André Luiz dazzles, but Sporting KC collapses in stunning 4-3 loss to Union

Sporting KC forward André Luiz enjoyed a playful moment with the supporters’ section after scoring his first goal against Philadelphia.

For 45 minutes Saturday night, Sporting Kansas City looked like the team its new Designated Player was bought to build. The second half told the other part of the story, how far the team has to go in its rebuilding.

André Luiz scored twice in the opening 10 minutes. Wyatt Meyer headed in a third, and Sporting led the Philadelphia Union 3-0 less than halfway into the first half. A shocking reversal of events saw the visitors scored four times between the 64th and 73rd minutes to win 4-3, dropping the jaws and sinking the hearts of the KC faithful hoping for better days.

The loss dropped Sporting to 5-17-3 with 18 points through 25 games, 11 points behind 14th place Minnesota in the Western Conference. Philadelphia improved to 10-10-6 and stretched its unbeaten run to 11 games.

“When we conceded the first goal, the team just crumbled,” head coach Raphael Wicky said. “That is obviously unacceptable.”

André Luiz sent Philadelphia defender Nathan Harriel the wrong way as he blow past on his way to the goal.

A different kind of player

André had a hand in all three Sporting goals. It was only his second home start since the club made him a Designated Player with a record transfer fee. In his first start, last week’s 3-1 win over LAFC, he scored his maiden MLS goal.

Philadelphia had not allowed a goal in 286 minutes, the best current run in the league. André needed six minutes to end it. Lasse Berg Johnsen got him the ball at midfield, and the lanky Brazilian did the rest. He swiveled past Jovan Lukic, then juked Nathan Harriel in the corner, then drove a low left-footed shot past Andre Blake from a tight angle on the right.

His second goal came in the 10th minute. Calvin Harris carried the ball up the left side and found André, whose left-footed shot from 20 yards bent low inside the post.

In the 15th minute, Stephen Afrifa timed André’s run and got him the ball behind the Philly defense. Blake got a hand to the low shot and pushed it wide. Emir Karić sent in the resulting corner, and Meyer headed it into the net, his first goal with Sporting and first since a 2025 US Open Cup goal with Nashville.

André finished with two goals on four shots. He now has three goals in two home starts, and more importantly makes Kansas City look like a threat on offense.

Tempers flare

André also became a target. In the 36th minute, he took an apparent shot to the jaw from Union left back Kai Wagner. The referee made no call, and VAR did not intervene. Justin Reynolds stepped in on his teammate’s behalf, and the crowd booed Wagner every time he touched the ball for the rest of the match. Minutes later, a Sporting player squared up with Union striker Bruno Damiani.

Kwaku Agyabeng drew a yellow card in the 45th minute on a call that looked questionable on replay. Wicky replaced him with Jacob Bartlett at halftime.

“I think the last 5-7 minutes of the first half, we had a few little fights on the field which are unnecessary in that moment in a 3-0 game,” Wicky said.

Nine minutes

Sporting held firm early in the second half. Stefan Cleveland made a diving save on Quinn Sullivan in the 47th minute. Blake stopped Afrifa from the center of the box in the 58th minute.

Sporting’s lead began to slip in the 64th minute. Damiani finished from the center of the box off a pass from Frankie Westfield.

Two minutes later, Cavan Sullivan punched in a cross from the right to make it 3-2. Milan Iloski tied the game in the 68th minute with a right-footed shot from the right side of the box.

Berg Johnsen, Sporting’s captain, took the blame. “I should do better on the third goal. I’m afraid to make a penalty. I let him in too soft and it’s 3-3,” Berg Johnsen said.

The comeback was complete in the 73rd minute. Pierre redirected a cross toward goal, and the ball caromed off Zorhan Bassong into the Sporting net. Bassong had entered the game two minutes earlier.

“We stopped wanting the ball,” Wicky said. He added that “in that spell of 8-10 minutes, we lost ourselves.”

Sporting’s best late chance came in the 81st minute, when Seymour Reid sent a shot over the bar. The Union outshot Sporting 11-10 and put seven shots on target to Sporting’s five, generating 2.3 expected goals to Sporting’s 1.4.

A long way to go

André can change a game by himself. The rest of the roster has not yet shown it can protect what he creates.

A win would have given Sporting consecutive home victories, something the club last managed in 2024. Instead, Sporting has five wins in 25 games and exactly half of Philadelphia’s point total. The Union fired their head coach during the World Cup break after a 1-10-4 start. They have not lost since.

Berg Johnsen did not soften his assessment.

“We break down. We are a bottom team. We get affected by the first goal. Everybody can see it,” he said.

He pointed to an earlier blown lead in Dallas. He said Sporting has scored plenty of goals lately with little to show for it.

“If you’re higher up the table, you have more confidence in those situations,” Berg Johnsen said.

He also offered an apology to the crowd, which came out for the club’s annual Kick Childhood Cancer night.

“I’m sorry to the fans that they have to sit through the second half watching that because that’s nowhere near our standard or where we want to be and we know that,” he said.

Wicky sounded stunned.

“Now we’re sitting here and I cannot believe what happened in the second half,” he said.