kc sports magazine wraps up the i-70 series with a glimpse into the kc-stl soccer rivalry and what is to come in the years ahead.
The I-70 Series may be struggling in football, hockey and baseball, but it is thriving in the soccer communities.
The newest rivalry in Major League Soccer is one many years in the making. It features two cities that claim to be the Soccer Capital of America. St. Louis CITY SC boasts of their city’s long and proud soccer history and culture. Sporting Kansas City boasts of the great success and how transformative they have been for American soccer recently. The MLS is the second active KC-STL soccer rivalry, following the Comets-Ambush rivalry in the MASL.
America’s First Soccer Capital: St. Louis
St. Louis has deep soccer roots tracing back to 1875, rightfully earning the label as America’s first soccer capital having produced 76 players for the U.S. Men’s National Team. Part of what made St. Louis such a soccer-centric city was the St. Louis Soccer League, a soccer league that spanned over two decades and was the nation’s only professional soccer league in the nation at one point in the early 20th century.
Teams from STL have won 10 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles with amateur teams and the St. Louis University men’s soccer team won 10 National Titles between 1959 and 1972 before the St. Louis Ambush won the city’s only indoor soccer championship in 1994.
No city has more Open Cup championships or NCAA men’s soccer titles. Where they are deficient is professional soccer success. Despite the 11-year reign of the NASL’s St. Louis Stars and more than four decades of indoor soccer history, St. Louis only has one championship: the Ambush’s 1994 NPSL title. St. Louis CITY SC will aim to change that.
Just a few St. Louisans that will sound familiar to American soccer fans include Tim Ream (U.S. National Team defender), Josh Sargent (U.S. National Team forward), Brian McBride (U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame forward), Pat McBride (U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame midfielder), Taylor Twellman (2-time MLS MVP) and Frank Borghi (goalkeeper who was one of five St. Louisans on the 1950 World Cup squad that upset England).
America’s Recent Soccer Capital: Kansas City
Kansas City glorifies its championship culture across its sports scene with a hugely transformative soccer culture in recent history. Since 2013, KC has celebrated championships in MLS, NFL, MLB, NWSL, indoor soccer and independent baseball.
Specifically in soccer, Sporting Kansas City’s 2011 rebrand transformed the club and MLS. Every aspect of the club dramatically improved after the rebrand with attendance skyrocketing as the team immediately contended for trophies and has won four trophies since 2012. That opened the doors for championships in indoor soccer with the Comets and women’s soccer with FC Kansas City.
But pre-2011 history cannot be forgotten. Kansas City celebrated its first championship in 1969 when the NASL’s Kansas City Spurs won the league title. The Kansas City Attack won the first two indoor soccer championships in the 1990s before the Kansas City Wizards won the 2000 MLS Cup. Kansas City has celebrated 12 professional soccer championships.
History of soccer in the I-70 Series
Kansas City seems to have enjoyed the edge whenever these two cities have met up over the years. It all started back on April 27, 1968, when the Kansas City Spurs thumped the St. Louis Stars 4-0 in a nationally televised game on CBS with a crowd of over 6,000 at Municipal Stadium.
Kansas City went on to play St. Louis numerous other times, with the Spurs winning most of the contests including a 5-0 win in August 1969. The Spurs won the championship that year before folding in 1970, bringing an end to the short-lived NASL I-70 Series.
Just over a decade later, in 1981, the rivalry was born indoors when the Kansas City Comets and St. Louis Steamers competed in the Major Indoor Soccer League. The Steamers dominated the rivalry for the first several years and knocked KC out of the playoffs in 1984, but the Comets eventually found their footing. The Comets returned the favor in 1985 and knocked STL out of the playoffs. Both sides battled it out over the years through various iterations, which continues on today in the MASL with the Comets and Ambush.
In the outdoor world, the I-70 Series was reignited once again after 45 years when MLS power Sporting KC was drawn against USL outfit St. Louis FC in the fourth round of the 2015 U.S. Open Cup. In STLFC’s second year of existence, this result could have gotten ugly. With a solid number of traveling supporters inside Sporting Park, the visitors managed to avoid an egregious defeat but were eliminated as Sporting took the 1-0 win after Graham Zusi’s 70th-minute header from a Benny Feilhaber cross proved to be the winner. SKC went on to win the 2015 Open Cup.
The rivalry got a taste of more constant action when the Swope Park Rangers (Sporting development team) matched up with STLFC in the USL. In 14 games, STLFC dominated with seven wins, five draws and just two losses until STLFC ceased operations following the 2020 season.
At long last, the MLS I-70 Series was born in 2023 between Sporting KC and expansion side St. Louis CITY FC. SKC had hopes of a team that could compete towards the top of the table while STL had much lower expectations. The regular season proved otherwise however as SKC barely earned a playoff spot after starting winless in their first 10 games while STL won the West.
The inaugural matchup came in St. Louis on May 20, 2023, and just like in 1968, the hosts thrashed the visitors 4-0. More than three months later, SKC responded and beat STL 2-1 to seemingly set up the rubber match in St. Louis several weeks later. After a tight affair, St. Louis finally opened the scoring in the 73rd minute to start a 4-1 rout.
But the series was far from over. Both sides met in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs and this time it did not go in favor of the top-seeded STL in the best-of-three series. Lowest-seeded Sporting went into hostile territory and made a huge statement with a 4-1 road win in game one. Sporting then finished the job a week later with a 2-1 win on home soil to eliminate St. Louis from the playoffs as Sporting stole the season series over STL 3-2.
Part I: The KC vs STL Overview — Released on Oct. 11
Part II: Baseball’s I-70 Origins — Released on Oct. 18
Part III: True Rivals Indoors — Released on Oct. 25
Part IV: Exhibiting the Rivalry in the NFL — Released on Nov. 1
Part V: Hockey’s Limited Action — Released on Nov. 8
Part VI: Soccer is the Past, Present and Future — Released on Nov. 15
Kansas City Sports Magazine 