US Open Cup First Round Review – Sporting Kansas City II pay the penalty against Des Moines Menace
Sporting Kansas City II 1-2 Des Moines Menace
Des Moines Menace brought an experience-laden squad to the maelstrom of Swope Park, with a 15-year age gap between the two squads’ average ages.
However, even with the aid of wind gusting up to 45 mph at their backs, the home side failed to make their advantage count in the first half. SKCII accumulated 6 corners and hit the crossbar twice (within a minute).
With the visitors gaining the wind advantage in the second half, they might have been expected to stroll away. Still, neither team asserted themselves and it took until near the hour mark for the deadlock to be broken, from a penalty kick by Sacha Kljestan (52 caps for USA and 13 years in MLS, amongst other things) as Bradley Wright-Phillips (twice MLS golden boot winner) tiptoed through the minefield at the top of the SKCII area and Benny Feilhaber (150 games for SKC, 44 caps for USA and a former head coach of SKCII) burst through, only to be halted by a foul by Jacob Bartlett. Their lead would only last 5 minutes, as SKCII loaded the box and Beckham Uderitz slotted home the equalizer. In the 74th minute, a lightning fast attack down the right by Leroy Enzugusi for Menace set up the winning goal as he wriggled his way into the penalty area, stopped by a foul by an SKCII defender and despite a solid appeal for offside. The penalty kick, taken and scored by Kljestan for his second goal and last touch of the game, would be the winning goal.
Coming Up
The Menace, who will still be without a lot of their college-athletes and therefore likely to repeat the All Star trick, will enter the second round draw scheduled to take place after all the games are over this week (or most, since we have an anomalous Friday match due to weather). Stay tuned to our social media channels for more.
Tonight sees Duluth FC v Forward Madison in the capital of Wisconsin. Full coverage of that on our Bluesky, and here tomorrow.
Update:
The second round draw is out, with Des Moines Menace hosting Union Omaha , who won on the road against Flatirons FC