Former MLS stars lace up the boots for an amateur Iowa team in US Open Cup
Associated Press
Unknown to most, the Des Moines Menace have got some big names on their roster — retired MLS stars Sacha Kljestan and Benny Feilhaber among them — and they're aiming to make some noise in the U.S. Open Cup.
Problem is, they've never played together.
The Menace open the 110th edition of the Open Cup on Wednesday with a first-round match at Sporting Kansas City II. In addition to Kljestan and Feilhaber, other retired stars on the Des Moines roster include Dax McCarty, Osvaldo Alonso, Justin Meram, Matt Hedges, A.J. DeLaGarza and Bradley Wright-Phillips.
The team was meeting in Kansas City for a lone practice on Tuesday night. Part of the game plan will involve figuring out which players, mostly in their late 30s and early 40s, can still go a full 90 minutes.
'Fortunately for us Benny Feilhaber used to be the head coach of Sporting KC II, and he's got a good scouting report on them," Kljestan said. "He's going to be helping us out tactically and how to set up the team.'
The Menace are part of USL League Two in the fourth tier of the soccer pyramid in the United States. Because the team's season is during the summer months, the Menace draws many elite college players who want to continue to train and compete in the offseason.
The MLS stars aren't taking up roster spots on the regular team and won't be paid. But they will undoubtedly help the team — with its angry red-eyed soccer ball logo — get some attention and even sell some merchandise.
Last year, Kljestan was at a Southern California gym owned by a former Menace player who introduced him to the team's GM, Charlie Bales. Even though Kljestan — an MLS Season Pass analyst for Apple TV — hadn't played for more than a year, Bales convinced him to suit up for the Menace in the 2024 Open Cup.
The Menace won their first match against Southern California club Capo FC on penalties after a 2-2 draw, with Kljestan netting the game-winning spot kick. But the team was eliminated in the next round with a 3-1 loss to Union Omaha.
Kljestan said Feilhaber asked him if he was willing to give the Menace another go this year.
'He hit me up and asked if I was going to play again this year and if I was, if he could join, too. And I said, `OK, we're doing this, let's do it right, and let's get a whole cast of ex-MLS All-Stars and really give it a shot.'" Kljestan said. "So it was pretty easy to get most of the guys to join once Benny and I were in and threw the possibility out there.'
Founded in 1914, the Open Cup is the nation's oldest soccer competition. It includes both MLS and lower-tier teams, including amateur sides like the Menace.
Since the start of MLS in 1996, the only lower-division team to win the competition was the 1999 Rochester Raging Rhinos of the USL's second-tier A-League, which beat the Colorado Rapids 2-0 in the final.
In late 2023, MLS said it would pull senior teams from the tournament, and instead enter developmental clubs from MLS Next Pro. After blowback, eight MLS teams competed in 2024. This year there are 16.
'I love the Open Cup. I think it's a fantastic competition with the most history of almost any team sport in the United States. I'm glad that they found a solution and we got MLS teams back in the Open Cup because that's where they belong," Kljestan said. "I went to the final last year to watch LAFC play against Kansas City, and the atmosphere was fantastic and LAFC lifted the trophy. So I'm glad that they found a resolution that works right now."
___
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25 minutes ago
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31 minutes ago
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Now the principal owner of Nashville SC, Ingram's group paid $150 million for the Nashville franchise granted in December 2017. Sandhu, who played club soccer at Vanderbilt in the 1970s, helped start local youth programs, the Blues in 1978 and the Metros in 1989. The roster had players like three-time MLS Cup winner Richard Mulrooney and MLS goalkeeper Eddie Carvacho. 'It's a rocket ship that had been sitting on the launching pad for 70 years,' Sandhu said of the sport's explosive growth in Nashville. Soccer boom The roots kept growing in 1976 when the Tennessee State Soccer Association opened. High schools followed with sanctioned championships in 1986-87. When Hans Hobson was hired as a coach for the Olympic developmental team, practices were held at the Metros' field next to a prison. Hobson had to reassure parents it was safe to practice there. 'You were willing to take whatever,' Hobson said. "We've kind of gotten kind of snobby now. ... 'Why are we playing on this field? 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Stephen Robinson, president of the Roadies' group between 2020 and 2023, recalls getting permission to tailgate with a friend in the parking lot at Vanderbilt University for Nashville SC games. Now he commutes to Nashville from Washington D.C. for games with people he considers family. 'There's way more than two people nowadays, but you get that sense of just being a part of something,' Robinson said. They do more than just party before matches and chant and sing through games. The Roadies, a non-profit group, help fund local youth soccer through Soccer for the Nations in an outreach started when one of their founders, Kyle Mountsier, took soccer balls to Haiti in 2014. 'We're the dumb idiots that want to make a city better," said Newton Dominey, a Roadies founder and original president in 2014. Southern company Nashville is hardly alone among Southern locales embracing soccer culture. 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Peterson contributed. ___
New York Times
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New York is expected to do an exhaustive search that includes coaches at every level, per league sources. However, the expectation for this franchise is to win a championship. Whoever is hired has to carry the weight of that. The Knicks decided to move on from Thibodeau — a decision that The Athletic reported after the Knicks' season ended was in the hands of owner James Dolan — during a coaching cycle that isn't overflowing with heavily experienced, successful head coaches. Former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, a champion, is the biggest name on the market with championship experience. Malone, like Thibodeau, is a very good coach, but he shares many tendencies and traits with Thibodeau. Former Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown is an experienced name out there, as well. Former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins is, too. Ex-Los Angeles Lakers Lakers head coach Darvin Ham and former Charlotte Hornets head coach James Borrego could also be of interest. They are all good coaches and have had various degrees of success, though only Malone has won a championship as a head coach among that group. Would any of those names be clear-cut upgrades over Thibodeau? Not on paper, at least. That the Knicks fired Thibodeau and are currently juggling the idea of trying to pry away currently employed head coaches suggests that Thibodeau's firing might have been made without a sure-fire successor in mind. With that said, maybe the Knicks' decision-makers really believe Kidd is attainable. The Mavericks head coach has connections to several members of the Knicks organization, including star guard Jalen Brunson and Knicks vice president of sports medicine Casey Smith. Furthermore, Kidd didn't always enjoy being Dallas' spokesperson in the aftermath of the franchise trading Luka Dončić, per league sources. In a Feb. 10 game against the Kings, Mavericks center Daniel Gafford got hurt. 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In 2014, the Milwaukee Bucks acquired his coaching rights from the Brooklyn Nets for two second-round picks.) Lastly, maybe there is an expectation that owners get involved to work something out. They've proved they can work together in other settings. Dolan's Sphere in Las Vegas is on property owned by Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson. A lot of moving parts would have to work in the Knicks' favor in order to make Jason Kidd their next head coach. There's nothing wrong with targeting an employed head coach for their vacant position. Due diligence is good. It just seems a little odd that it appears to be Plan A. The Knicks have backed themselves into a corner between the firing of Thibodeau and this upcoming hire. They've made it clear that what the winningest coach in recent franchise history did wasn't good enough to reach their ultimate goal of a championship. It'll be tough for New York's suits to win the headlines and backpages with the next head coach, unless they have something up their sleeves, which is totally possible. Until the big reveal, though, the Knicks appear to be in limbo. No available coach is an obvious upgrade or change of pace from Thibodeau. Getting a proven coach from another team seems far-fetched. Hiring an inexperienced or first-year head coach, while it might end up being the right decision a year from now, is a difficult sell to fans who now have heightened expectations after several successful seasons and based on the franchise's own language following the firing of Thibodeau. New York just has to get this right. Maybe it will. Right now, though, this all feels lackluster. Christian Clark and Fred Katz contributed reporting.
