the 39th minute when he pounced on a turnover in LAFC’s half and sent a rasping half-volley toward goal that Hugo Lloris beat away while diving to his right.
LAFC almost found a response in the 43rd minute when star forward Denis Bouanga wriggled free on the edge of the Sporting area but his low drive was expertly saved by Stefan Cleveland down low to his right. Son Heung-Min then tested Cleveland from distance with a free kick in first-half stoppage time but the Sporting ‘keeper was again equal to the attempt.
LAFC came out flying to start the second half and reduced the deficit in the 48th minute when Bouanga tucked home from halftime substitute Jacob Shaffelburg’s low cross. The visitors continued pouring forward and almost equalized when the ball squirmed through to Marky Delgado through on goal but Cleveland produced a brilliant save with his left boot to keep Sporting ahead.
At the other end, Calheira almost added to his tally for the night but saw his low drive from 12 yards excellently saved by Lloris in the LAFC net. In the 69th minute, Calheira sent Afrifa scampering toward goal but the Canadian forward skewed his effort wide under pressure.
Seconds later, Bouanga pounced on a mistake in the Sporting half to feed Mathieu Choiniere whose strike from distance was again repelled by Cleveland at full stretch.
Sporting restored the team’s two-goal cushion in the 71st minute through a composed strike from Homegrown product Bartlett. Ten minutes after coming into the game as a substitute, the Overland Park native settled the ball after Andre’s shot was deflected to the edge of the area and stroked a lovely finish into the bottom corner for his second of the season to make the score 3-1 and seal Sporting’s first win over LAFC since 2021.
Sporting is back at home next weekend when the team hosts Eastern Conference side the Philadelphia 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 be air on the radio on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM. Tickets are available via SeatGeek.
2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 24
Sporting Park | Kansas City, KS
Attendance: 15,738
Weather: 73 degrees and rainy
Score |
1 |
2 |
F |
Sporting Kansas City (5-16-3, 18 points) |
2 |
1 |
3 |
LAFC (11-8-7, 40 points) |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Sporting Kansas City: Stefan Cleveland; Justin Reynolds, Moises Mosquera, Wyatt Meyer, Emir Karic; Andre Luiz (Shapi Suleymanov 85’), Lasse Berg Johnsen (C), Kwaku Agyabeng (Jacob Bartlett 61’), Calvin Harris (Jayden Reid 87’); Taylor Calheira, Stephen Afrifa (Seymour Reid 85’)
Subs Not Used:Â John Pulskamp, Diego Borges, Alex Cunningham, Jansen Miller, Ruben Ramos Jr.
LAFC: Hugo Lloris (C); Sergi Palencia (Ryan Hollingshead 67’), Eddie Segura, Nkosi Tafari, Yevhen Cheberko (Jeremy Ebobisse 81’); Igor Jesus (Marky Delgado 46’), Jude Terry (Jacob Shaffelburg 46’), Mathieu Choiniere; Armindo Sieb (Tyler Boyd 67’), Son Heung-Min, Denis Bouanga
Subs Not Used: Cabral Carter, Aaron Long, Kenneth Nielsen, Ryan Raposo
Scoring Summary:
SKC – Andre Luiz 1 (Justin Reynolds 2, Moises Mosquera 1) 18’
SKC – Taylor Calheira 3 (Unassisted) 31’
LAFC – Denis Bouanga 13 (Jacob Shaffelburg 4, Son Heung-Min 12) 48’
SKC – Jacob Bartlett 2 (Unassisted) 71’
Misconduct Summary:
LAFC – Sergi Palencia (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 19’
SKC – Kwaku Agyabeng (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 44’
LAFC – Yevhen Cheberko (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 80’
SKC – Calvin Harris (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 82’
STAT |
SKC |
LAFC |
Shots |
19 |
20 |
Shots on Goal |
8 |
8 |
Expected Goals |
2.3 |
2.7 |
Corner Kicks |
6 |
13 |
Possession |
47.9% |
52.1% |
Saves |
7 |
5 |
Fouls |
6 |
9 |
Referee:Â Chris Penso
Assistant Referee:Â Logan Brown
Assistant Referee:Â Eduardo Jeff
Fourth Official:Â Atahan Yaya
VAR:Â Elijio Arreguin
AVAR:Â Jonathan Johnson
