Sporting KC Host FC Dallas in 5th Round of US Open Cup

After last night’s 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on the road, Sporting Kansas City didn’t have to wait long to find out their fifth round opponent. Early this morning they were drawn into a new geographical region, instead of getting to play the other winner from their “group” Nashville SC (USL) who upset (?) the Colorado Rapids.

Their new grouping was with three other MLS teams (only three USL teams advanced to the round of 16). Those teams are FC Dallas, the Houston Dynamo and Minnesota United.

Sporting KC then drew FC Dallas and won the right to host the game.

That of course means that Minnesota United and the Houston Dynamo will be facing off. Houston will host Minnesota (who are abysmal on the road).

The winner of Houston/Minnesota appear to host the Sporting KC/Dallas winner based on the updated bracket put out by the US Open Cup twitter account.

This match-up will take place at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday, June 16th at 8:00 PM CT. It’s during the World Cup break and prior to this announcement neither Dallas or KC played between this Saturday (June 9th) and June 23rd. So there won’t be a “break” but it’s better than jamming it into a Wednesday between two MLS games.

No Sporting KC players have been called into any World Cup squads so accept a first team lineup. The same is true of FC Dallas.

Per SportingKC.com, here is the tentative schedule for the rest of the tournament.

• Quarterfinals – July 18
• Semifinals – Aug. 8
• Final – Sept. 26

July 18th is a Wednesday that falls after the New York Red Bulls will have hosted SKC the prior Saturday. Sporting has no game that following Saturday and don’t play again in July until the 28th (ironically against FC Dallas). Dallas on the other hand go on the road on Saturday, July 14th against the Chicago Fire then have to travel to Houston on July 21st. So if they advance over SKC, their schedule gets very congested.

This is putting the cart waaaaay ahead of the horse but if Sporting KC were to beat FC Dallas, then beat the winner of the Houston Dynamo and Minnesota United the game on August 8th is also a Wednesday, but it falls between two road games. On August 4th Sporting travel to Houston then on August 11th they travel to face Los Angeles FC (the first ever meeting between those two clubs).

And since I’m being crazy here, if Sporting KC make it all the way to the finals, that game is also on a Wednesday sandwiched between a road game at the Philadelphia Union on September 23rd and a home game against Real Salt Lake on the 30th.

A Lamar Hunt US Open Cup run will really make a Supporters Shield and MLS Cup run that much more difficult. Maybe that’s why no one has ever won a treble (we aren’t counting Toronto FC and their piddly two games they have to play to win the Canadian Championship).

Here is the full bracket for the tournament. Hosting for the semi-final and final will be determined at a later date.