Houston Dynamo FC will face Sporting Kansas City at 7:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, May 25 at Children’s Mercy Park in the Round of 16 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The fixture was determined in a draw last evening televised live on the Futbol Americas program on ESPN+, with full schedule posted earlier today on the official Open Cup Twitter account, @opencup.
Houston advanced to the Round of 16 by defeating San Antonio FC 1-0 with a goal from forward Sebastian Ferreira. That was the fifth goal scored by the Paraguayan international and his third goal in his last four games for the team. Defender Sam Junqua tallied the game-winning assist and the 25-year-old has played a key role for the Dynamo in this tournament. Junqua scored the game-winning goal against RGV FC on April 19 in the Third Round of the tournament.
Kansas City advanced to the next round by defeating FC Dallas in extra time at home on Tuesday evening. Kansas City scored a goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time to force extra time and went on to score two goals to earn a 4-2 triumph. Kansas City earned a 1-0 victory in the first meeting between both teams this year on March 5 at Children’s Mercy Park.
This will be the sixth meeting between Houston and Sporting in Open Cup play and first since 2018 when the Dynamo eliminated Sporting in the quarterfinals on the way to capturing the Club’s first Open Cup championship. Sporting holds a slight 3-2 edge over the Dynamo in the single-elimination tournament. Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura won two Open Cup championships as a player with Sporting, and assistant coach Jimmy Nielsen won one Open Cup with Kansas City.
This match, along with every other matchup in the Open Cup Round of 16, will be streamed live on ESPN+.