KANSAS CITY – Sporting Kansas City takes on FC Dallas in the Quarterfinal of the US Open Cup on Wednesday, July 10. Lamar Hunt and the Hunt family are the first thing that comes to mind when looking at this game. Sporting KC was founded by the Hunt family in 1995 (the team has since been sold). The Hunt family owns FC Dallas currently. The tournament is named after Lamar Hunt. And, with the Chiefs being the biggest team in sports right now, Kansas City is the spotlight for the Hunts.
This matchup, in this tournament, has so much history behind it. According to Sporting KC’s website, Sporting KC has won all five Open Cup matchups against Dallas. The most recent being a come-from-behind win in 2022 in extra time at Children’s Mercy Park.
This is far from a normal game—the two teams faced off in KC on July 7, just three days before this match. This game was a MLS regular season game. The game ended in favor of SKC 3-2. I asked Peter Vermes what he could take away from that game and use for this one. He said, “[Dallas] is very aggressive and tried to be first to every ball, we need to match their intensity and win our 50/50s.”
That game was fairly calm with each team playing reserved to prepare for Wednesday. In stoppage time though, there was a massive flare-up. After Zhoran Bassong was taunting Paul Arriola on a throw-in, Arriola threw the ball directly at Bassong’s head. Bassong responded by absolutely decking Arriola and subsequently received a red card. The interesting part of this is, Bassong will serve a suspension but, only in MLS play, NOT in US Open Cup play. So, Bassong is available for this game. This situation will add some heat to the game.
As for SKC, as mentioned last week, nearly everyone has been involved in training recently. Fans might expect to see Salloi or Walter make a return but most likely have to wait a bit longer to see Ndembe come back to games. The lineup and formation were unique on Sunday, so Vermes could keep it the same or try switching it up.
Dallas came away injury-free as well from last week. I would expect a different starting lineup compared to Sunday as most of their “big names” started on the bench. Once again, no Jesús Ferreira most likely with an upper leg injury. This showed big time on Sunday as Dallas did not look good in the attacking third without him.
This game is a must-watch for any MLS fan. These two original teams always match up well against each other and will create some “Open Cup After Dark” action as the game kicks off at 8 PM CT in Kansas City, KS. The game can be viewed on Apple TV for FREE on MLS Season Pass.
