Meet the Unbowed Open Cup Final ‘Underdogs’ of Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Kansas City – mired in a challenging year in MLS – have never lost an Open Cup Final and hope to keep up the record against high-flyers LAFC in our 2024 Decider.
Kansas City’s locker room isn’t overflowing with star-power.
Up against the box-office showstoppers of LAFC, Sporting Kansas City suffer via side-by-side comparison. There are no World Cup winners in KC Blue. It’s been over a decade since the club lifted an MLS title. And they’re approaching seven years since they put up their last Open Cup, memories fading of hero-captain Matt Besler painting the wall at Children’s Mercy Park in 2017.
And it’s no secret that SKC’s 2024 MLS playoff hopes are fading fast. But that’s all on paper.
“Anything can happen,” insisted captain Johnny Russell in defiance, speaking the truth of the underdog’s chances on any given day. “It’s what makes the Cup so special.” Erik Thommy, KC’s outstanding winger, added to his captain’s remarks with a smile “We’re the underdog and that’s OK.
“We like it that way,” the German-born Thommy went on, in a conversation with usopencup.com, a hint of warning in his voice. “It’s just one game and no one knows what can happen.”
Those words, simple and true and proven year after year, are the very essence of the Open Cup.
Underdog Edge & Open Cup Final Invincibles
Sporting KC, founded in MLS’ inaugural year of 1996 as the Kansas City Wiz, have three things going for them:
- Peter Vermes’ locker room is packed with gamers who’ve struggled through a miserable year in MLS play – and they’re hungry to prove their worth.
- The kind of useful desperation that comes when there’s no tomorrow.
- A proud history in Finals few clubs can match
Goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen was the Man of the Match when SKC beat the Sounders in the 2012 Open Cup Final
Let’s put a toe into that SKC history, shall we? Since winning a first MLS Cup final 24 years ago, Sporting Kansas City (variously known as the Wiz and the Wizards) have contested seven all-or-nothing deciders (three MLS Cups and four Open Cups).
They’ve lost precisely one of those, a 2-3 decision in 2004 to D.C. United in that year’s MLS Cup in Carson, California. That same year, however, led by former USMNT heroes Tony Meola and Jimmy Conrad, they lifted their first Open Cup – only just missing out on an historic League-Cup Double.
Kansas City celebrate their first Open Cup crown in 2004 with the historic Dewar Cup (the original Open Cup trophy)
It should be noted that SKC have never, ever lost an Open Cup Final. Played at home, or away – as in 2015 in Chester, Pennsylvania against the Philadelphia Union – the Kansans have never failed to lift American soccer’s oldest prize once earning a seat at the Final table.
It’s a fact that might concern LAFC, a young wonder-club built on merciless ambition but who’ve lost two of the one-off finals they’ve contested in the last two years (2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup) after winning the 2022 MLS title at home in some style.
Making Open Cup Lemonade out of 2024 Lemons
“This year you can feel how important it is,” said William Agada, the Nigeria-born KC dynamo, still with bitter memories of the ignominious loss to Division II Sacramento Republic in the 2022 Open Cup Semifinal. “The boys are stepping up. We’re excited about the Final. It’s big-time, man!”
This is a one-off game, like every game in the Open Cup, and that’s an arena where Sporting Kansas City thrive historically. It’s also where Coach Vermes, 15 years in the job, and a former hard-battling legend of the USMNT, can get about the business of motivating his troops.
“It's been a battle, and we’ve had some tough games along the way, but we've managed to get ourselves here,” said Russell, the skipper who, despite being a pro for closing in on two decades, has yet to lift a trophy. “Opportunities to win trophies don't come around often. You have to do everything you can when that opportunity arises.”
It’s not lost on Sporting KC’s players that, should they keep their winning streak in Open Cup Finals alive, they’d become the first MLS team to lift the most historic prize in American soccer for a fifth time.
“We all do this to win trophies,” added Thommy, no stranger to Cup Magic having helped upset FC Kaiserslautern with Fortuna Düsseldorf in the 2020 German Cup (DFB-Pokal) before being upset in turn by Cinderella side 1. FC Saarbrücken in that same year’s Quarterfinal. “You put everything in and maybe you need a little luck. You have to run a few meters more all the time – to push yourself.
“We have the opportunity to turn our season around a little bit,” added Thommy, addressing the elephant in the room: SKC’s difficult year in league play where they’ve earned 28 points from 29 games and sit well outside of the playoff positions. “It’s not been the best season, obviously, but this is a chance for us to make something out of it.”
Opportunity on the Big Stage
“We’re always humble. But it doesn’t matter if we’re at the top of the league or the bottom of the league. On this day, we have the chance to go out and show what we have,” added Agada, who, like Thommy, knows the pride of Cup Glory, having lifted the Toto Cup in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv as a teenager. “We’re ready to go.”
A hungry opponent, playing for a trophy, a shining example that this season of suffering wasn’t just wasted time and effort – this is what LAFC will face at home on September 25th (LIVE and FREE on APPLE TV). It’s a dangerous prospect for the home side, no matter how much star-power they possess.
There’s one more thing Sporting KC are fighting for. Professional Pride. And it matters.
All for one and one for all is the ethos in the Sporting Kansas City locker room ahead of the 2024 Open Cup Final
“I’m here because I want to win something. I said it when I arrived at the club,” said Thommy, who knows SKC’s last trophy – the 2017 Open Cup – is a fair way in the past. “Right now we have the chance to take the trophy home to Kansas City. It’s been a long time since that happened. It means a lot for the club and the entire city.”
William Agada, all smiles off the pitch but a tough customer on it, has the final word before the 109th Open Cup Final.
“Being a part of bringing a trophy, and some glory, back to Kansas City would mean everything,” he said, his smile turning serious. “We’re ready to go. It would be amazing to win it and that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Fontela is editor-in-chief of usopencup.com. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.