Interim sporty head coach Kerry Zavagnin of Kansas City believes that the performances of his team are improving, despite the fact that he was slipping to an eighth defeat of the season of the previous time -out.
The stunning overhead kick from Santiago Moreno was the difference, because the Portland Timbers ran 1-0 winners against Sporting KC in Providence Park in the weekend.
Sporting has indeed admitted 13 goals from the first half this season, the second most in MLS this campaign, behind only the Chicago Fire (15).
And prior to the recording of colleague thrusters St. Louis City, Zavagnin said that the prizes of his team's displays, despite their losses, was not that he was a “cheerleader”, but a search to bring some faith into his team.
“I think we started a bit slowly. They threw us a lot at us and practiced a lot of pressure on us, but that is to be expected when you come to play Portland at their house,” said Zavagnin. “I thought they scored a fantastic goal – an excellent goal.
“Then we stabilized and made our own opportunities. In the course of the game, I think it was a relatively even, back and weather game. We started the second half extremely good, and I thought we would get a goal in the first 15 minutes.
“There are many positives. I know it is not easy to digest when you lose a game, but our versions have stabilized in recent weeks, and we do a lot of good things in the game. That is not a cheerleader, that looks at it from a realistic perspective.”
Final.#Sportingkc | @Michelobultra pic.twitter.com/M7F2G8VWM
– Sporting Kansas City (@sportingkc) 11 May 2025
In the meantime, St. Louis saw their profit-free run in the MLS after they were beaten by San Diego FC in the previous time out with 2-1, leaving them in the Western Conference for 13th.
Head coach Olof Mellberg was forced into three changes around 70 minutes, where Joao Klauss, Tomas Ostrak and Jannes Horn were all replaced in succession.
After the game, Mellberg claimed that the only reason he made those replacements was due to a lack of fitness among those players, something he said he had to improve.
“It was a shame because [the substituted players] Got tired. They asked to be removed, “explained Mellberg.” We really have to work on that fitness to keep the boys longer who are doing well.
“Similar to the last game in Seattle, where we also took Tomas [Ostrak] He had a good game.
“A bit of a shame to make changes at that moment because we looked good and we are already short.
“So I don't want any of the boys who have gone up. It is never good to make so many changes during a season, and we have a number of boys who have played in five different positions.”
Players to watch
St. Louis – Joao Klauss
Although Klauss was one of the players who wanted to see Mellberg improve their condition, the Brazilian cannot be denied in the last third part.
Against San Diego he had joint team-high totals for Schoten (four), touches in the opposition box (five) and created opportunities (two).
Sporting Kansas – Dejan Joveljic
After starting the season in good shape, Joveljic is without a goal in his last four MLS performances, but he does have a good record against St. Louis.
He has three goals in five trips against them, but he has just won one of his matches against this week's opponents (D3 L1).
Match forecast: st. Louis win
This will be the 10th encounter of all time between St. Louis and Sporting Kansas. The only victory in the first nine meetings was a 4-1 victory for Sport in St. Louis in the Play-Offs of 2023.
But both parties are in poor form. St. Louis is Winless in eight consecutive regular season matches (D2 L6), the second longest Windless Run in the competition match in club history (nine consecutive in 2024).
In the meantime, Sporting Kansas has lost 18 of their last 21 from matches in all matches that goes back to last May (W2 D1), including dropping 10 of their last 11 on the road.
Opta wins probability
St. Louis – 51.5%
Drawing – 24.7%
Sporting Kansas – 23.8%