Recap: Sporting KC suffers defeat at Chicago Fire

Sporting Kansas City (1-7-1, 4 pts.) suffered a 5-0 defeat against the Chicago Fire (5-2-2, 17 pts.) at Soldier Field on Saturday night with all five goals coming in the second half for the hosts.

On his return to the club that he coached from 2020-2021, head coach Raphael Wicky made four changes to the lineup from last Friday’s setback in Vancouver as Lasse Berg Johnsen, Jake Davis, Ian James and Jansen Miller were all restored in place of Diego Borges and Justin Reynolds – who both missed the match through injury – while Jacob Bartlett and Cielo Tschantret moved to the bench.

Sporting enjoyed a strong start and almost took the lead in the eighth minute when Calvin Harris struck the outside of the post from just inside the area after enterprising work up the left wing from Capita Capemba and Dejan Joveljic.

After a first half mostly devoid of goalmouth action, the Fire earned a penalty kick early in the second period when Ian James was penalized for handball while blocking Andrew Gutman’s strike inside the area. John Pulskamp dove to his right to deny Chicago top scorer Hugo Cuypers’ penalty kick – his second penalty stop of the season – but Philip Zinckernagel followed up to bundle the ball into the back of the net and give the home side a 1-0 lead in the 51^st minute.

Sporting looked to respond and almost found an equalizer in the 62^nd minute when Manu Garcia spung Capita in behind the Chicago backline but the Angolan’s finish went wide of the near post under intense pressure from Jack Elliott.

Instead it was the hosts that doubled the lead in the 65^th minute when Zinckernagel added his second of the night, slotting into the corner after some intricate build-up on the edge of the area.

With Sporting pushing forward looking for a way back into the game, the Fire scored a quickfire double on the counterattack as first Cuypers tallied to make it 3-0 in the 73^rd minute before Maren Haile-Selassie added a fourth in the 79^th minute. Cuypers added his eighth goal of the season off a corner kick with the final kick of the game in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time to seal the result.

Sporting returns home next weekend when the team hosts perennial Western Conference power the Seattle Sounders at Sporting Park on Saturday, May 2. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. CT on Apple TV, while the game will be air on the radio on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM. Tickets are available via SeatGeek.com.

2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 9
Soldier Field | Chicago, IL
Attendance: 17,892
Weather: 46 degrees and cloudy

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Ian James (Wyatt Meyer 74’), Ethan Bartlow, Jansen Miller; Jake Davis, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Manu Garcia, Kwaku Agyabeng; Calvin Harris (Stephen Afrifa 75’), Dejan Joveljic (C), Capita Capemba (Jacob Bartlett 86’)

Subs Not Used: Stefan Cleveland, Jack Kortkamp, Jayden Reid, Cielo Tschantret, Taylor Calheira, Shapi Suleymanov

Chicago Fire: Chris Brady; Jonathan Dean, Joel Waterman, Jack Elliott (C), Andrew Gutman (Victor Radojevic 84’); Dje D’Avilla (Mauricio Pineda 84’), Anton Saletros (Sergio Oregel Jr. 76’), Maren Haile-Selassie; Philip Zinckernagel (Jason Shokalook 76’), Hugo Cuypers, Puso Dithejane (Robin Lod 61’)

Subs Not Used: Josh Cohen, Dylan Borso, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, David Poreba

Scoring Summary:
CHI – Philip Zinckernagel 3 (Unassisted) 51’
CHI – Philip Zinckernagel 4 (Maren Haile-Selassie 1, Robin Lod 2) 65’
CHI – Hugo Cuypers 7 (Philip Zinckernagel 3, Maren Haile-Selassie 2) 73’
CHI – Maren Haile-Selassie 2 (Andrew Gutman 2, Jason Shokalook 1) 79’
CHI – Hugo Cuypers 8 (Jack Elliott 2, Maren Haile-Selassie 3) 98+

Misconduct Summary:
CHI – Andrew Gutman (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 10’

Referee: Brandon Stevis
Assistant Referee: Ian McKay
Assistant Referee: Tyler Wyrostek
Fourth Official: Sergii Boiko
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
AVAR: Fabio Tovar