The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup has its 110th edition kicking off this week, featuring a wide range of teams across American soccer. One of those is the Des Moines Menace, an amateur USL League Two team that’s brought in an incredible array of former MLS players for this year’s tournament. Four of those players, Sacha Kljestan, Dax McCarty, Osvaldo Alonso, and Bradley Wright-Phillips, are current analysts for Apple TV+’s MLS Season Pass coverage.
Kljestan recently spoke to Awful Announcing about this unusual team, which will start its campaign for this year’s record $1 million prize Wednesday against Sporting Kansas City II (interestingly enough, where Menace player Benny Feilhaber was just coaching). Kljestan said he works out at the MOXI3 gym in Newport Beach, California, and got involved with this Des Moines team ahead of last year’s Open Cup thanks to a connection from gym owner Matt Bourne.
“I was working out one day, and six guys from Des Moines were in town visiting Matt, visiting Southern California. And after the workout, one of the guys was like, ‘Hey, I’m the GM.’ His name’s Charlie Bales, he’s the mad genius behind all of this, he was the one who was like, ‘Come out of retirement, play in the Open Cup.’
“Basically, he convinced me last year, and I was able to get a couple of ex-MLS guys to join me. And then this year we’re running it back and we’ve got, I think, 13 or 14 ex-MLS guys on the roster for this first game, a bunch of guys that I know well, a bunch of superstars, former superstars, trying to make a little run at this thing.”
Suiting up for U.S. Open Cup play again was different for Kljestan, who retired from professional soccer following the 2022 season with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He said he went into last year’s experience not expecting anything in particular.
“I didn’t have any expectations at all. It was just exciting to get, after being a little more than a year retired and out of the game, just to play in a real soccer game again that meant something, that had some stakes on the line. That was pretty fun.”
He said it was exciting to get to play with younger members of the team.
“I got to play with a lot of young guys, some Des Moines locals who, you know, it was their dream to play for the Des Moines Menace. And I got to share the pitch with them, that was pretty special and pretty rewarding.”
The Menace actually posted a U.S. Open Cup win last year, which Kljestan said made the experience even more memorable for him.
“Then we won our first game, which was really fun, so we got to play again in the second round against Union Omaha, which is one of the best USL League One teams. They kicked our butts, but it was an awesome experience. I didn’t have any expectations going in, I just wanted to go out there and have fun and play the game that I love again, and it was an awesome opportunity.”
This year, the Menace Open Cup roster has an even larger list of former MLS players, with a combined one MLS Cup, nine Supporters’ Shields, and 10 U.S. Open Cup titles amongst the group. Three of those players, McCarty, Alonso, and Wright-Phillips, all work with Kljestan regularly on Apple’s MLS Season Pass, with Alonso primarily working on Spanish-language studio broadcasts La Previa and MLS 360 and the other three working in English on MLS Countdown, MLS 360, MLS Wrap-Up, and The Best of MLS. Kljestan said it’s terrific to get the chance to play with former teammates and rivals he now works with regularly.
“It’s very exciting with each one of those guys specifically because I’m with them in the studio every weekend for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+, so we spend every Saturday and Sunday together. And we’ve been so excited to get to play together again. For me, Dax, and Bradley, we played together on the 2015 New York Red Bulls, which won the Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup. We were the best team in the league and we just share such great memories of playing together, so the opportunity to play one more game or two more or three more games together was just too exciting to pass up.
“And then a guy like Ozzie who works in the Spanish studio, but we share a green room, we’re together, we’re in the same hotel every weekend when we fly in. Ozzie won four U.S. Open Cups with the Seattle Sounders, so he’s the best of the bunch in terms of success in the Open Cup, and he was just a bastard to play against. He’s one of the best defensive midfielders of all time in Major League Soccer. So to get to be on the same team this time and not kicking each other is just very exciting for us.”
A recent discussion across sports has been the importance of featuring recently-retired analysts who are still connected to current players. For Kljestan, that’s a great feature of this group.
“Just staying close to the game and having a bunch of us that are recently retired, just to have those connections within the league with Dax McCarty, for example, who’s recently joined our studio show after retiring in December. He’s played with so many guys in MLS that are still playing or played against them,” he said. “And we all know the coaches, we’ve played against them, we played with them. …To be able to reach out to people and just get the inside scoop on a little bit of stuff just adds a little bit to the studio shows that we’re able to produce.”
Of course, if the Menace can make a lengthy run here, there could be some potential conflicts for these broadcasters from going up against MLS teams they normally cover. Kljestan said they aren’t thinking that far ahead, though.
“If we get to that bridge where we’re playing against an MLS team, that’ll be something we’ll have to discuss and figure that out. But for the time being, I’m just going out there to play the game with a bunch of other guys that love the game that want to play a game of soccer that’s got some stakes in it. I’m not thinking about it much more than that.”
And while Kljestan may love getting the chance to play again here, he said working on the broadcasting side for the past two seasons has been great.
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Kljestan said MLS is in an excellent place as a league, and he thinks the current Apple/MLS approach to coverage is providing value for fans.
“I think we put a great product out on the field, and I’m just hopeful that I add a great product to the studio shows that revolve around the league. The games are the most important thing, but I think our studio shows are pretty fun and we create a good atmosphere around the league.”
He said the thrills of broadcasting aren’t quite the same as playing, but there’s plenty to enjoy in this new career.
“I’m really thankful to have this job. Nothing is as good as playing, there’s nothing that can compare to scoring a goal in front of 30,000 fans. Nothing can ever replicate that, I think, after you’re done playing. But being in a studio with a great group of people and having great people on our side trying to put a good product out there for all the fans to see, I think has been very fun and very rewarding.”
For now, though, Kljestan is excited to get to play again, and to do so in a tournament that matters a lot to him.
“I love the Open Cup. I always have. I’ve thought it’s a very exciting tournament. I also love history and I love the history of our sport. The U.S. Open Cup is, I’m pretty sure, the longest-standing, oldest team sports trophy in the United States. There’s a ton of history there, teams that have played in this tournament over the years, dating back over 100 years. I played in the tournament every year that I was a professional in the United States, and I’m just excited to play in the tournament again.”
There’s been some debate about the future of the Open Cup, especially with many MLS sides (including reigning champions Los Angeles F.C.) sending their feeder clubs instead. But there are still 16 full MLS clubs taking part this year (up from eight in 2024), providing chances for amateur sides to notch famed wins. Kljestan said that’s the greatness of an open cup format, and that’s being seen across the world.
“I think there’s a lot of value in it that it creates an opportunity for upsets. I think if we look at other cups like this around the world, if you look at the French Cup right now, you have a third-division team that has made the semifinals, and in the German Cup as well, there’s a third-division team that has made the semifinals of that tournament too.
“It always lends itself to these David versus Goliath stories of some lower or amateur or smaller professional teams getting to go up against the massive biggest clubs in the country. And I think it always creates a great storyline, and the games are always fun.”
Kljestan said he and his fellow MLS analysts are hoping their participation can lead to some more exposure for the tournament.
“The Open Cup’s just an awesome tournament and we’re all very excited to kind of shine a spotlight on a really historic tournament. Hopefully we create some buzz, inspire some young fans to come watch us play. And let’s see if the old men still got it.”
The Des Moines Menace will start their 2025 U.S. Open Cup campaign Wednesday night against Sporting Kansas City II at 7:30 p.m. ET. That match, and all of the first-round matches Tuesday, will be broadcast on YouTube.