diff --git a/cmd/podman/kube/down.go b/cmd/podman/kube/down.go
index 6904df488b..b027454781 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/kube/down.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/kube/down.go
@@ -52,5 +52,5 @@ func down(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	return teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: downOptions.Force})
+	return teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: downOptions.Force}, false)
 }
diff --git a/cmd/podman/kube/play.go b/cmd/podman/kube/play.go
index e9c2c9234c..946eb29602 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/kube/play.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/kube/play.go
@@ -253,11 +253,11 @@ func play(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	}
 
 	if playOptions.Down {
-		return teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: playOptions.Force})
+		return teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: playOptions.Force}, false)
 	}
 
 	if playOptions.Replace {
-		if err := teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: playOptions.Force}); err != nil && !errorhandling.Contains(err, define.ErrNoSuchPod) {
+		if err := teardown(reader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: playOptions.Force}, false); err != nil && !errorhandling.Contains(err, define.ErrNoSuchPod) {
 			return err
 		}
 		if _, err := reader.Seek(0, 0); err != nil {
@@ -265,7 +265,19 @@ func play(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		}
 	}
 
-	return kubeplay(reader)
+	if err := kubeplay(reader); err != nil {
+		// teardown any containers, pods, and volumes that might have created before we hit the error
+		teardownReader, trErr := readerFromArg(args[0])
+		if trErr != nil {
+			return trErr
+		}
+		if tErr := teardown(teardownReader, entities.PlayKubeDownOptions{Force: true}, true); tErr != nil && !errorhandling.Contains(tErr, define.ErrNoSuchPod) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("error tearing down workloads %q after kube play error %q", tErr, err)
+		}
+		return err
+	}
+
+	return nil
 }
 
 func playKube(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
@@ -307,7 +319,7 @@ func readerFromArg(fileName string) (*bytes.Reader, error) {
 	return bytes.NewReader(data), nil
 }
 
-func teardown(body io.Reader, options entities.PlayKubeDownOptions) error {
+func teardown(body io.Reader, options entities.PlayKubeDownOptions, quiet bool) error {
 	var (
 		podStopErrors utils.OutputErrors
 		podRmErrors   utils.OutputErrors
@@ -319,9 +331,11 @@ func teardown(body io.Reader, options entities.PlayKubeDownOptions) error {
 	}
 
 	// Output stopped pods
-	fmt.Println("Pods stopped:")
+	if !quiet {
+		fmt.Println("Pods stopped:")
+	}
 	for _, stopped := range reports.StopReport {
-		if len(stopped.Errs) == 0 {
+		if len(stopped.Errs) == 0 && !quiet {
 			fmt.Println(stopped.Id)
 		} else {
 			podStopErrors = append(podStopErrors, stopped.Errs...)
@@ -334,9 +348,11 @@ func teardown(body io.Reader, options entities.PlayKubeDownOptions) error {
 	}
 
 	// Output rm'd pods
-	fmt.Println("Pods removed:")
+	if !quiet {
+		fmt.Println("Pods removed:")
+	}
 	for _, removed := range reports.RmReport {
-		if removed.Err == nil {
+		if removed.Err == nil && !quiet {
 			fmt.Println(removed.Id)
 		} else {
 			podRmErrors = append(podRmErrors, removed.Err)
@@ -349,9 +365,11 @@ func teardown(body io.Reader, options entities.PlayKubeDownOptions) error {
 	}
 
 	// Output rm'd volumes
-	fmt.Println("Volumes removed:")
+	if !quiet {
+		fmt.Println("Volumes removed:")
+	}
 	for _, removed := range reports.VolumeRmReport {
-		if removed.Err == nil {
+		if removed.Err == nil && !quiet {
 			fmt.Println(removed.Id)
 		} else {
 			volRmErrors = append(volRmErrors, removed.Err)
diff --git a/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go b/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
index 7aa3122a5c..f0f1fd6fc3 100644
--- a/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
@@ -4406,4 +4406,40 @@ cgroups="disabled"`), 0644)
 		kube.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
 		Expect(kube).Should(Exit(0))
 	})
+
+	It("podman kube play invalid yaml should clean up pod that was created before failure", func() {
+		podTemplate := `---
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+	creationTimestamp: "2022-08-02T04:05:53Z"
+	labels:
+	app: vol-test-3-pod
+	name: vol-test-3
+spec:
+	containers:
+	- command:
+	- sleep
+	- "1000"
+	image: non-existing-image
+	name: vol-test-3
+	securityContext:
+		capabilities:
+		drop:
+		- CAP_MKNOD
+		- CAP_NET_RAW
+		- CAP_AUDIT_WRITE
+`
+
+		// the image is incorrect so the kube play will fail, but it will clean up the pod that was created for it before the failure happened
+		kube := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"kube", "play", podTemplate})
+		kube.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(kube).To(ExitWithError())
+
+		ps := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"pod", "ps", "-q"})
+		ps.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(ps).Should(Exit(0))
+		Expect(ps.OutputToStringArray()).To(HaveLen(0))
+	})
+
 })