Sporting Kansas City v San Diego FC: Varas aiming to instil ´no-regret´ mentality

Mikey Varas believes the integration of a “no-regret” mentality has contributed to San Diego FC’s meteoric rise after his team made it two MLS wins to start 2026.

After finishing top of the Western Conference in their debut season, San Diego beat St. Louis City SC 2-0 last time out to stay perfect and at the top of the league standings.

San Diego did, however, fall short of a shot at MLS Cup glory after losing the Conference final to the Vancouver Whitecaps, but are one of the favourites for the crown this year.

And Varas revealed that a specific focus on his team’s mentality has been key since he arrived at the club, and he intends to continue that moving forward this term.

“It’s a good start to the season,” Varas said. “That was a good St. Louis team. You could see they were well-coached and how much they had changed from last year.

“My prediction is that they will be a good team this season. We went against a team that we knew would challenge us, so it was about what mentality we had in our preparation.

“What we said is that we show up every day and make sure we have a no-regret mentality. We make sure to do everything possible to give us the best chance of winning games.

“When you do that over and over, you have chances to do this. Now the challenge is how you maintain that and progress it. This should only be the beginning for us.”

Exciting month for San Diego…

on sale: https://t.co/sJ1kEBq3Rs pic.twitter.com/bGu59gd8MD

— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) March 4, 2026

And San Diego will be confident of maintaining their perfect start to their league campaign this weekend, with winless Sporting Kansas City up next at Sporting Park.

Following their opening-day defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes, they drew 2-2 with the Columbus Crew, with Diego Rossi’s 82nd-minute goal sealing a share of the spoils.

John Pulskamp also saved a late penalty from Wessam Abou Ali, and new Sporting KC boss Raphael Wicky was pleased not to endure a losing home league debut.

“It has been fantastic, to be honest. It was my first home game as the head coach of Sporting Kansas City. It’s a really beautiful stadium. Great fans,” Wicky said.

“When I was the coach at Chicago Fire, I was there, that was in COVID. There was no one here, or 500 people. Really happy with the atmosphere.

“What I said as well [to] the team before the game is, our energy. We are the guys who have to transfer the energy to the fans.

“The fans are here showing up, great crowd, but our energy, we have to sparkle for those fans, and I think it’s amazing how the fans showed up.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Sporting Kansas – Dejan Joveljic

Dejan Joveljic scored both goals in Sporting KC’s draw with the Crew on Saturday, his fourth brace since joining the club ahead of last season.

The only other Sporting player to score multiple goals in a match since the start of last season was Daniel Salloi against the San Jose Earthquakes last April.

San Diego – Anders Dreyer

After a stellar 2025 season, Anders Dreyer has continued that fine form into this campaign, already registering three assists and one goal.

Along with Marcus Ingvartsen, the pair have recorded multiple goal contributions in San Diego’s first two matches this season, the first pair of team-mates in MLS history to do so.

Only Ante Razov (Chi – 1999) and Lucas Zelarayan (Clb – 2022) have multiple goal contributions in their first three matches of a season.

MATCH PREDICTION: SAN DIEGO WIN

San Diego collected four points in two meetings with Sporting KC last year, recording a home win and an away draw. They did not concede a goal in either of the two meetings.

Indeed, Varas’ side’s +7 goal difference after two matches is the second-best at this stage of a season in MLS history (Austin FC had +9 in 2022).

No team has posted a goal difference of better than +8 through three matches of a season (Chicago Fire in 1999, Atlanta United in 2017, Austin in 2022).

Sporting KC, meanwhile, have avoided defeat for just the third time in their last 13 matches (W1 D2 L10) with their 2-2 draw against Columbus. It also marked the first time they scored multiple times in a match since a 4-2 win over Colorado in August, as the club had totaled three goals in their previous seven games.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Sporting Kansas – 23.5%

Draw – 22.5%

San Diego – 54%