Dom Dwyer became the first player in team history to score four goals in a competitive match as Sporting Kansas City earned an emphatic 6-2 victory over FC Dallas on Wednesday to advance to the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals. Krisztian Nemeth added two goals on the record-setting night at Sporting Park to leave both players sharing the team lead with nine goals across all competition this season.
Sporting Kansas City’s seventh straight home win see the team move on to host the Houston Dynamo at 7:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday, July 21 at Sporting Park. Tickets/parking for the quarterfinal match are included in Sporting KC season ticket packages as Special Game A and single-game tickets will go on sale to the general public at 12 p.m. CT on Thursday.
Benny Feilhaber earned three assists on the night – a first in U.S. Open Cup history for the club – to become the team’s all-time assist leader in the competition. He set up each of Dwyer’s first two goals, delivering a corner kick in the fifth minute that was headed home by Dwyer at the back post and then setting up a second header for the Englishman with his service off a free kick in the 30th minute.
Feilhaber now has assists in four straight games to give him 13 across all competition this year, five of which have come from set plays. Sporting KC leads all MLS teams with 10 assists from set play in 2015 and also leads the league with 11 headed goals.
Dwyer scored his third goal of the night in the 41st minute, earning and converting a penalty kick to become the first KC player since Birahim Diop in 2010 to record a hat trick and in doing so enters the record books for the following stats:
First U.S. Open Cup hat trick in team history
First hat trick at Sporting Park
Only first-half hat trick in team history
The first-half scoring spree was not yet done as Nemeth added a fourth goal in stoppage time with a first-time strike inside the far post off a pass from Jacob Peterson. Prior to Wednesday, Sporting KC had scored four goals in the first half on only two previous occasions – once in 1996 and again in 1999.
Nemeth netted again in the 59th minute with a goal as improbable as it was impeccable. Standing less than a yard from the endline, the Hungarian international clipped a curling chip over Chris Seitz with the outside of his foot to stretch Sporting KC’s lead to 5-0 in front of a sold-out crowd.
Dwyer capped off his historic night with a free kick from outside the box in the 69th minute, sending his shot over the wall and into the back of the net. The six-goal outburst matches the highest scoring match for the club all-time and were the most goals scored in a game since a 6-1 victory over the Des Moines Menace in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup.
FC Dallas would salvage two goals in the game’s final 30 minutes to end Sporting Kansas City’s 447-minute home shutout streak. Michael Barrios struck for his third goal of the tournament in the 62nd minute and Kellyn Acosta closed out the scoring with his first professional goal in the 73rd minute.
Sporting Kansas City returns to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals after a two-year absence and will host Houston for the first-time in the tournament proper. The two teams met in qualifying for the 2011 edition as Sporting KC emerged 1-0 winners in extra time at Ellis Field in College Station, Texas on the campus of Texas A&M University.
