Sporting KC found inspiration for its epic Open Cup victory from Chiefs’ Mahomes, Kelce
For the first 59 minutes of their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match on Tuesday night, it appeared Sporting Kansas City might be knocked out in the tournament’s round of 32.
But Nikola Vujnović’s hustle goal in the 60th minute energized the fans at Children’s Mercy Park. Sporting Kansas City rallied to tie the game late in regulation and then won 4-2 after extra time.
In a story for The Blue Testament, Robert Rusert wrote: “The smaller crowd, spurred on by Sporting’s play and a spirited dance from the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce during the cooling break, was pushing their side on.”
Alas, there’s no video of Kelce’s dance, but a pair of Sporting players acknowledged the boost from Kelce and teammate Patrick Mahomes.
Forward Khiry Shelton who scored the final goal of the game, told reporters the Chiefs stars are regulars at Children’s Mercy Park and it’s a big help to his team.
“Yeah, I mean, it definitely helps that they were there,” Shelton told reporters. “A lot of people don’t really know that they come to our games. So the crowd started going crazy. And then we’re on the field, chatting to one another like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go. It’s for us. This game’s for us.’ Yeah, it was it was perfect.”
Forward Dániel Sallói wrote on Twitter that the game turned after fans saw the Chiefs stars.
“the momentum really changed when they showed @PatrickMahomes and @tkelce on the big screen,” he tweeted.
Fans at the game confirmed what Sallói had shared on the social media channel.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
