Sporting Kansas City is a professional soccer team in the United States. Also called Sporting KC, the team competes in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The team plays its home games at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Sporting Kansas City was one of the founding teams of MLS in 1996. At that time, they were known as the Kansas City Wiz (and later, the Wizards). In 2000, the club won the Supporters’ Shield as the MLS team with the best regular season record. The Wizards went on to win their first championship that year, defeating the Chicago Fire (now called the Chicago Fire FC) in the MLS Cup final. The Wizards returned to the MLS Cup final in 2004, losing to champion D.C. United. That same year, Kansas City won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, an annual tournament open to amateur and professional soccer clubs.
The Wizards changed their name to Sporting Kansas City for the 2011 MLS season. The name “Sporting” comes from the description “Sporting Club” used for athletic organizations in Portugal and Spain. In 2012, Kansas City again won the U.S. Open Cup. In 2013, the team defeated Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final for their second championship. The club won the U.S. Open Cup again in 2015 and 2017.
In 2002, Kansas City advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football) Champions Cup, an annual tournament among that region’s best professional clubs. The tournament was renamed the Champions League in 2008. In 2019, Kansas City advanced to the semifinals of the Champions League.
