The Knockout Round has provided Sporting Kansas City with ample frustration since the new format was instituted in 2015.
Each of the last three seasons the team has been eliminated at that stage, as is well-publicized. But not this time around. This season, a five-game unbeaten run to end the year lifted the club to the top of the Western Conference, and with it, a useful Get Out Of The Knockout Round Free! card. As eight clubs geared up to play their win-or-go-home game on Halloween and the first day of November, SKC sat, played out scenarios and waited.