Sporting Kansas City has celebrated its first win of the season after the coaching change – thanks to a former Frankfurt player. Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting helped his team to victory.
Third goal of the season for Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting. The former Bayern Munich striker scored the final goal from the penalty spot seconds before half-time to give New York Red Bulls a 2-1 home win over Chicago Fire. In the clash between the two coaches, Sandro Schwarz and former US national coach Gregg Berhalter, the home side climbed to eighth place with their third win of the season, which is not unimportant for the playoffs, and are now level on points with their opponents.
Schwarz also put former Leipzig player Emil Forsberg in the starting lineup alongside Choupo-Moting, while former Mainz player Alexander Hack did not get a chance.
Kansas City: Successful start to a new chapter
After what was probably the most turbulent week in the club’s history, Sporting Kansas City opened the era after parting ways with long-time coach Peter Vermes with an emotional 2-0 home win over neighbors St. Louis City SC. Winter signing Dejan Joveljic, who once played for Eintracht Frankfurt, scored both goals in front of 18,116 noisy fans at Children’s Mercy Park. These were his third and fourth goals of the season since joining.
Interim coach Kerry Zavagnin thus gave Sporting their first win of the season and ended a 13-game losing streak that goes back to September 2024. “They didn’t want to give up,“ Zavagnin said after the game. ‘For the first time in a long time, I heard at halftime, ’We’re not going to lose tonight.’”
Zavagnin put former Stuttgart player Erik Tommy on as a substitute, while Tim Leibold had to sit out the entire game on the bench. St. Louis (2/2/3, tenth in the Western Conference) shared this fate with Timo Baumgartl, while Marcel Hartel, Klauss and Joakim Nilsson, who are well known in German professional football, were in the starting lineup. Cedric Teuchert was substituted.
Montreal lost despite Owusu goal
Former Fürth player Timothy Tillman, who came off the bench for Los Angeles FC in their 1-0 defeat at Houston Dynamo FC, and Prince-Osei Owusu were among the losers in the MLS this Saturday. The former second and third division striker (Regensburg, Aue, Paderborn, Bielefeld, 1860) scored the goal that brought Montreal Foot back to 2-1 at Columbus Crew.
