Sporting Kansas City lost 3-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes on April 12 at Sporting Park, as San Jose moved into a share of the Supporters’ Shield lead. The match saw Sporting field one of its youngest lineups in club history and featured a first professional goal for midfielder Jacob Bartlett.
The result matters as it extends Sporting’s winless streak at home to seven straight regular season games, setting a new club record. San Jose’s victory also solidifies their strong start to the season with six wins from seven matches.
Bartlett, a product of the Sporting Kansas City Academy and native of Overland Park, Kansas, put his team ahead in the first half with an assist from Dejan Joveljic. This made Bartlett the youngest player to score for Sporting in Major League Soccer since March 2024 and the first local player to do so since June 2022. However, Jack Skahan equalized for San Jose just before halftime and then scored again early in the second half for his first multi-goal game in MLS. Dave Romney added a third goal for San Jose with fifteen minutes left.
Sporting gave starts or debuts to several young players including Brazilian centerback Diego Borges and Angolan forward Capita Capemba. Capemba nearly scored after coming off the bench but missed his chance over the crossbar.
San Jose goalkeeper Daniel helped secure all three points by making key saves late in the match. Attendance was recorded at 16,921 on a partly cloudy evening with temperatures around 75 degrees.
Looking ahead, Sporting will try to end their home drought when they face Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC on Tuesday in U.S. Open Cup action.
