Sporting Kansas City suffered a 3-0 loss on the street at the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday to open the 2026 MLS common season marketing campaign.
In the group’s first match below head coach Raphael Wicky, six gamers made their debuts for the membership as Sporting Kansas City fielded a youthful lineup in which all 11 of the group’s starters have been 28 years of age or youthful for the primary time in an MLS match in 31 seasons. That group included 17-year-old middle again Ian James, who grew to become the youngest participant to start out an MLS common season opener for Sporting Kansas City in membership historical past.
Kicking off the season with the group’s earliest ever MLS match, Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp recorded three saves on the night time together with an outstanding cease in the 14th minute to push Ousseni Bouda’s try over the crossbar.
In the forty second minute, Pulskamp did properly to maintain out Preston Judd’s snapped header nevertheless Daniel Munie pounced on the rebound to present the Earthquakes a 1-0 lead late in the primary half. The hosts would then double their benefit on the cusp of halftime as Preston Judd struck in the primary minute of stoppage time on assists from Jamar Ricketts and Niko Tsakiris.
Sporting Kansas City’s greatest scoring likelihood of the night time got here in the forty ninth minute as Shapi Suleymanov related with a cross from Jayden Reid and his header fell to Calvin Harris at the sting of the six-yard field. Harris fired low to the close to put up nevertheless San Jose goalkeeper Daniel dove all the way down to his proper to disclaim Harris a aim on his debut.
The Earthquakes stretched the result in 3-0 5 minutes later as Munie scored his second of the night time, this time with a well-placed header off the far put up, to double his profession aim scoring output.
Sporting would come near pulling a aim again in the 73rd minute as Dejan Joveljic let unfastened a shot from simply contained in the penalty space that narrowly missed the goal with Daniel frozen in his spot.
Sporting will return house to host the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Sporting Park in the group’s extremely anticipated house opener. Tickets can be found online at SeatGeek, together with the Blue Hell Pack that enables followers to safe seats to attend three of essentially the most thrilling house video games of the season.
2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 1
PayPal Park | San Jose, California
Attendance: 16,367
Weather: 50 levels and principally clear
Sporting Kansas City 0-3 San Jose Earthquakes
|
Score |
1 |
2 |
F |
|
Sporting Kansas City (0-1-0, 0 factors) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
San Jose Earthquakes (1-0-0, 3 factors) |
2 |
1 |
3 |
Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Justin Reynolds (Kwaku Agyabeng 38′), Ian James, Wyatt Meyer, Jayden Reid; Jacob Bartlett, Manu Garcia, Jake Davis; Shapi Suleymanov (Jansen Miller 68′), Dejan Joveljic (c), Calvin Harris (Taylor Calheira 90+1′)
Subs Not Used: Stefan Cleveland, Ethan Bartlow, Shane Donovan, Zamir Loyo Reynaga, Cielo Tschantret
San Jose Earthquakes: Daniel; Benji Kikanovic, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, DeJuan Jones (Vitor Costa 71′); Beau Leroux (Jonathan Gonzalez 83′), Ronaldo Vieira (c) (Ian Harkes 66′), Ousseni Bouda, Niko Tsakiris, Jamar Ricketts (Paul Marie 83′); Preston Judd (Jack Skahan 71′)
Subs Not Used: Dave Romney, Nick Fernandez, Francesco Montali, Nonso Adimabua
Scoring Summary:
SJ – Daniel Munie 1 (unassisted) 42′
SJ – Preston Judd 1 (Jamar Ricketts 1, Niko Tsakiris 1) 45+1′
SJ – Daniel Munie 2 (Beau Leroux 1, Reid Roberts 1) 54′
Misconduct Summary:
SJ – Daniel Munie (yellow card; reckless foul) 36′
Referee: Alexis Da Silva
Assistant Referee: Chris Wattam
Assistant Referee: Jeffrey Swartzel
Fourth Official: Elijio Arreguin
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
AVAR: Robert Schaap