Soccer In America

The Best Sports Tournament You Aren’t Watching: The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup

Believe in the magic of the U.S. Open Cup!

Most Americans are familiar with the U.S. Opens in tennis and golf. Even non-fans of those sports (raises hand) have heard of them. Part of the romance of these tournaments is the idea that a player could come out of nowhere and have that Cinderella story. An unranked player could beat pros in the sport. David vs Goliath stuff.

Soccer in America has its own U.S. Open. Yes, that amateur soccer team you play in after work can compete for the U.S. Open Cup and potentially progress to playing against and defeating professional teams. Don’t scoff. It’s happened.

Football (throwball) fans may ask why this soccer tournament is named after Lamar Hunt, the late owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt was promoting soccer in America way back in 1967 as an owner of the Dallas Tornado. He was also a major investor in Major League Soccer(MLS). Without his investments, soccer in America would not have progressed as it has. To this day, the Hunt family maintains ownership of F.C. Dallas in MLS.

The U.S. Open Cup was originally known as the National Challenge Cup when it first took place in 1913. It was held every year except 2020 and 2021. Now it’s back in 2022 — woohoo! MLS enters the competition on April 19. The expectation is that they will beat their lower division competition. No guarantees, though. The U.S. Open Cup is magic.

I have selected three games since 2009, the first year I watched, that encapsulate why I love the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and its magic.

Full Disclosure: I am a big Seattle Sounders FC fan. That being said, I try not to let that loyalty blind me. I’ll do my best not to repeatedly point out that the Sounders won it in 2009, 2010 & 2011. They are tied with Greek American Atlas Astoria — who won it in 1967, 1968, 1969 — for the most consecutive wins of the U.S. Open Cup.

Remember how I said amateur teams have beaten professional teams in this tournament? Why not start there? And not just because it involves the Sounders’ biggest rival.

2012 — Cal FC vs Portland Timbers 0:1

The Timbers just became an expansion team in MLS in 2011 after playing in the lower division. Cal FC is an amateur team out of Thousand Oaks. In 2012, they could’ve called themselves the Rejects or Ringers because many of their players were former pros. Even their coach, former USNMT star Eric Wynalda, was essentially auditioning to become a pro coach. Making this many excuses almost makes me sound like a Timbers fan.

No amount of explanations justify how bad the Timbers played. They had approximately a hundred shots on goal and couldn’t score any of them! That may be an exaggeration. Let’s just say it was an unacceptably high number. If you had to guess which was the pro team, you’d only know based on the kits they’re wearing. It was such a lousy performance by the Timbers, I went from laughing at them to feeling embarrassed for them. Look at that goal!

In the next round, Cal FC faced the Seattle Sounders and lost 5–0.

2015 — Portland Timbers vs Seattle Sounders 3:1

There have been plenty of U.S. Open Cup games where the Sounders have beaten the Timbers. I even promised I wouldn’t mention how the Sounders won it three years in a row, while the Timbers have won it zero times. Oops! However, this game was such a hot mess you’d think it was a fake game in a slapstick comedy. The Sounders ended the game with 7 players. Not a typo. One of the 3(!) red cards was given to former USMNT star Clint Dempsey. It may be the greatest red card ever earned.

Here are full “highlights” of this train wreck masquerading as a soccer game.

In the next round, the Timbers faced Real Salt Lake and lost 2–0.

Wait, I promised magic didn’t I?

2017 — Chicago Fire vs FC Cincinnati 0:0 (1–3 PKs)

Back in 2017, FC Cincinnati was in the USL, the second tier league in the US. The Chicago Fire were one of the original MLS teams when the league launched in 1997, long before NBC named a show after them. Inexplicably, this one game in the round of 16 aired on television vs just streaming on YouTube and team websites. Because ESPN gonna ESPN, they didn’t air the quarterfinals.

Or did their programming director’s psychic tell them this game would be magical?

To begin with, FC Cincy’s stadium was sold out. The crowd was loud and into it like it was a championship game. Back then a lot of MLS teams had such poor attendance, you wished they wouldn’t show the stands. MLS intended to name the next expansion team in 2018. FC Cincinnati proved they were worthy of getting that honor before the first kick.

This was not a case where Chicago played bad. It was that FC Cincy’s keeper Mitch Hildebrandt was phenomenal.

F.C. Cincinnati made it all the way to the semi-finals! Their Cinderella run was ended by MLS’ New York Red Bulls, who won 3–2.

F.C. Cincy did get that coveted expansion team slot announced in 2018, and joined MLS in 2019. Unfortunately, as of April 2022, F.C. Cincy still hasn’t found their footing in MLS.

ESPN+ streams the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup games. Highlights are available on YouTube. Will you check it out?

I’d watch other soccer leagues, but my caffeine stockpile needs funding first.