‘Unreal’: Sacramento Republic beats KC on penalty kicks, advances to U.S. Open Final

Call it magic. Call it luck. Whatever you call it, you can call Sacramento Republic this: U.S. Open Cup finalists.

Sacramento survived 120 minutes of aggressive Kansas City attacks Wednesday night to earn a 5-4 penalty kick win and advance to the championship of America’s oldest soccer tournament.

Sacramento will play host Orlando in the championship game, which is scheduled for Sept. 7, barring scheduling conflicts for either team.

Kansas City took 31 shots and Sacramento took just 13, but none of that mattered as the defense cleared most of the danger away throughout the night, leaving a scoreless tie after two overtime sessions. Fittingly, the penalty kicks were tied at four made shots after four rounds.

The crowd was already chanting “MVP, MVP” every time Sacramento keeper Danny Vitiello got near the ball, and he didn’t disappoint in the shootout, deflecting a shot from Graham Zusi wide of the net. The sellout crowd roared its approval, then hushed as Rodrigo Lopez stepped up to attempt the game-winner.

Lopez, who played on the original Republic team in 2014, lined up a shot. He stutter-stepped up to the ball and as the Kansas City goalkeeper dove to his right, Lopez gunned a shot up the middle for the game-winning goal.

Then everybody lost their minds. It was an exaltation that was more than two hours in the making. Sacramento fans were on edge throughout the night as Vitiello stayed busy knocking away Kansas City shots.

“Unreal,” Vitiello told the stadium in a wild interview after the game. “I was trying to pump them up but they were already pumped up already. They had our backs tonight, all 12,000 fans.”

While Kansas City controlled much of the play, Sacramento had its chances throughout the game to put the semifinal away. In the final minute of overtime, Republic’s Dan Casey collected a loose ball and fired a shot toward the left side of the goal. The ball caromed off a Kansas City defender and landed at the feet of Sacramento’s Lee Desmond. Desmond launched a shot over the crossbar and the official blew his whistle to send the game to penalty kicks.

Kansas City had seven shots in the first 15-minute overtime period, including a rocket from Daniel Salloi that caromed off the crossbar.

That was a theme throughout the second half as well.

While Kansas City took 10 shots in the second half and Sacramento had four, Republic had chances to end the game.

The Sacramento defense made itself felt throughout the game, repeatedly turning away would-be dangerous situations before anything happened.

In the 90th minute, Kansas City’s Salloi turned with the ball inside the penalty box only to find two Sacramento Republic defenders waiting to block his shot out of bounds.

As Vitiello was interviewed on the field after the game, Lopez screamed into the microphone, “He’s a f------ beast!” The crowd roared its approval.

That wasn’t the only loud noises of the night.

Before the match even started, the announcer virtually had to scream as Kansas City and Sacramento took the field. With the crowd losing its mind, the announcer was forced to yell into the microphone, “We’ve got major league energy.” After the national anthem and a fighter jet flyby, the teams took their turns pummeling each other’s defense.

The action started in the second minute of the game, when Kansas City’s Khiry Shelton fired a shot wide after sprinting away from the defense.

Sacramento immediately answered, with Douglas Martinez to hitting Dan Casey with a pass inside the penalty box in the third minute; Casey blasted a shot high into the Tower Bridge Battalion fans behind the net as the crowd moaned.

Sacramento had a free kick from just outside the penalty box amount to nothing. A few minutes later, Keko Gontan curled a shot 5 feet left of the goal. And a few minutes after that, Martinez missed a shot a few feet wide right of the net.

In the 40th minute, Sacramento had two chances to knock in a shot. With the ball bouncing around in the penalty area, Rodrigo Lopez and Matt LaGrassa both couldn’t get enough on a shot to get past the Kansas City defenders. When the threat ended, Kansas City players sat on the ground to take a quick breather as the danger passed.

Sacramento took six shots in the first half while Kansas City took 10. But Kansas City was far more efficient at applying pressure, earning five corner kicks to Sacramento’s none. And Kansas City forced Sacramento goalkeeper Vitiello to make three saves while the Republic did not force Kansas City to make a stop in the first half.

This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 10:34 PM.