Sacramento Republic’s sensational run at the 2022 U.S. Open Cup has made it all the way to the final.
The USL Championship side—a club that thought it was once a lock for MLS expansion—will play for the domestic cup title and a place in the Concacaf Champions League after ousting four-time winner Sporting Kansas City on penalty kicks following a scoreless draw at Heart Health Park Wednesday night. In doing so, it becomes the first non-MLS club since the Charleston Battery in 2008 to make the final. No non-MLS side has won the Open Cup since 1999, when the Rochester Rhinos beat the Colorado Rapids.