Feilhaber Brings a Team of MLS Retirees to Des Moines to face Sporting KC II

Sporting KC II vs. Des Moines Menace

When: Wednesday, March 19th @ 6:30 PM CT

Where: Children’s Mercy Victory Field at Swope Soccer Village

How to Watch/Stream: YouTube

The most interesting story of the first round of the 2025 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup is undoubtedly the Des Moines Menace. While they are a fourth division team that plays in USL League Two, starting last year, they’ve been bringing fun attention to the US Open Cup.

Last year, it started with retired MLS veteran Sacha Kljestan and a few of his friends (including future Sporting Kansas City legend Roger Espinoza) coming out of retirement to play for the Iowan side.

This year, it was Benny Feilhaber who got the ball rolling. Feilhaber contacted Kljestan and numerous former MLS players and put together an all-star team of retired MLS players. What makes the story extra wild is that Feilhaber will join Des Moines and play against the team he coached for the last three years, Sporting KC II.

While the most diehard of Sporting KC fans follow SKC II, they are still getting to know the roster that is mostly turned over from 2024 since Sporting KC II have only played two games this season. With just four holdovers coming back on pro contracts, plus a handful of Academy kids and potentially some young Homegrowns that have made it to the first team, Benny will see some familiar faces across the pitch, but there is always heavy turnover in MLS Next Pro.

Those young kids on SKC II will look across the field at many players nearly old enough to be their parents. They may have grown up watching them play for MLS teams around the country.

“Is This Even Legal?”

Despite how clearly fun this story is, there has actually been some consternation online that these ‘old guys’ are stealing the jobs at the real Menace players. That couldn’t be further from the truth. USL League Two, the league the Des Moines play in, is essentially a summer league for college players to play in while school is out. Last year’s first non-Open Cup game didn’t happen until May 11th.

Now that you know no one is losing their job, let’s meet the Menace.

Des Moines Menace Roster

Benny Feilhaber

We’ll start with the headliner for Kansas City fans. Feilhaber was inducted as a Sporting Legend in 2024 is a name many will know. Benny spent seven seasons in KC, winning a 2013 MLS Cup and 2015 and 2017 US Open Cup as a member of the team. The attacking midfielder also spent time in MLS with the New England Revolution, Colorado Rapids and LAFC before retiring following the 2020 season.

He has spent the last three years coaching Sporting KC II and still lives in Kansas City.

Sacha Kljestan

Another attacking midfielder who often competed with Feilhaber for USMNT minutes, Sacha is an MLS veteran who is probably most famous for playing with the New York Red Bulls but spent more time at Chivas USA (five seasons) before heading to Belgium for six seasons with Anderlecht. Kljestan also had a two-year stint with Orlando City and ended his career with a three-year run at the LA Galaxy. It’s those NYRB connections that helped build this team though.

Bradley Wright-Phillips

BWP played with Kljestan at the Red Bulls for some historic seasons in club history. Before coming to the United States, he played with a bevy of English clubs, including Manchester City and Southampton. He has small stints with LAFC and the Columbus Crew, but he made 195 appearances with the Red Bulls and scored 108 goals in league play. We’ll see if the 39-year-old striker has the legs to hang with the kids in KC.

BWP and Kljestan also famously lost the 2017 US Open Cup final to Feilhaber and SKC.

Dax McCarty

The third of the Red Bulls trio, McCarty just retired following the 2024 MLS season when he was a member of the Atlanta United side that eliminated Messi from the playoffs. Dax spent six years with the New York Red Bulls before having successful stints in the midfield of the Chicago Fire and Nashville SC. As one of the most recently retired players, he may need to put in a 90-minute shift on Wednesday.

Dax, BWP and Sacha all currently co-host the studio shows on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV every weekend.

Matt Hedges

Since a team can’t be entirely made of midfielders (though many more are coming), FC Dallas legend Matt Hedges will be asked to anchor the backline. Another recent retiree, Hedges spent the last two years with Austin FC after a stint with Toronto FC, but he’s got over 300 appearances for FC Dallas and was the 2015 MLS Defender of the Year.

Hedges won the US Open Cup with Dallas in 2016.

Ozzie Alonso

A member of the Apple Spanish broadcast team, Alonso is most famous for his time as a member of the Seattle Sounders. He had a 10-year run with the Sounders before retiring on a one-day contract after 2024. Alonso was hated around MLS for his physical play.

Ozzie brings the most US Open Cups to the team. He won the Cup in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014 with Seattle.

He was also part of their 2016 MLS Cup winning squad. After Seattle, Alonso played three seasons with Minnesota United before making limited appearances the last two years for Atlanta United.

AJ DeLaGarza

DeLaGarza was a part of Kljestan’s 2024 Menace squad, but in MLS he’s mostly known for his eight-year run with the LA Galaxy in defense. After the Galaxy, the fullback played three seasons with the Houston Dynamo, made a few appearances for Inter Miami in 2020 and a couple seasons with the New England Revolution to end his career after 2022.

With the Dynamo, he won a 2018 US Open Cup.

Victor Ulloa

Another FC Dallas connection, Ulloa was a rock in the midfield for eight-seasons with Dallas. After that he played extensively for a bad FC Cincinnati team in 2019 and ended his career with three seasons at Inter Miami from 2020 through 2023 when he retired.

Victor was a part of the 2016 FC Dallas US Open Cup winning squad.

Justin Meram

The wide midfielder Meram is most famous for his first stint with the Columbus Crew, which lasted seven seasons. He made 188 appearances in league play for 37 goals before coming back to the Crew for two more seasons later. In between he was with Orlando City for a season. After the Crew stints, he was off to Atlanta United for a single season before spending three years with Real Salt Lake before finishing his career with Charlotte FC in 2023.

He’s familiar with this Open Cup unretiring having done it in 2024 to join NISA club, the Michigan Stars, who eliminated Minnesota United 2 (MLSNP) from last year’s competition.

Mikey Ambrose

One of the younger retirees at just 31, Ambrose spent much of his career in the USL Championship playing for the Austin Aztex and Orlando City B. He did play for Orlando’s MLS club briefly in 2016 and then had time with Inter Miami in 2020 and Atlanta United for the final two seasons of his career. The outside back will be needed to round out Des Moines’ defense.

Donny Toia

Another young retiree, the 32-year-old Toia had a career in and out of MLS. He played for Chivas USA for a single season in 2014, the Montreal Impact for a couple seasons after, follows by a couple seasons with Orlando City. His longest MLS run came at the end of his career when he spent three years with Real Salt Lake. He retired after the 2022 season playing for FC Tucson in USL League One. Toia is also an outside back.

Felipe Hernandez

The KC Soccer Journal’s Thad Bell reported that former Sporting Kansas City midfielder, Felipe Hernandez would be joining the Menace. He spent five seasons with SKC after spending another three with SKC II before that. He also is a Sporting KC Homegrown and came up through the SKC Academy, by way of Nashville, Tennessee.

Hernandez sadly has his Sporting KC contract terminated in 2024 after violating league rules around gambling.

Hernandez is still just 26-years-old and seemingly has a soccer career still potentially ahead of him, but he is suspended in MLS until January 1, 2026, when he could apply for reinstatement.

More SKC Connections

Two more players signed to Des Moines are former SKC II right back Lucas Rosa and former SKC Academy forward Leroy Enzugusi. Rosa was a star, despite playing outside back for a single season in 2023. He came out of college at 26-years-old, so Sporting KC II moved on from him to get younger.

Enzugusi has actually been a semi-regular member of the Des Moines Menace over the years but came through the SKC Academy and spent a little time with SKC II before heading off to college to play for Drake.

Benny and Sacha Hype the Game

The Soccer Talk podcast in association with Kick it Forward, got a fun interview with Feilhaber and Kljestan after all the names started coming out for the Open Cup game. The co-captains are well worth a listen.

What About SKC II?

Isn’t this the Kansas City Soccer Journal? (Sorry the Des Moines super team is just so fun!)

Who will take the field for Sporting KC II is more up in the air. The roster only has 11 professional players on it currently. Four of those are returning players from 2024: Nati Clarke, Maouloune Goumballe, Medgy Alexandre and Cielo Tschantret.

The team add seven new pros this year, but we’ve seen so little of them only midfielder Shane Donovan is really a known quantity having played extensively in 2024 as an SKC Academy amateur player. In fact, after the loss to St Louis City 2 on Friday night, coach Istvan Urbani told the gathered media he’s waiting on international transfer certificates (ITC) for multiple players. He specifically mentioned a player will be returning from Canada on Wednesday and he may need them with so few rostered players.

What to Expect on Wednesday

Friday’s 1-0 loss to St. Louis was KC’s second game of the season, after a 3-1 opening loss to the Dynamo 2. Sadly, three of the teams four goals have come on mistakes playing it out of the back. The only saving grace is Des Moines’ roster is older and recently retired, they may not be able to execute a high press to force turnovers.

The weather could also play a role in the game as there is currently a 63 percent chance of light precipitation, a large decrease in temperature and an increased likelihood of high winds. The winds badly impacted the game against St. Louis City 2.

Speaking of that game, Benny Feilhaber was in attendance. He said he was “scouting” while Urbani joked that he was “spying,” but went on to say that Benny is “always welcome.” Also in that conversation, the lack of available SKC II players came up and Urbani joked that he hopes the “experienced legs” aren’t that fresh on Des Moines.

Regardless of the weather, tired legs and experienced legs, it’s a fun story and should make for an interesting match-up. If SKC II pull the upset over all the veteran MLS all-stars, that’s a story they’ll have forever. If the wily veterans get it done, then that fun journey continues. Either way, we all win with a fun US Open Cup tale we’ll all remember.