Sporting Kansas City defeats Philadelphia to win 2015 Open Cup

After a 1-1 scoreline at the end of regulation time, Sporting Kansas City had to go through extra time and penalty kicks in order to defeat the Philadelphia Union to be crowned the 2015 US Open Cup champions.

Philadelphia Union forward Sebastien Le Toux scored the game’s opening goal in the 23rd minute. Sporting Kansas City forward Krisztian Nemeth equalized in the 65th minute and midfielder Jordi Quintillà scored the winning penalty kick in the eighth round of the shootout to give Sporting Kansas City a 7-6 win on penalty kicks and the club’s third Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. A crowd of 14,463 was in attendance for the match at PPL Park.

“We knew it was going to be an uphill climb coming in here,” said Sporting Kansas City head coach Peter Vermes. “You’re playing away from home in front of a tough crowd and a tough team. I think they’re a good team and they’re in form right now. I thought in the first half they were the better team; the second half, we really started to bring it on them. In the overtime we were very good, I thought we managed the game very well. Our Experience came out in the penalty kicks; we’ve been through this too many times now.”