With the 2020 MLS season on temporary hold, SportingKC.com is taking daily strolls down memory lane with an "On This Day" web series that celebrates memorable moments in team history. As one of Major League Soccer's proud charter members, Sporting has a decorated past full of thrilling victories, amazing goals, momentous off-the-field developments and more. "On This Day" pays tribute to these specific instances, turning back the clocks while treating fans to nostalgia and club history lessons. To catch up on the series as it unfolds, visit SportingKC.com/OnThisDay.
April 29 marks the anniversary of two resounding Kansas City victories in the springtime stages of championship seasons.
Twenty years ago today, the high-flying Wizards visited Mile High Stadium in Denver and handed the Colorado Rapids a 5-0 defeat with goals from five different players. Mo Johnston and Chris Klein struck in the first half before Matt McKeon, Preki and Chris Henderson added to the onslaught in the second stanza, giving Colorado its heaviest loss of the 2000 campaign.
To this day, the 5-0 thrashing of Colorado remains Kansas City's largest margin of victory in a competitive road match. The clean sheet performance, which saw goalkeeper Tony Meola make eight saves, added 90 minutes to the Wizards' jaw-dropping 681-minute shutout streak that spanned over a month in 2000.
Kansas City raced to a 10-0-2 start that year and ultimately won both the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup, setting the stage for Bob Gansler to receive MLS Coach of the Year honors. Meola and center back Peter Vermes were also named the league's best players at their respective positions, with Meola landing MLS MVP honors.
Fast-forward 17 years—alternatively, rewind three years from today—and Vermes was at the helm of a Sporting Kansas City side that claimed an MLS Cup and two U.S. Open Cup titles during the first half of a trophy-laden decade in the Soccer Capital. On April 29, 2017, supporters at Children's Mercy Park were treated to a 2013 MLS Cup rematch as rivals Real Salt Lake were greeted with a 3-0 thrashing.
Cold and rainy playing conditions did nothing to prevent Sporting from lighting RSL ablaze as Benny Feilhaber, Dom Dwyer and Gerso Fernandes found the back of the net. Feilhaber's strike in the 17th minute was an absolute peach, and it proved to be all Sporting needed. Goalkeeper Tim Melia was prompted to make just two saves in a game that the hosts controlled from beginning to end.
Although Sporting's 2017 campaign ended with a playoff loss in Houston, Vermes' men succeeded in adding to the trophy cabinet with a dramatic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup triumph. Days after Sporting Club co-owner Neal Patterson passed away, Sporting snatched an emotional extra-time win over FC Dallas in the Open Cup quarterfinals at Children's Mercy Park. In the two months that followed, Sporting edged San Jose via penalties in the semifinals and ousted the New York Red Bulls in the championship, earning the right to paint the wall orange in Patterson's honor.
