MLS Cup 2013

Event	MLS Cup
Sporting Kansas City Real Salt Lake 1 1
After extra time Sporting Kansas City won 7–6 on penalties
Date	December 7, 2013
Venue	Sporting Park, Kansas City, Kansas, US
Most Valuable Player	Aurélien Collin (Sporting Kansas City)[1]
Referee	Hilario Grajeda
Attendance	21,650[2]
Weather	Sunny, 20 °F (−7 °C)[3]
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MLS Cup 2013, the 18th edition of Major League Soccer's championship match, was a soccer match which took place on Saturday, December 7, 2013 between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. The soccer match was to decide the winner of the 2013 season. Sporting KC were making their third appearance in the competition's final, having won in 2000 and losing in 2004. RSL were appearing in their second final, having won their only other in 2009.

It was the first MLS Cup final to be held at Sporting Park and the second time the championship match was not held at a predetermined neutral site. Sporting Kansas City won the right to host the match by besting Real Salt Lake in the regular season standings. This was the first time Kansas City hosted an MLS Cup final and the second final hosted at Sporting Park, the other being the 2012 U.S. Open Cup final.

The game was the coldest MLS match ever and was tied 1–1 after regulation time and extra time.^[4] The penalty shootout was won 7–6 by Sporting Kansas City, ending with the longest shootout in MLS Cup history at ten rounds.^[3]

Road to the final

Both teams qualified for the playoffs by finishing in the top five of their respective conferences at the end of the regular season. Sporting Kansas City then beat New England Revolution and Houston Dynamo to reach the final, while Real Salt Lake knocked out defending champions Los Angeles Galaxy and Portland Timbers.

Preparations

The 2013 Cup was the first-ever small media market cup, with both Kansas City and Salt Lake City outside of the Top 10 media markets in the US (Kansas City is #28 and Salt Lake City is #32).^[5] The tickets for the match were the highest price for the MLS Cup in the past five years, coming in at an average of $302 on the secondary market. This made it the highest priced sports event in the Kansas City area in four years, with the exception of the 2012 MLB All-Star Game.^[6]

Match

Details

Sporting Kansas City

Real Salt Lake

GK 1 Jimmy Nielsen (c) RB 7 Chance Myers CB 78 Aurélien Collin  35' CB 5 Matt Besler LB 15 Seth Sinovic RM 6 Paulo Nagamura CM 20 Oriol Rosell  8' LM 10 Benny Feilhaber  103' RW 8 Graham Zusi CF 14 Dom Dwyer  72' LW 17 C. J. Sapong Substitutes: GK 18 Eric Kronberg MF 37 Jacob Peterson DF 23 Federico Bessone FW 16 Claudio Bieler  72' DF 3 Ike Opara FW 9 Teal Bunbury DF 13 Lawrence Olum  8' Manager: Peter Vermes

GK 18 Nick Rimando RB 2 Tony Beltran CB 6 Nat Borchers CB 28 Chris Schuler LB 17 Chris Wingert  24'  72' DM 5 Kyle Beckerman (c)  100' RM 21 Luis Gil  87' LM 20 Ned Grabavoy AM 11 Javier Morales ST 15 Álvaro Saborío  44' ST 10 Robbie Findley  112' Substitutes: DF 7 Lovel Palmer  72' DF 44 Brandon McDonald GK 24 Jeff Attinella MF 12 Cole Grossman FW 8 Joao Plata  112' MF 26 Sebastián Velásquez  87' FW 13 Olmes García Manager: Jason Kreis

Statistics

Post-match

As MLS Cup finalists, both teams were supposed to be qualified for the 2014–15 CONCACAF Champions League. Sporting Kansas City (the champion) was to be placed in pot A, and Real Salt Lake (the runner-up) was to be placed in pot B. However, on December 13, 2013, CONCACAF accepted the US Soccer/MLS proposal to change the qualification rules, so that the spot reserved for the MLS Cup runner-up is instead awarded to the regular season conference winner that is not the Supporters' Shield champion, the Portland Timbers. Sporting Kansas City was not affected by this change.^[7]