Sporting Kansas City secured a berth in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals with a 3-1 comeback victory over the Houston Dynamo on Tuesday at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
Will Bruin opened the scoring for a Dynamo side playing with 10 men after Luis Garrido’s first half red card, but Sporting KC rallied for three goals in the final 20 minutes on strikes from Benny Feilhaber, Dom Dwyer and Krisztian Nemeth.
With the win – the team’s 300th in all competition and ninth straight at home across all competitions, setting a new club record – Sporting KC moves on to play host to Real Salt Lake at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 12 at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
After a scoreless first half marked by Garrido’s ejection for a sliding challenge on Amadou Dia in the 30th minute, Tuesday’s encounter came to life with four goals in a 30-minute span after the intermission. Bruin gave the visitors an unlikely 1-0 lead off a corner kick from Brad Davis in the 59th minute. Ricardo Clark’s header was initially stopped on the line by Roger Espinoza however Bruin pounced on the loose ball to score his 50th career goal in all competition.
Sporting Kansas City responded immediately as Chance Myers earned a penalty kick less than two minutes later when he was tripped in the penalty area by Davis. Joe Willis made amends for his captain, diving low and to his right to deny Dwyer’s left-footed attempt.
The Dynamo inserted Erick Torres in the 64th minute for his club debut, but it was Sporting Kansas City that continued to be assertive in the attack. Feilhaber came close to leveling the score in the 69th minute with a volley from outside the box that Kofi Sarkodie cleared away while protecting Willis’ right post, a spot that Feilhaber would pick out minutes later for the game-tying goal.
The MLS All-Star – who also scored the 95th-minute equalizer in a 4-4 draw at Houston earlier this year – capped off an 11-pass scoring sequence by sending his shot from 22 yards out into the back of the net.
Feilhaber now has seven goals in all competition this season, an MLS career high, and continues his strong run of form. The World Cup veteran contributed a goal and an assist three days earlier in Sporting KC’s 2-1 win over Montreal, and now has a goal and four assists in three appearances in the 2015 U.S. Open Cup.
The goal snapped Houston’s 251-minute shutout streak in this year’s competition and shifted the momentum firmly in Sporting Kansas City’s favor with extra time approaching. Dwyer would again play a pivotal part, having scored in four straight games against Houston dating back to his game-winning goal in the 2013 Eastern Conference Championship.
Dwyer delivered the dagger in the 86th minute, latching onto a cleverly played through ball from Nemeth and slipping his shot beneath Willis for his team-leading 11th goal of the season across all competition. Dwyer now has five goals in the 2015 U.S. Open Cup, most among all players in the tournament and tied for the most in club history, to give him eight career goals in the competition.
Nemeth then capped off the comeback with his strike in the 88th minute, sealing the victory with his third goal in the U.S. Open Cup and 10th goal overall in his inaugural season with Sporting KC. His right-footed effort deflected off A.J. Cochran mid-flight to send Sporting KC into the final four on the team’s quest for a third U.S. Open Cup title.
Sporting Kansas City will now return to the road for a precursor of the U.S. Open Cup semifinal when they take on Real Salt Lake at 10 p.m. on Friday in the club’s third game in a seven-day span. The 2013 MLS Cup rematch will be nationally televised on UniMas and UDN (available in English), in addition to three hours of local coverage on KMCI-TV 38 beginning at 9:30 p.m.
Single-game tickets for the Aug. 12 match will go on sale to the public beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 27. Sporting KC season ticket members have access to an exclusive pre-sale from 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, until 9 a.m. on Monday, July 27, via their account manager.
– Story from Sporting KC