For Major League Soccer fans of a certain vintage, Sunday afternoon’s Sporting Kansas City-Real Salt Lake conference semifinal is evocative of a simpler time. For a few years at the beginning of the last decade, this was the defining rivalry in MLS.
SKC-RSL never made much sense geographically, but there was legitimate animosity there. They were two small-market franchises swinging above their weight, two like-minded teams who enjoyed getting under each other’s skin. There was a legendary brawl during a preseason game, years of high-stakes playoff showdowns and a culmination at MLS Cup 2013, won by Sporting on penalties in front of their home crowd.
It’s only been eight years since that final, but already those matchups feel like they belong to a bygone era. The league has changed so much in the years since, and richer clubs in larger markets have split most of the recent titles.
The protagonists have changed, too. Matt Besler left Kansas City for expansion club Austin FC, then retired earlier this month. Benny Feilhaber retired in 2020 and is now head coach of the SKC U-17 academy squad. From the RSL side, Nick Rimando retired in 2019 and Kyle Beckerman a year later.
And yet here’s Graham Zusi, still out here doing it at age 35. Nor is he just a ceremonial figurehead sitting on the end of the bench; he scored a goal and added an assist in Kansas City’s first-round win over Vancouver last weekend, and has quietly put together one of his best seasons since making the move to right back.
I like to think of him as the MLS version of a lone cowboy standing on a bluff watching the continental railroad rumble past. And there was nobody better to chat with to put this weekend’s matchup and much more in context. Our conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
