Sporting Kansas City returns to the U.S. Open Cup final after defeating Indy Eleven
Sporting KC is back in the U.S. Open Cup final for the fifth time in club history and first time since 2017.
A 2-0 defeat of Indy Eleven of the USL Championship on Tuesday night gives Sporting KC an opportunity to be the first MLS team to five Open Cup wins, traveling to face the winner of Wednesday night’s semifinal between LAFC and the Seattle Sounders.
“Happy for the team, happy for the club, happy for the fans … and the staff, everybody,” manager Peter Vermes said. “Because I know the kind of work everybody puts in, and everybody wants to be successful. It’s hard. It’s never easy.”
The final will be played on September 25.
Thanks to thunderstorms in the area, the match started at 9:45 p.m. Central instead of the slated 7 p.m. kickoff. For Sporting KC and its fans, it was well worth the wait.
Johnny Russell started the party 14 minutes in with a swerving and dipping left-footed blast from outside the box. It was Russell’s fifth career Open Cup goal.
Russell has mentioned many times over the years how much he wanted to help the team return to final and win a trophy.
“You don’t get a chance to be in finals a lot,” Russell said. “I’ve been here for a while now; this is the first one. So I spoke to the guys (about how) we have to do everything in our power to make sure that this isn’t an upset, that we have to get ourselves to a final. And I thought the performance was deserving of that.”
Dany Rosero gave Sporting its breathing room and doubled the lead 20 minutes after Russell’s goal, scoring his second goal of the 2024 U.S. Open Cup. It came on a wide-open header at the back post, assisted by a perfectly placed cross from Remi Walter.
The Eleven tried to give their traveling supporters section something to cheer on in the second half, coming close a few times. That included a dangerous volley Sporting’s Tim Melia expertly saved to keep the match scoreless in the 80th minute. Melia made five saves on the night.
“We truly were pushing for a third one in the second half,” Vermes said. “We talked about it, probably gave up a couple of chances that we wouldn’t have wanted to, but Timmy came up big.”
Sporting could have stretched the scoreline to 3-0 in the dying minutes of stoppage time, but Indy Eleven goalkeeper Hunter Sulte saved Alan Pulido’s penalty kick attempt.
Nevertheless, the final whistle blew moments later.
Sporting joins D.C. United, the Chicago Fire and the Seattle Sounders as the only MLS teams to reach five or more U.S. Open Cup finals. The club reached the championship final in 2004 as the Kansas City Wizards and again in 2012, 2015, and 2017 as Sporting KC.
Sporting has won the final each time.
Sporting had no shot at hosting the final after drawing fourth hosting priority, but a win for LAFC on Wednesday would give Sporting KC an automatic berth in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions League.
Even so, Russell says he has no preference of opponent.
“Both are going to be extremely difficult in their ways, but it’s exciting,” Russell said. “We get to go into someone’s home ground and hopefully cause an upset and cause a lot of unhappy memories for a few people.”
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 11:59 PM.