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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Reaches Open Cup Finals

August 28, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City punched a ticket to the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final with a convincing 2-0 victory over Indy Eleven in Tuesday's weather-delayed semifinal at Children's Mercy Park.

Captain Johnny Russell opened the scoring with a superb long-range strike in the 14th minute, Dany Rosero buried a powerful header in the 35th minute and goalkeeper Tim Melia had five saves to secure his club record-tying fifth career Open Cup shutout. Sporting has now prevailed in 16 straight Open Cup home matches since 2015 and reached the Open Cup Final for the fifth time in club history, having previously won the tournament title in 2004, 2012, 2015 and 2017.

The final of U.S. Soccer's national championship will see Sporting travel to face either Seattle Sounders FC or LAFC on Sept. 25. Seattle and LAFC will square off at 9:30 p.m. CT Wednesday in the tournament's second semifinal. The winner of the 2024 Open Cup will receive $300,000 in prize money and a berth in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.

Cementing their spot in next month's championship match, Sporting will have this weekend off before returning to MLS regular season action on Sept. 7 with a visit to the New York Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey. The cross-conference clash will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT and stream live on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

Three days removed from a 3-0 league win over Orlando City SC on Saturday, Sporting fielded a starting lineup against Indy that featured five fresh faces: Russell, Rosero, striker Alan Pulido, midfielder Remi Walter, and left back Logan Ndenbe, who earned his first start since tearing his ACL in the MLS Cup Playoffs on Nov. 5, 2023.

Undeterred by a two-hour, 32-minute weather delay that pushed kickoff to 9:44 p.m. CT, Sporting seized early momentum by dominating territory and possession against their USL Championship counterparts. Midfielder Erik Thommy was first to threaten in the 11th minute with a dipping strike from distance that beat Indy goalkeeper Hunter Sulte but rattled the crossbar.

However, Sporting found their deserved breakthrough three minutes later. Receiving a pass from Thommy, midfielder Jake Davis slithered centrally from the right side of the penalty area before laying the ball off to Russell 22 yards from goal. The Scottish winger made no mistake from there, brandishing a left-footed rocket that found the far left corner to make the score 1-0. Russell now has 67 career goals for Sporting in all competitions, tying Dom Dwyer for second most in club history, while his nine career goal contributions in the Open Cup (five goals, four assists) are also second most on Kansas City's all-time charts.

Shaken and stirred, Indy suffered a further setback shortly after Russell's goal as center back Callum Chapman-Page was forced to exit with an injury, summoning former Sporting defender James Musa as his replacement. His introduction came a few minutes before Thommy was once again denied by the woodwork, his swerving free kick kissing the inside of the left post.

The visitors seldom threatened in the first half but were afforded a major opportunity in the 27th minute when Logan Neidlinger's searching cross from the right wing skipped past Rosero and found Augi Williams, whose shot near the penalty spot was saved smartly by Melia. The chance preceded another good look for the hosts, with Daniel Salloi galloping free on the breakaway and teeing up Pulido for a blistering strike that was smothered by Sulte at the near post.

Rosero doubled Sporting's advantage in the 35th minute, moving into an advanced position and planting an emphatic header past Sulte after Walter clipped a delectable ball to the back stick. Rosero has now scored in consecutive Open Cup matches, having bagged the winner in a 2-1 extra-time win over FC Dallas on July 10, and each of his seven career goals for Sporting have been headers. Davis picked up a secondary assist on the play, giving him his first multi-assist game for Kansas City, and almost made the score 3-0 prior to halftime with a booming effort from 20 yards that fizzed narrowly wide.

Indy improved after the break as Melia became a busier man, palming aside a 25-yard turf-trimmer from Jack Blake in the 52nd minute. Blake was the focal point of his team's attack in the second half, dragging a shot marginally wide near the hour mark and seeing a pair of sweetly struck piledrivers snuffed out by an in-form Melia in the latter stages of the contest. Williams then went worryingly close to cutting the deficit in half with an 81st-minute attempt that smacked the near post from a tight angle.

Pulido made his 100th appearance for Sporting in all competitions on Tuesday and nearly punctuated the occasion with a goal, but his thumping shot on the right side of the area sailed high. The Mexican World Cup veteran then had a chance to add icing to the cake in second-half stoppage time when fellow forward William Agada was fouled in the box, but Sulte saved Pulido's penalty kick and the game ended 2-0 in favor of the hosts.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On reaching a final for the first time since 2017...

I'm happy for the team, happy for the club, happy for the fans, for the staff, everybody. I'm happy for them because I know the kind of work everybody puts in. I know everybody wants to be successful. It's hard, it's never easy. This was a challenging run up to this point for us just because we're playing a lot of teams where this is, and I don't mean this disrespectfully by any means, it's their World Cup final. They're hard teams to play. You see it all over the world how lower division teams beat higher division teams all the time. Obviously, the two teams that are in the other semifinal are top class. So it will be interesting to see who we have to play.

On the first half...

I think the first half was a very good half of soccer. We really gave the one chance away in the first half. Outside of that, we were very good. The goal that Johnny (Russell) scores, you need a moment of brilliance like that because it's a great goal from distance. What it does is it changes the perspective of the other team in that moment. That was an important goal at the time that it happened. To get the second one was big. We truly were pushing for a third one in the second half. We talked about it and probably gave up a couple of chances that we wouldn't have wanted to, but Tim (Melia) came up big.

On the team persevering...

I'm happy for those guys because of the commitment that they made to this and to continue to try and be successful. This was very important to us. We talked about it at the beginning of the year and the fact that we're here now is a good statement by the team. I think more and more, for them, it's more of an internal level of accomplishment, which is good. Just remember, we have got the next step, right? As I told the guys before the game, you don't have a chance to win a trophy if you don't get to the final. This game was everything. It was a final to us, so it was important.

Thoughts on the tournament...

I understand the so-called reasons behind it. I think that everybody wants to participate in this tournament. I believe we do. But I understand that some things also have to change about the tournament as well. I would say that that's accurate. I think the two go hand-in-hand. If there is progress within the tournament itself on all levels then I think that you'll see full participation at some point.

On the team's mentality...

There are a lot of guys in that locker room that haven't won a trophy in a professional team. This is an opportunity and you don't get a lot of them. So you better play with everything you have to make sure you get to the final and give yourself a chance to win a trophy. I thought the team played very well in the first half. I think we battled. Sometimes it's part of the game. Y ou're winning 2-0and you don't want to take a ton of chances. When the other team is now pushing everything forward and you have to be able to come up somewhere big and I think Tim (Melia) came up big at the end of the game.

On the tournament...

I think from a commercial perspective, the tournament has to get better. I just think there are certain things within the tournament that can be better. I think a lot of those have already been spoken about by a lot of different people. I would say there is a lot of agreement. But, I also think that this is a tournament that should be in our competition each year. Every other league in the world has it. Mind you, they put a lot of emphasis on it because there's also a lot more around that tournament. It's publicized differently. Ours is not and it needs to be. Unfortunately, that's a responsibility of U.S. Soccer. That has to take another level up.

Sporting KC captain Johnny Russell

On advancing to the final...

It's huge. You don't get a chance to be in finals a lot. I've been here for a while now and this is the first one we've gotten to. I spoke to the guys about howwe have to do everything in our power to make sure that this isn't an upset, that we have to get ourselves to the final. I thought the performance was deserving of that. I think in the second half, we maybe got a little bit nervous and sat off and allowed them a little bit more time on the ball. They started playing a bit more direct and causing us problems. We caused our own problems by not pressing them. But I think a lot of the work was done in the first half. We just had to see it out. We probably had to value the ball a little bit better in the second half than we did. But we've done what we had to do and now we've got a final to look forward to. We've got some tough games in the league before that. We know that we've got to take care of business there if we want to get ourselves back into the playoff hunt. It's exciting times. I'm buzzing to be back there and just to have an opportunity going there with these guys and hopefully win a trophy.

On the experience from the 2022 semifinal...

There are a lot of guys still here from that. And that one sucked. That was a horrible feeling. That was a horrible flight home. That one lingered for a while. We had chances in that game that we could have finished it off. We didn't. We allowed it to go to penalties and then anything can happen. That one definitely hurt. We've all been involved in these games. You know that everyone wants the underdog story, the upset. We couldn't allow that to happen tonight. We had to get ourselves there no matter the cost. I think we played extremely well in the first half with the way we moved the ball and the chances we created. They were solid in their shape so we had to hit a few from distance and could have had a couple more. But then in the second half, Tim (Melia) pulled some unbelievable saves as Timmy does. So he kept us in it there. He kept it a lot more comfortable than it could have been. All in all, a good night and another clean sheet as well. We just need to keep building on that.

On having a chance to play in the final...

This is my seventh season. This is the first opportunity that I've had to go in and add a little piece of history to this club. It's been such a prestigious team, winning trophies. We haven't done it for too long now, and now we've got an opportunity to put another year on that wall. So that's good. Every focus is going to be on that when the time comes. We've got a final to look forward to and a final to prepare for.

On his leadership...

I think this is my 19th season. I think I've been in four or five finals and lost all of them. You have to take these opportunities. Some people go through their whole career and they don't get the opportunity to play in the final. So we have that opportunity. We have an opportunity to write our own names in the history of this club. Long after we're gone, we're going to be one of those teams that goes up on the wall when we won a trophy, but that's only if we go there -- wherever it is, whoever wins that game -- we have to go in a difficult environment. We'll probably be underdogs in that game, but we're happy with that. We'll go in there and we'll give everything we have to try and bring that trophy back here.

On Wednesday's semifinal between LAFC and Seattle...

I'll definitely be watching it. I'm not rooting for any of them. Both are going to be extremely difficult games no matter where it is. I really don't know who I would prefer, to be honest. Cups are one-off games. Form goes out the window, everything goes out the window. It's whoever does what it takes on the day to win the game. So I'll definitely be watching that game. We'll just see what happens and where we're going to be going...It's exciting. 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.

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia

On reaching the final...

I think this one's different because we're not where we want to be right now. This one just means more because of the position that we're in within the season.

On his saves in the shutout...

I thought, in the first half, we did really well. We did such a good job in the first half of dictating the game, pulling them out of shape and eliminating their ability to play the ball long over the top. And then in the second half, we had the grind. They're good. They're a quality opponent. You shouldn't take anything away from them. But we grinded. Everyone defended as a group and we found a way to keep a shutout and to do the important thing of advancing.

On his leadership...

Everyone's helped to get us to this point, including our youngest guys on the team. Jake (Davis) has played a major part in making sure that we're in this. Countless other guys have helped us get to this position. So we're going to win as a group and if we're going to go and compete against either Seattle or LA, we're going to have to play our best game that day. And it's not going to be the veteran having the better game. It's going to be the collective group having the best game that we can have in that moment and hopefully winning the trophy for our club and for our fans who deserve it.

-- SportingKC.com --

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