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Were Sporting KC Robbed of a Trophy by VAR?

A closer look at a key play that may have swung the US Open Cup final in favor of the eventual winners, LAFC.

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2 weeks ago

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This isn't the ref in question, because VAR never called him over. | Credit: Thad Bell

Before you yell and scream about talking about officiating instead of the game, yes, LAFC were the better team. They played better. They created more chances. And ultimately, they won the game. But should the game have even gone to extra time? Should Sporting Kansas City have won in regulation?

The play in question is the first LAFC goal. And as you can see from the broadcast replays below, the initial replays aren’t from a very favorable angle to Sporting KC.

The ball goes in at 52:05. Play doesn’t resume until 54:12. Plenty of time to look, but Armando Villareal is never called to the monitor by VAR Jose Carlos Rivero.

After a delay, Apple shows some better angles, and it appears that Mateusz Bogusz is offside on the entry pass. There was some complaining that Olivier Giroud is clearly offside, but he’s not involved in the play at that point. He doesn’t get involved until (just barely) returning to an onside position.

Devon Kerr, the color commentator says “That’s very tight from that angle. It looks like he’s a half step off,” as he refers to the pass to Bogusz. There then is some discussion about camera angles before Villareal points to the spot and play resumes. LAFC are up 1-0.

Upon further review, everyone’s favorite fancy soccer math Twitter account, @OffsideModeling confirmed Bogusz was about a foot offside. The goal shouldn’t have counted.

Now, would LAFC have played differently if they didn’t have a lead, or fell down 1-0 minutes later on an Erik Thommy goal? Sure. It’s impossible to know how the game would have played out because PRO Referees didn’t do their job. Much like in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs when PRO admitted to an error that cost Sporting KC a penalty kick and a Houston Dynamo red card. We can never know.

After the game, manager Peter Vermes was asked about the goal.

Report: “I wonder if you’ve had a chance to see the first LAFC goal?”

Vermes: “I’m gonna say it this way, I know it’s offsides (Erik Thommy openly laughs next to him). But there’s nothing I can do about it. I can say this, as a coach at the club for 16 years now, we have suffered way too many of these types of situations. So, I’m not gonna focus on that. At this stage, you’d think that those things would be dealt with in the appropriate manner. With VAR and everything else you shouldn’t miss that type of stuff. We’ve suffered too much when it comes to that kind of thing.” 

Erik Thommy weighed in too, saying, “If it’s offside at the end, in Europe I think we draw a line and here in the States we don’t. We should think about it for the future. These are big games for us. Details count in soccer.”

Was there a Foul in the Buildup?

In the same answers Vermes and Thommy gave about the blown offside call, they also referenced a foul in the build up by Maxime Chanot to Thommy to start the sequence.

Vermes: “Forget about the offside, you could have easily went with the foul that took place (as he gestures at Thommy).”

Thommy: “Like Peter said, I think it’s a foul. I had the ball, he grabbed me (trails off).”

Live, I thought the same thing. There are no good replays in tight, but it seems clear that Chanot grabs him a bit.

It’s the kind of thing Villareal had been letting go, so at least it’s consistent that he didn’t call it here. I think it’s probably a foul. But even if it’s not, it’s clearly offside. This isn’t the first time Sporting KC have been on the wrong end of bad calls in knockout games and it sadly won’t be the last.

We will never know if Sporting KC would have gone on to win their record tying fifth US Open Cup or not. They may not even be in the Open Cup next year as runners up. Based on the wonky math that allowed only eight MLS teams in, Sporting KC are too far down the table to ‘qualify’ for next year if the same criteria are used.

Now the team must turn their attention to their fifth game in 14 days as they try to eliminate their rival, St. Louis City, on Saturday across the state.

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I've been covering Kansas City soccer since 2014, including Sporting Kansas City, the KC Current, SKC II and more. I'm based out of Kansas City, MO, but got my start covering SKC while writing from Phoenix, AZ.

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Shawn

This is such a good article. I too agree that LAFC was the better team. It would seem that with all the Tech that goes into sports these days, these kind of situations would be less of an issue.

I wonder tho… did the USOC have different regulations for VAR for games? Like the rule of getting off the field in a timely manner or when a foul occurs and player stays down and the med team comes out and then you get to just play again and not go off for 2 mins (I no it is a terrible sentence I just wrote)? I think the guy was offside. I even think Oliver G. was off… Also, I think the ref was a bit lazy on calls tonight. Even some of the calls that LAFC got were questionable at best. MLS would do well to have better and more consistent calls for sure.

Not that is should be different. Honestly for being on an away field, especially at LAFC (who’s fans really support… you hear the chants most of the match over an above the commentary sometime), SKC played hard which was great to see.

By the end of the match you could see the exhaustion over SKC. They really did give it all. Shelton continues to impress me. He really did an excellent job. I hope he stays at right back. I felt Davis and Bassong did decent. Johnny put his heart out there, Tim really did a great job, it was great to see Logan and how well he did. He was top notch IMO. Alan was all over the map – no speed and no hops – but at least he put forth the effort. Daniel S. besides the pass/assit to Thom was kind of non-existent (felt bad for him, LAFC really shut him down)… over all the team really did try hard tonight with what they had.

It will be very interesting to see what occurs in the offseason. I think there are some bones to build on for 2025. Now let’s go out and finish the last few matches well. I get the season has been awful but let us at least get a few more wins and go into the next season with our heads held high.

Last edited 12 days ago by Shawn
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GV dude

They have a better roster top to bottom but did you watch? Last night, we were the better team. We were robbed. Won the cup 1 nil on the road.

I think open cup uses ancient tech on offside calls. Embarrassing for the officials again. I will say them getting that goal was crap. Didn’t come close to how livid I was when Houston defender blocks a goal with an extended arm. Var likes to eff us. We almost beat the refs and lafc last night.

Great game though. I think the boys put it all on the field. Tim Melia, Erik Thommy, and Jake Davis especially. You guys kicked ass.

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dancey.prancy

To be fair, I feel like Sporting wouldn’t have pushed as hard for a goal if they weren’t losing. I think there’s a good chance if LA was called offsides, it’d go to extra time 0-0, and LA would probably still win. I think saying we were the better team is a stretch. I agree they played a good game last night, and they were competitive, but even without the offside goal, LA was better.

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GV dude

Agree to disagree. 52 to 48 possession. Are they the better team if they get that deserved red? They played dirty, not better. I’m all skc homer, so reality doesn’t apply. Trust me, we were and always are the better team.

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GV dude

Forgot to give a big thumbs up to Shelton for shutting Boanga down. He owned him all night.

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InToTouch

He didn’t cover Giroud on the goal this article is about. He just watches the ball. Shelton played better than usual but he still made plenty of mistakes. The bar is meh

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GV dude

I feel like PV said stop Bouanga at all costs. Giroud goal wasn’t a goal. Trust me, Shelton killed it last night. I don’t think Davis locks down Bouanga, he can’t give that much focus to one player. Shelton though, kept us in it by shutting him down. Incredible and unexpected. He’s gaining confidence in the role.

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Shawn

Fully Agree, Shelton really did do an excellent job. It is good to see the confidence go up. Just wish the team would get a solid few wins in a row to gain confidence as a whole.

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EddieDeschain

He had to make a choice: Giroud, who had Castellanos between himself and the ball, or Bouanga. Shelton played it perfectly IMO. He stayed in between the two guys and made sure that he had the best angle to make a play on the uncovered guy (Bouanga.)

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EddieDeschain

Being on the toilet end of crappy ref decisions in so many big games happens to SKC so often because, over the past 13 seasons, they’ve been in big games more often than most other teams. It IS frustrating to watch a team like Seattle, who has been in more big games than SKC, NOT have this problem as often as SKC does, but I really do think it’s just bad luck.

If the referees weren’t part timers I think we’d have better refereeing but MLS and US Soccer don’t exist to make the game in the country better, they exist to ensure the money people get richer off of the game so here we are.

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