LAFC claimed their first-ever US Open Cup Wednesday evening, defeating Sporting Kansas City 3-1 in extra-time. Goals from Olivier Giroud, Omar Campos, and Kei Kamara secured the result, with Sporting’s lone effort coming off the boot of Erik Thommy. Omar Campos and Kei Kamara scored in extra time and Los Angeles FC won the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup for the first time with a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City.
The club captured Major League Soccer’s Supporters Shield as the top club in the regular season in 2019 and ‘22 and then beat the Philadelphia Union in penalty kicks to win the MLS Cup in 2022.
It was LAFC’s first appearance in the Open Cup championship and snapped a run of four straight title matches across various competitions without a victory. It was the 109th edition of the Open Cup, the oldest national soccer competition.
The Black and Gold featured in the final of the 2024 Leagues Cup, but fell to the Columbus Crew in the contest.
Sporting, meanwhile, were four-time winners of the competition entering the evening. Had they won, they would have been the first MLS side to claim the Cup five times.
Kei Kamara 40-years-old, his 11th MLS club, the journeyman of MLS secured the trophy for LAFC Wednesday evening. What a moment for the former Sporting Kansas City forward, who bagged the winner against his former club 12 years after he led them to a US Open Cup title himself. It was a full-circle moment for Kamara, and a brilliant header, too.
With a 109th-minute dagger, he leaped into the air and smashed the ball home off a Denis Bouanga cross.
Both teams return to MLS action to see out the remainder of the regular season. Sporting has already been eliminated from 2024 MLS playoff contention, but LAFC is very much alive in the Western Conference. The Black and Gold are winless in their last five regular season matches, but they still sit fourth and are looking to lock in a home playoff game over the final stretch of the campaign.
The highlight of LAFC 3-1 Sporting KC:
It was Giroud’s second goal in 10 matches for LAFC since joining the club in early August.
Thommy tied it up in the 60th minute with a blast inside the near post off a cross from Dániel Sallói.
Campos, a second-half substitute, scored in the 102nd from atop the box for his first goal with LAFC.
Kamara, the second-leading goal scorer in MLS history, added an insurance goal on a header in the 109th minute LAFC is fourth in the Western Conference going into the home stretch of the MLS regular season. Sporting Kansas City will not qualify for the postseason.
