Philadelphia Union lost an absolute heartbreaker to Sporting Kansas City in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final on Wednesday night, with the final score 1-1 with Sporting winning on penalties 7-6 in eight rounds.

The first half featured a back and forth affair between both sides, but with the Union with the better chances.

In the 12th minute, Sporting Kansas City almost broke the tie early when Pablo Nagamura's shot from the top of the box hit off the post past a diving Andre Blake. The shot hit off the inside the post and, luckily for the union, bounced right back in the arms of Blake.

Halfway through the first half, Philadelphia opened the scoring. In the 22nd minute, Vincent Nogueira played a great lobbed through ball, which Sebastien Le Toux caught up to and slotted it home for the 1-0 lead in the first half. For Le Toux, it was his 16th US Open Cup goal in his career, which is good for first all-time in U.S. Open Cup history.

At halftime, Philadelphia had an impressive six shots on goal to Kansas City's four shots on target. Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia made multiple great saves during the first half to keep the Union lead to one.

In the second half, Sporting seemed to awake. Only ten minutes into the second half, Kansas City appeared to have found their equalizer, but the goal was called back for an apparent foul. On the replay, it was apparent that Sporting defender Chance Myers kicked Blake in the head. It was a scary moment as Blake laid on the field for a few minutes before getting up and continuing.

However, Sporting would not be denied and found their equalizer with 25 minutes left. In the 65th minute, Graham Zusi found an open Krisztian Nemeth on the top of the box. After receiving the ball, Nemeth sent an excellent curling shot past a diving Blake to level the score.

From that point on, both teams battled hard to find an equalizer that neither would find, even after extra time. The whistle blew after 120 minutes and the U.S. Open Cup would come down to penalties. Philadelphia Union Coach Jim Curtin made the controversial move of subbing in goalkeeper John McCarthy for Blake. In this year’s U.S. Open Cup, McCarthy has been a penalty kick specialist by leading the Union to two wins, while making multiple penalty stops. 

In the first two rounds, both Kansas City and Philadelphia made both of their penalties. Then, in the third round, Melia denied Philadelphia Captain Maurice Edu. Needing a stop to keep the shootout level, McCarthy rose up to the challenge by stopping Nemeth’s penalty to keep it level at 2-2 after 3 rounds.  The nail biting penalties would go back and forth until the eighth round. Philadelphia winger Andrew Wenger stepped up to take his penalty and was denied on a good save by Melia. With the U.S. Open Cup on the line, Jordi Quintilla stepped up for Sporting and slotted home his penalty for the Sporting win.

It was a devastating loss for a Philadelphia side, who has now finished as runner’s up twice at PPL Park back-to-back years. The Union will have to try to shrug off this loss when they return to MLS action on Saturday at Toronto FC.