The top 20 moments in Sporting KC franchise history: Nos. 1-10

Major League Soccer will celebrate its 20th anniversary this season.

Sporting Kansas City’s franchise was one of the 10 charter clubs when Major League Soccer began play in 1996. In honor of the club’s 20th year in Kansas City, we’re counting down the top 20 moments in the city’s MLS soccer history. Click here for Nos. 11-20. Here are Nos. 1-10.

10. Preki wins second MVP ... at age 40

Only one player in Major League Soccer’s two-decade history has won the most valuable player award twice.

Preki.

The former Wizards star won the 1997 honor after scoring 12 goals and recording 17 assists. Following a one-year stint with the now-defunct Miami Fusion, Preki returned to the Wizards in 2002.

A year later, he won his second MVP award. He was 40 years old.

Preki retired after the 2005 season as the league’s all-time points leader with 79 goals and 112 assists. He supplied a fitting exit, too, when he scored in the final minute of his final game.

9. Wizards beat Manchester United

The largest soccer crowd in Kansas City history — 52,424 fans — watched English powerhouse Manchester United play an exhibition game against the Kansas City Wizards on July 25, 2010.

Energetic, loud, passionate. The fans produced a soccer scene unlike Kansas City had ever experienced — and they were treated to a 2-1 Wizards victory. As the upset turned from improbable to possible, even those dressed in Man U red began cheering for the underdog.

The crowd response led the club’s new ownership group to believe soccer had a bright future in Kansas City.

“The night was a dream come true,” owner Robb Heineman said after the match. “For us, it was about sending a message to our fans that the Wizards are something they can be proud of.”

8. Wizards shut out Chicago to win Open Cup

The 2004 Wizards weren’t exactly known for their offensive prowess, but they possessed the best defense in the league, a unit led by Jimmy Conrad.

And they used that stingy defense to win their first Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — a trophy named in their owner’s honor.

Igor Simutenkov provided the lone goal in a 1-0 victory against Chicago, which he scored on a free kick five minutes into overtime. Luckily for the Wizards, the tournament still implemented a golden-goal, sudden death victory.

It wasn’t all good news, though. The match at Arrowhead Stadium drew only 8,819 fans.

7. Sporting KC wins another Open Cup

Sporting Kansas City lifted its first major trophy since the re-brand when it ended Seattle’s three-year reign as the U.S. Open Cup champions.

The victory came in dramatic fashion on a stormy night on Aug. 8, 2012.

In the first Open Cup final to reach penalty kicks in 15 years, Sporting KC prevailed 3-2 in the shootout after the teams played to a 1-1 draw through extra time. Former Wizards forward Eddie Johnson skied a potential tying kick over the crossbar, clinching Sporting KC’s second Open Cup title.

The match at Sporting Park drew a crowd of 18,873, which sat through a 40-minute weather delay.

6. OnGoal purchases the franchise

A project to “Save the Wizards” started in 2004, not long after owner Lamar Hunt announced his intentions to sell the team. The group’s mission was to keep the franchise in Kansas City, though one of its primary members, David Ficklin, called it a “long-shot” proposition.

OnGoal turned that long shot into reality in Aug. 2006, when it announced the purchase of the franchise — along with plans to keep it in Kansas City.

The group consisted of Cerner co-founders Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, along with Greg Maday, Pat Curran and Robb Heineman, who met regularly with the Save the Wizards campaign group, backed by the Heart of America Soccer Foundation.

“It’s not the Heart of America that did it — Neal and Cliff saved the Wizards — but hopefully we kept that fire burning long enough to show them soccer could work in Kansas City,” said Greg Cotton, the group’s chairman.

5. The berth of the Wiz

Major League Soccer began its inaugural season in 1996 with 10 franchises. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt ensured one of the original members would call Kansas City home.

The Kansas City Wiz began play on April 13, 1996, with a 3-0 victory against Colorado at Arrowhead Stadium. And thus began the Major League Soccer era in Kansas City.

The inaugural team eventually reached the conference final, where it lost to the LA Galaxy.

The Wiz name lasted only one season. It was extended to the Wizards in 1997.

4. The summer of Matt and Graham

The franchise’s 2009 MLS SuperDraft class will go down as one of the best in club history. The then-Wizards drafted Matt Besler eighth overall and nabbed Graham Zusi with the 23rd pick.

Five years later, Zusi and Besler are fixtures of the United States men’s national team, and the best friends earned the chance to represent their country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. They each appeared in all four matches, with Zusi providing the game-winning assist in the World Cup opener against Ghana.

Back home in Kansas City, the matches drew nearly 10,000 fans to the Power & Light District for watch parties.

A month after the World Cup, Sporting KC locked up its two stars with identical designated-player contracts that will keep them in Kansas City through the 2018 season.

3. Sporting KC wins MLS Cup

Aurelien Collin was a well-known fixture with Sporting KC for a myriad of reasons. Scoring goals wasn’t one of them.

Until Dec. 7, 2013.

On a bitterly cold afternoon, Sporting KC outlasted Real Salt Lake in a league-record 10 rounds of penalty kicks to win the 2013 MLS Cup.

Collin not only scored the club’s lone goal in regulation, which ended with the score knotted at one, he was also converted the game-winning penalty kick after Real Salt Lake defender Lovel Palmer’s shot clanked off the crossbar.

Sporting KC won the penalty kicks 7-6.

“Nobody wants to see a game like that decided on penalty kicks,” Collin said after the match. “Except tonight.”

2. Wizards end city’s championship drought

Kansas City goalkeeper Tony Meola had a season to remember in 2000. It was only fitting he close it out in style, too.

The league’s regular-season MVP made 10 saves to lift the Kansas City Wizards to a 1-0 victory over Chicago in the 2000 MLS Cup Final. Meola was named the MVP of the match.

That not only marked the Wizards’ first championship in franchise history, it served as the first major-league title for Kansas City since the Royals’ World Series win in 1985.

Miklos Molnar scored the lone goal in the 11th minute. Nearly 40,000 fans attended the match at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Meola remains the only goalkeeper to win the MLS regular season MVP award.

1. The Kansas City Wizards become Sporting Kansas City

With fledgling attendance numbers and a shared home with the Kansas City T-Bones, the franchise unveiled a fresh start prior to the 2011 season.

A new name. And a new stadium.

The Kansas City Wizards were no more. In their place, the team re-branded to Sporting Kansas City, an announcement that occurred on the same day the team signed Mexican star Omar Bravo to a designated-player contract.

More important than the new name, the re-brand included arguably the most significant development in franchise history — a soccer-specific stadium.

Sporting KC moved into Sporting Park in the 2011 season, immediately becoming one of the most raucous home environments in the league. The team finished atop the Eastern Conference standings in its first season inside the new home.

Sporting Park was named the venue of the year in 2012 by TheStadiumBusiness Awards. It has played home to 53 consecutive MLS sellouts. It served as the site for the 2013 MLS All-Star Game. And it continues to draw the praise of its visitors.

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 3:13 PM with the headline "The top 20 moments in Sporting KC franchise history: Nos. 1-10."