Sporting KC beats St. Louis City 2-0, ends record skid in debut of interim manager Kerry Zavagnin

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Dejan Joveljic scored twice in the second half to help Sporting Kansas City end a club-record 13-match winless streak across all competitions with a 2-0 victory over St. Louis City at Children's Mercy Park on Saturday night, winning in the debut of interim manager Kerry Zavagnin.

Neither team scored until Joveljic used assists from Manu Garcia and Nemanja Radoja to find the net in the 71st minute. Joveljic added some insurance when he scored unassisted off a carom in the 88th. It was his fourth goal in his first season with Sporting KC (1-5-1) after scoring 19 times for the MLS Cup-champion Los Angeles Galaxy last season.

It was Garcia's second assist in his seventh career appearance and the first of the season for Radoja, who had seven in his first two seasons with the club.

John Pulskamp had four saves in his first clean sheet this season for Sporting KC. He has seven shutouts in 35 career starts with the club.

Ben Lundt saved three shots for St. Louis City (2-3-2) in his seventh career start.

It was the 1,100th match in club history for Sporting KC and the first under Zavagnin, who played for the team from 2000-08 before becoming an assistant coach from 2009-2025. Peter Vermes was let go as the longest tenured manager in the league after 17 seasons.

St. Louis City conceded as many goals as it had through the first six matches in the loss. The club had clean sheets in its first four matches but has now lost three straight by 1-0 scores and gone scoreless for 345 minutes under first-year manager Olof Mellberg.

Sporting KC ended a six-match streak of allowing multiple goals in winning for the first time since September, while improving to 6-0-1 all time on April 5.

St. Louis City will host the Columbus Crew on Sunday. Sporting KC hosts the Portland Timbers on Sunday.

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