KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you’ve been in Kansas City long enough, you know there are precious few opportunities to achieve postseason glory. It’s been nearly 20 years since the Chiefs won a playoff game.
The Royals haven’t sniffed the postseason since they won it all in 1985. The Wizards won their first and only MLS Cup title in 2000. Sporting Kansas City hopes to end the drought Saturday when they face Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final.
Sporting KC Coach Peter Vermes said home field advantage in the final is exciting and he called it a reward for the club and its fans. But his men still have business to take care of Saturday afternoon at what will be a frigid Sporting Park, FOX 4’s Weather Team predicts a low of only two degrees!
The two clubs faced each other only once during the regular season. Sporting KC scored a dramatic last-second goal in stoppage time to win 2-1 in Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium.
Team captain Jimmy Nielsen started his professional career in England nearly 20 years ago. When his team won a Danish Superliga championship in 1998, Nielsen thought it would be the first of many. Here he is now, at the age of 37, on the cusp of winning what would be his second.
“Fifteen years ago I was pretty sure it would be one of many. I’m sure Saturday I’ll appreciate the championship more that I did 15 years ago,” Nielsen said. “I know how hard it is to win a championship.”
The MLS Cup final begins at 3:00 Saturday afternoon at Sporting Park. The last time a Kansas City team won a professional sports title in a game played here in KC was Game Seven of the 1985 World Series.
“Bundle up but also, it seems kind of weird but go ahead and get out here because you don’t want to stand in lines. Get out here and get in the stands and have a lot of fun,” said Chris Wyche, V.P. of Operations for Sporting KC. “And I’m going to argue that noise helps create warmth so the louder it is, the warmer everyone’s going to be,” he said.