Zimmerman, Callaghan, Vassilev and the Ties that Bind in the 2025 U.S. Open Cup Quarters
See how the Open Cup is the connective tissue of soccer in the United States – especially between 2025 Quarterfinalists Indiana Vassilez of the Philadelphia Union and Walker Zimmerman and BJ Callaghan of Nashville SC.
Everyone has an Open Cup story.
If you’re a pro in the United States for any amount of time, you’ll bump up against our oldest and most venerable tournament. It might not be a glorious trophy-lift, like Walker Zimmerman did a decade ago in his FC Dallas days. Sometimes it’s multiple so-close-yet-so-far agonies of defeat, like Zimmerman’s current Nashville SC coach BJ Callaghan felt in Philadelphia. It’s there, right on the banks of the Delaware River in PA with the Philadelphia Union, where Indiana Vassilev is now just three wins from lifting his own Open Cup after a season learning the tournament’s meaning and history in St. Louis.
Before his man-bun was long enough to knot, and long before he decided to cut it off earlier this year, Zimmerman was a 22-year-old kid nibbling around the edges of the FC Dallas first team. The Texas club, known previously as the Dallas Burn and founded by our tournament’s namesake and soccer pioneer, Lamar Hunt, was mired in a 19-year trophy drought when the central defender helped win the 2016 Final, played at home against the New England Revolution.
A baby-faced Walker Zimmerman with the 2016 Open Cup trophy in Dallas
“For all of my teammates and the fans in Dallas, it was amazing,” he said of that night when relief mixed with ecstasy and the most historic trophy in American soccer went up into the humid North Texas air. “Winning a trophy like that, all together, is something you just don’t forget. It makes you want to try to lift that thing again.”
Zimmerman, who had a stint with LAFC (Open Cup Champs of 2024) between his time in Dallas and his move to Nashville in 2020, is now the team leader in Tennessee at the ripe old age of 32. And while he’s hoping to lift the trophy again, his coach, BJ Callaghan, wants only to wash a sour taste from his mouth.
“Our team takes tremendous pride in participating in the U.S. Open Cup,” said Coach Callaghan, who before coming to Nashville – and before his memorable time as a cult-hero USMNT boss in 2023 – knew only Open Cup agonies with the Philadelphia Union. He was a beloved assistant coach there when the Chester, PA-based MLS club lost three Finals (two at home, and in a row) between 2014 and 2018.
“The Open Cup, for me, is one of the great trophies you can win in this country,” said the coach who, famously, went undefeated as USMNT interim boss through seven games in charge.
“It's got such history,” Callaghan added about the Open Cup, just one of the prizes his outstanding Nashville SC are chasing in 2025. “We take it very seriously. One, because that's the respect that the tournament deserves. Two, we are a club that wants to pursue trophies.”
In addition to a first for Coach Callaghan, a win in the Open Cup this year would also be a first Open Cup (or a first trophy of any kind) for the high-flying Nashville club that began life in MLS in 2020.
“I've had the privilege and opportunity to coach in the U.S. Open Cup and also been there for three Finals and have lost in three Finals,” said Callaghan, who's one of a trio of former USMNT coaches still alive among the Last Eight in this 2025 Open Cup (Gregg Berhalter of Chicago Fire and Bruce Arena of San Jose Earthquakes are the other two). “From an individual standpoint, a team standpoint, a club standpoint, or also just what it means to the ecosystem here in the United States, it's a great opportunity.”
Midfielder Indiana Vassilev has the chance to bring that long-awaited Open Cup trophy to the Union – and set right that long run of losing Finals. Before arriving at the PA club, he got a first taste of the Open Cup in St Louis – a city whose success in, and devotion to, our tournament is legendary.
“Passion for the Open Cup definitely runs deep in St. Louis with its massive history,” said the former St. Louis CITY SC and Aston Villa man Vassilev about his former home in Missouri’s Gateway City, which has produced ten Open Cup Champions through the years. “As a player, you always want to lift a trophy.”
With his new club, the Union – who are flying up at the zenith of the overall MLS standings this year as well as still alive with an Open Cup Quarterfinal date at home, Vassillev is two wins away from a Final and three from a coveted trophy.
“Any opportunity to win a Cup with your team is obviously a huge incentive for the players,” he said, as he gets set to take on the Red Bulls, from the NYC Metro Area, a place, like Philadelphia and St. Louis both, with deep roots in the Open Cup’s fertile soil. “We're definitely looking to make a deep run.”
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