MLS Champions.  And on a frigid night, a sell-out crowd roared their approval and the whole city felt it.  It’s eye opening to see that one team can bring the whole city together in a way no one has ever seen before. The last time we won in 2000, most Kansas City citizens didn’t even know about the team, much less the game. Watching the game grow into what it has become today has been, by far, the greatest experience of my life. But it was a hard fought road to this championship

A sell-out crowd of 21,650 fans bundled in layers of clothing and wrapped in blankets made their way into Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. to watch Sporting Kansas City beat the Houston Dynamo and win the Eastern Conference Final on Nov. 23, 2013.

Sporting KC played the second half of the two game series at home and beat Houston 2-1 on aggregate scoring. With this win Sporting Kansas City not only went to the MLS Cup, but hosted it On Dec. 7, 2013. This is the first time since 2004 that Kansas City has made it to the league Championship.

For the past two years, the Houston Dynamo have knocked Sporting KC out of the playoffs; once in the Eastern Conference Final in 2011 and once in the conference semi-final in 2012. The Kansas City team had a lot to fight for this time around, knowing that a win would mark a historic year for the club and eventually prove that Houston can’t and won’t stop them in their run for the championship. Kansas City finally prevailed.

As a diehard fan and Season Ticket Holder, I’d been waiting for this moment since my fandom began in the summer of 2011. Each time the playoffs came around, I braced myself for the worst and prayed that my beloved team would pull through. After years of disappointment, I couldn’t have been happier than I was that night. When the final whistle was blown, I turned to my sister and immediately started crying. We’d done it. We’d won. We’re going to the championship.

With the excitement that took everything besides my frozen toes, I came to the realization that Dec. 7 was going to be the best day of my life. Not only was it the championship game that left me just enough time after to make it to Winter Formal, but it will also be my 17th birthday. I wouldn’t want to spend it anywhere but Sporting Park, and after years of subpar birthdays, I was excited to see what this one had to hold.

After two weeks of waiting, Dec. 7 finally came around I couldn’t be more scared. Soccer fans develop this thing called “the terror” before a big game. Pretty much, it’s just the fear of losing and everything that goes along with it. No matter how optimistic you are, every fan gets “the terror’ at some point. I realized that the day could be the best day of my life, or it could easily spiral into the worst. No matter what happened, win or lose, this game would be the last, and I wasn’t ready for the season to end. No one was. That only motivated 21,650 of us to go out to Kansas City, Kans. one more time to make the most of the 90 minutes we had left.

Game day came around I couldn’t be more excited. Sporting Park hosted another sellout crowd for possibly the biggest game in it’s existence. The clapping and singing and jumping couldn’t keep our bodies warm, but it kept our spirits high throughout the 90 minutes of regulation, two 15 minutes halves of overtime, and 20 penalty kicks. The game was tied 1-1 going into penalties, and 6-5 in penalties when Lovel Palmer stepped out to take the last kick for Real Salt Lake. This would either add another round of penalty kicks or crown Sporting Kansas City as MLS Cup champions. He stepped up, kicked, and bounced it off the crossbar. The rest is history.

As I was in the car on the way back from the game trying to figure out how much time I had to get ready for winter formal when it hit me. This team hasn’t just changed my life, but it’s affected everyone else in the city. That night the playoff slogan “#LOUDER” was projected onto various building around the city. Tweets were coming in from the Kansas City Royals, the Chiefs, and other important Kansas City figures congratulating Sporting KC on their big win.

Television ratings were impressive as well, the game had more viewers than the University of Kansas basketball game, but was second to the University of Missouri’s SEC Championship game in Atlanta, Ga. At that moment, I couldn’t have been prouder to call myself a Sporting Kansas City supporter.