Sporting Kansas City v New England Revolution: Zavagnin encouraged by positive small steps

Sporting sit 13th in the Western Conference on 12 points, having made a huge improvement under Zavagnin's leadership since he took over from Peter Vermes.

They are winless in their last three matches, though, drawing the last two (L1) and struggling to carve out many openings in their 0-0 stalemate with San Diego FC last weekend.

Zavagnin acknowledged there are still improvements to make, but was overall delighted with how the team have settled in under his leadership.

"We have to be more dangerous around the goal. And we've proven that this year already - at times we can be extremely dangerous and effective, and efficient," he said.

"But we're building as a team. We're improving week by week. We're taking small steps at a time, but we're heading in a positive direction.

"That's encouraging, and we should feel good about it and the momentum we bring into the game at home [against New England]."

Prepping for Saturday. #SportingKC pic.twitter.com/2dnOiPLRaA

— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 22, 2025

New England, meanwhile, are 11th in the Eastern Conference, and are currently on a six-match unbeaten streak in MLS (W4 D2).

They have drawn their last two in the league and suffered disappointment in midweek as they were knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup after losing 3-1 to the Chicago Fire.

Head coach Caleb Porter was disappointed by that result, but did not want New England's heads to drop as they look to build on their recent MLS run.

"We're doing pretty well in the league," Porter said, as quoted by the Blazing Musket substack.

"We have 14 points out of the last 18. So, the [San Jose game] was disappointing for us to not take the three [points], but we're on a very good run right now, and we can't lose sight of that."

Sporting Kansas City attempted only two shots in its draw with San Diego FC on Saturday after taking no shots in a win over the LA Galaxy on May 4.

Shapi Suleymanov was responsible for both of those efforts. He only generated 0.05 expected goals (xG), but he tested the goalkeeper with one of those shots before hitting the woodwork with the other.

Carles Gil has scored in each of his last four regular-season away matches, the longest streak by a Revolution player since Gustavo Bou in 2021 (four straight).

The last Revs player to score in five straight regular-season away matches was Pat Noonan in September 2003-April 2004.

Next stop: KCMO. #SKCvNE pic.twitter.com/wbYM5ZxxPS

— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) May 22, 2025

Sporting Kansas City have lost only two of their last 14 home matches against New England, dating back to October 2008 (W9 D3), but one of those defeats came in the Revs' last visit to Kansas, a 2-1 win in June 2022.

Sporting KC have avoided defeat in five of their first eight regular-season matches under Kerry Zavagnin (W3 D2). Sporting have collected more points in their first eight matches under Zavagnin (11) than in their final 16 under Peter Vermes (nine).

New England, meanwhile, are unbeaten in six straight regular-season matches (W4 D2), their longest run since a seven-match stretch in May-June 2023. The Revs have kept clean sheets in five of those six matches, including a scoreless draw with San Jose on Saturday.

Sporting Kansas City – 38.9%

Draw – 26.5%