LOS ANGELES — Once more, the Los Angeles Football Club needed extra time.
And another 30 minutes made all the difference.
Much like the team’s last cup-winning effort, the nail-biting 2022 MLS Cup final, LAFC made the most of the moment at BMO Stadium, scoring twice in extra time to secure the club’s first Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship with a 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City.
Following a scoreless first half in the 109th edition of America’s domestic cup, the game opened up when the two teams traded goals in the second half before LAFC grabbed the game by the neck, avoiding penalties while denying SKC a record-tying fifth Open Cup victory.
Young Mexican defender Omar Campos, who joined LAFC this year, netted the game-winner and his first goal with the club by hitting a beautiful curler inside the far post in the 102nd minute. Then 40-year-old striker Kei Kamara, who won the Open Cup with Kansas City in 2012, added an insurance goal with a gravity-defying header seven minutes later.
Entering the match coming off four consecutive defeats in tournament finals, memories of LAFC disappointments in CONCACAF Champions League, the Campeones Cup, the MLS Cup and this year’s Leagues Cup disappeared when referee Armando Villarreal blew the whistle and 22,214 spectators, minus a small contingent from Kansas City, felt as much relief as joy.
The first hint that this could be LAFC’s night came when Olivier Giroud tapped in his first goal since the Leagues Cup defeat in Columbus last month.
The French striker’s tap-in in the 53rd minute off a cross from Mateusz Bogusz, who received a terrific ball into space from Sergi Palencia that gave him the room he needed.
Giroud, a four-time winner of England’s FA Cup, nearly did the same thing prior to halftime when Denis Bouanga fed him in a similar spot, but a save from SKC goalkeeper Tim Melia denied him.
While LAFC came out of the dressing room pressing the action and seeking to win the ball in Kansas City’s end of the field, the visitors handled the pressure well.
In the last 15 minutes before the first of three intermissions thanks to extra time, LAFC looked more like itself than it had the past three winless weeks, engineering opportunities that were pulled straight from the team’s chance-creating DNA.
A slick pass into the box from Bouanga nearly freed Bogusz, but his twirling shot was blocked by a defender.
Bouanga’s presence was undeniable as the French winger dribbled long distances and bodied opposing players off the ball. He played all 120 minutes for LAFC, joining Bogusz, Palencia, Maxime Chanot, Ryan Hollingshead and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who made four saves.
Despite being eliminated from MLS postseason contention last weekend, SKC, which lost an Open Cup final for the first time in five tries, put up a fight.
A few minutes after Giroud put LAFC ahead, German attacker Erik Thommy hit a first-time shot to level the score when Dániel Sallói cut back a pass in the box.
Thommy played under LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo in 2018, when they were on the same side for VfB Stuttgart.
Cherundolo opted to remove Giroud in the 67th minute, replacing him with Uruguayan winger Cristian Olivera, whose energy and pace helped LAFC look more like the domineering squad that earlier this year went on a club record 13-match unbeaten streak.
It was during this run that LAFC’s 2024 Open Cup tournament began as one of eight MLS teams participating this year.
LAFC started in Las Vegas and followed with two decisive results at BMO Stadium over second-division USL Championship foes, Loudoun United FC of Virginia and New Mexico United. LAFC earned its first trip to the final with a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders last month.
Wednesday’s victory added the fourth prize to LAFC’s hardware collection, joining the 2019 and 2022 Supporters’ Shields and the 2022 MLS Cup, which hinged on the latest goal in that competition’s history when Gareth Bale secured a game-tying goal on what was the last play against the Philadelphia Union.
More to come on this story.
LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (1) and forward Olivier Giroud (9) hold the trophy after the team’s 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City in the U.S. Open Cup title match on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
WHAT A FINISH BY OMAR CAMPOS #LAFCvSKC 2-1 pic.twitter.com/ktUqvH1I4m
— LAFC (@LAFC) September 26, 2024
KEI KAMARA SEALS IT pic.twitter.com/A1j0RKjCFN
— LAFC (@LAFC) September 26, 2024
Big moment, big player
Olivier Giroud is there to give us the lead.#LAFCvSKC 1-0 pic.twitter.com/NgHaDgJKgl
— LAFC (@LAFC) September 26, 2024