Major League Soccer announced today the MLS Team of the Matchday presented by Audi for Matchday 17 of the regular season with Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp and forward Dejan Joveljic -- the highest-rated players in HOUvSKC by Opta -- honored as two of the top 11 players in the league after the team's 3-1 road win on Saturday.
Pulskamp, the only player to start every match for SKC in 2025, recorded a career-high eight saves in the victory as the 24-year-old became the first KC goalkeeper with eight saves in an MLS regular season match since Tim Melia on Aug. 25, 2018.
"He's developing, not just into a big save goalkeeper, but a goalkeeper that produces consistently week in and week out," Sporting KC interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin said in Saturday's postgame press conference. "It shows his maturity as a goalkeeper, but he deserves it. He works incredibly hard for what he's been able to produce on the field."
Joveljic led Sporting's comeback from 1-0 down to 2-1 up with a pair of goals on each side of halftime in Houston. The Serbian striker now has 50 goals in his MLS career, including goals in three straight games -- the longest active scoring streak in the league -- to move up to eighth in the golden boot race with nine goals in 15 appearances this season.
The Designated Player is the first SKC player to score nine regular season goals in his debut season with the club since Johnny Russell (10 goals in 30 appearances in 2018) and he is currently one of only four MLS players with 10 goal contributions in each of the past four seasons (2022-2025).
"From day one, he's been really an incredible worker. He's calm, he's collective, he's deadly, he's persistent and...he has certainly found his rhythm," Zavagnin said. "We know he has scored many goals in this league before and he's doing it once again. I'm happy for him and we're all happy that he's on our team."
Unbeaten in four straight matches, Sporting Kansas City will next face LAFC at 8 p.m. CT on Sunday at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The rematch of last year's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final will be available to watch on Apple TV with an MLS Season Pass subscription and pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network will also show all of the action.
