It wasn’t always pretty, but Sporting Kansas City advanced out of the group stage and did so as the winners of Group D. They went 2-1-0 with wins over the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake after a disappointing stoppage time loss to Minnesota United.
Their opponents, the Vancouver Whitecaps, had a bit of a rougher road to the Round of 16 of the MLS is Back Tournament after going 1-2-0 with losses to the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders before pulling off a late win against the Chicago Fire to advance.