Sporting Kansas City is set to commence the club’s 2026 MLS season this weekend when the team travels to the Bay Area to face off against the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 9:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream on Apple TV, while the game will also be broadcast locally on the radio via Sports Radio 810 WHB.
1. SPORTING KICKS OFF 31st SEASON IN MLS
Sporting Kansas City will embark on their 31st Major League Soccer season this Saturday when the team heads to California to face off against the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park. Sporting is coming off a disappointing 2025 campaign that sparked major changes at the club, with 13 players departing under the leadership of new President of Soccer Operations & GM David Lee and new head coach Raphael Wicky.
Sporting KC has an excellent record in the opening weekend of a season - the team actually leads MLS with 15 season-opening wins all-time, posting a 15-10-5 record in Week 1. Over the previous 10 seasons, Sporting has gone 3-5-2 in season openers, beating Seattle (2016), Vancouver (2020) and the Red Bulls (2021), falling to NYCFC (2018), LAFC (2019), Atlanta (2022), Portland (2023) and Austin (2025) while also playing to a draws against D.C. (2017) and Houston (2024).
As many as nine newcomers could make their debuts this weekend, with only Norwegian midfielder Lasse Berg Johnsen still awaiting his P1 visa before he can appear.
2. OPENING IN SAN JOSE
Sporting Kansas City heads to the west coast this weekend to kick off the club’s 2026 season with a matchup against the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park on Saturday night.
On their last visit to the Bay Area, Sporting earned a wild 5-3 victory on April 19, 2025. After racing into a 3-0 lead behind goals from Logan Ndenbe, Daniel Salloi and Manu Garcia within the opening 25 minutes, the hosts reduced the lead to 3-2 by halftime. Sporting extended their lead in the second half through a second goal from Salloi and another strike from Erik Thommy before a late Earthquakes penalty made the final score 5-3.
Sporting hosted San Jose in the club’s 2025 MLS home opener on March 1, 2025 and fell to a frustrating 2-1 defeat. The visitors took a two-goal lead behind goals from star offseason arrivals Chicho Arango and Josef Martinez before Dejan Joveljic converted from the penalty spot for his first goal for Sporting to reduce the deficit before halftime.
Sporting leads the all-time regular-season series 33-27-10, including a 9-17-8 mark on the road.
3. DAVID LEE & RAPHAEL WICKY HEADLINE NEW ERA
Sporting Kansas City entered a new era this offseason following the hiring of David Lee as the club’s President of Soccer Operations & General Manager and Raphael Wicky as the team’s new head coach.
Lee, who arrived after a successful tenure at NYCFC from 2016-2025, serves as the club’s chief soccer officer and plays an executive leadership role in all areas of Sporting’s soccer enterprise, including first-team roster management, player recruitment, scouting, analytics, technical staff oversight and the continued development of Sporting KC II and the Sporting KC Academy.
In early January 2026, Sporting announced that Wicky has been named head coach. Wicky, the fifth permanent head coach in club history, oversees the Sporting KC first team and reports directly to Lee.
Wicky, 48, was most recently at the helm of Swiss giants BSC Young Boys from 2022-2024, guiding the Bern-based club to the 2022-23 Super League and Cup double in his native Switzerland. Under Wicky, Young Boys posted a 51-17-20 record in all competitions, scoring 193 goals – an average of 2.19 goals per game.
Wicky’s revamped coaching staff sees Edu Rubio and Dominic Kinnear arrive as assistant coaches, while Roger Espinoza and Ash Wallace return as assistants and Darrin MacLeod receives a promotion from SKC II as goalkeeper coach.
4. DPs GARCIA & JOVELJIC RETURN FOR SEASON TWO
Sporting Kansas City’s Designated Player duo Manu Garcia and Dejan Joveljic are readying for season two at the club after joining Sporting KC ahead of the 2025 campaign.
Despite a challenging first season in Sporting Blue, both Garcia and Joveljic showed their quality throughout the 2025 campaign. Garcia tallied two goals and nine assists in an injury-curtailed season, while Joveljic enjoyed a stunning first season with the club, finishing fifth in the Golden Boot rankings with 18 goals and tying Preki for the second most goals in a single regular season in club history - only trailing Dom Dwyer’s 22 from the 2014 season.
With Sporting yet to fill either a third DP spot or any of their U22 slots, the club has the ability to add up to four premium players to complement Garcia and Joveljic during the primary and secondary transfer windows this season.
5. THIRTEEN PLAYERS DEPART, TEN ARRIVE
Under the guidance of new President of Soccer Operations & GM David Lee, Sporting Kansas City overhauled much of the club’s roster heading into the 2026 campaign.
To date, 13 players have departed the club: defenders Andrew Brody, Joaquin Fernandez, Tim Leibold, Alan Montes, Logan Ndenbe, Khiry Shelton and Robert Voloder, midfielders Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez and Erik Thommy and forwards Santi Munoz, Daniel Salloi and Mason Toye.
Sporting has added 10 players during the offseason, filling in open roster spots with MLS experience and young players with high potential as the team continues to improve the squad throughout the primary transfer window.Â
- Nov. 14, 2025: SKC signs Cielo Tschantret (SKC II)
- Dec. 10, 2025: SKC acquires Stefan Cleveland in trade (Austin FC)
- Dec. 18, 2025: SKC signs Kwaku Agyabeng out of MLS SuperDraft (Clemson)
- Dec. 30, 2025: SKC acquires Justin Reynolds in trade (Chicago Fire)
- Jan. 15, 2026: SKC signs Calvin Harris as a free agent (Colorado Rapids)
- Feb. 3, 2026: SKC signs Wyatt Meyer (NSH) & Jayden Reid (STL) as free agents
- Feb. 18, 2026: SKC acquires Lasse Berg Johnsen in transfer (Malmö FF)
- Feb. 19, 2026: SKC acquires Taylor Calheira in transfer (FC Tulsa)
- Feb. 20, 2026: SKC signs Ethan Bartlow as free agent (Houston Dynamo)
