Sporting Kansas City will begin their 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign against fellow MLS club Minnesota United FC, visiting their regional rival in the tournament’s Fourth Round at 7 p.m. CT on Wednesday, June 12, at the new Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota.
U.S. Soccer on Thursday announced all Fourth Round matchups for the 2019 U.S. Open Cup, which will see 21 MLS clubs enter the competition in the round of 32. They are joined by 10 teams from the second-division USL Championship and Orange County FC of the fourth-division National Premier Soccer League.
Sporting and Minnesota will meet in the U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round for the fourth time in six years. Manager Peter Vermes’ side prevailed on each of the previous three occasions, cruising on home turf in 2014 and 2017 and claiming an extra-time win at Minnesota in 2016. The matchup is one of five all-MLS fixtures in the 2019 U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round.
The trip to Minnesota marks another destination for Sporting during a travel-heavy month of June, which will see the club play four MLS matches away from home before returning to Children’s Mercy Park on July 3 to host LAFC. Sporting currently occupies 11th place in the Western Conference with a 3-5-5 record (14 points), while Minnesota is fifth in the West at 6-5-3 (21 points).
All U.S. Open Cup matches in 2019 will stream live on ESPN+.
2019 U.S. Open Cup Dates (subject to change)
- Fourth Round: June 11-12
- Round of 16: June 19
- Quarterfinals: July 10
- Semifinals: Aug. 7
- Final: Aug. 27-28
Sporting owns four Open Cup titles in team history, tied with the Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders FC for the most among MLS clubs. Vermes has guided the side to three Open Cup championships over the last seven seasons, hoisting the trophy in 2012, 2015 and 2017 to go with the club’s first title in 2004.
The 2019 U.S. Open Cup winner will claim $300,000 in prize money, a berth in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League and have its name engraved on the Dewar Challenge Trophy, one of the oldest trophies in American team sports and now on display at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas. The runner-up will earn $100,000, while the club that advances the furthest from each lower division below Major League Soccer will secure $25,000.
The U.S. Open Cup has crowned a champion annually since 1914, making it the oldest ongoing soccer competition in the U.S. and the world’s third-longest continuously running soccer tournament. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt, who owned Kansas City’s MLS club from its founding until 2006.
