On the Pitch
Open Cup
On the Pitch
On the Pitch
U.S. Open Cup Final Preview: Columbus Crew, St. Louis CITY SC Clash for American Soccer Glory
The 111th edition of America’s national club championship culminates Wednesday evening as the surging Columbus Crew and red-hot St. Louis CITY SC meet with silverware on the line
The 111th edition of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is nearing its climactic conclusion. Between last September’s First Qualifying Round and Wednesday evening’s Final, more than 200 clubs from 39 states and territories have competed across more than 200 matches. It all culminates tomorrow evening, as U.S. Soccer’s national club championship will be settled at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio.
For MLS original Columbus, the Open Cup Final represents its seventh cup final appearance since 2020. A victory on Wednesday evening would mark the club’s fifth trophy over that span and first Open Cup crown since 2002. Interim head coach Laurent Courtois has his Crew surging after a slow start to the 2026 MLS regular season, and the club is now one win away from adding another trophy to a burgeoning collection since the start of the decade that features two MLS Cups (2020, 2023), a Leagues Cup (2024) and a Campeones Cup (2021).
Columbus’ turnaround has been remarkable. Following a 3W-7L-4D start to the regular season, Columbus made a coaching change, elevating assistant coach Laurent Courtois to interim head coach. Since then, Courtois has guided his side to an 11W-9L-2D record across all competitions. Despite several key playmakers departing the club this season—Diego Rossi, Max Arfsten and Hugo Picard, to name a few—Courtois has been able to effectively integrate a collection of talented additions—Brais Méndez, Santiago Rodríguez, Gonzalo Tapia and Josef Martínez, among others—and construct a late postseason push in league play.
“They always had certainty of what we try to do, but now they’re getting confident in the execution because they trust each other more, and because of the reps, we’ve been able to build through training and playing so many games,” Columbus interim head coach Laurent Courtois said of his team. “Their intentions were there, but when you're facing adversity, sometimes you might be a little bit hesitant. I believe that they are past that now, and that we won't hesitate. We will face adversity for sure, but at least they're confident of what we try to do.”
The Columbus Crew celebrate after their Semifinal victory against Orlando City SC at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field on Sept. 16, 2026 (Photo by Kirk Irwin/USSF/Getty Images)
For St. Louis—nearly three decades younger than Columbus—Wednesday’s Open Cup Final marks the four-year-old club’s first opportunity to claim a trophy. Fittingly, it’s a trophy that the city maintains a deep reverence for. St. Louis boasts 10 titles through six clubs over the course of nearly seven decades, going as far back as Ben Millers’ 1920 triumph and more recently with the Busch Seniors’ 1988 upset victory. It’s been four decades since a team from St. Louis has been crowned America’s national champion, by far the longest such stretch since the cup’s inaugural 1913-14 edition.
St. Louis’ new club, CITY SC, is no stranger to history. In its inaugural 2023 campaign, St. Louis became the first expansion side to win its conference, setting a league record for most victories by an expansion club (17) in the process. A first-round exit in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs followed by back-to-back postseason-less campaigns was a shock for the CITY SC faithful.
The club’s fourth season, though, has been a return to form. First-year head coach Yoann Damet kicked off his first season as an MLS head coach with more history, leading his side to its first-ever cup final and setting an MLS record with an unbelievable run of 21 unbeaten matches between May 9 and Oct. 14. Come Wednesday evening, Damet and CITY SC will be eager to write more history and cement themselves in the annals of St. Louis soccer lore.
“It has a lot of history. But like every other cup, a cup is a trophy, and it's another opportunity to win something,” Damet said of the Open Cup. “Like I said in January, it’s no different today. It was always going to be a competition that we were going to care about and that we were going to invest our energy and effort into. Right now, the history of the club is like nothing. So, we need to win it and keep striving to fill the trophy cabinet with something. Having that opportunity to win the first [trophy] is an amazing opportunity that we've earned throughout our journey in the competition this year.”
The size and significance of the match—potentially a fifth trophy in six years for Columbus or the first-ever piece of silverware for St. Louis—is certainly not lost on either squad. Still, veterans on either side remain stoic in their approach.
“Play the game and not the occasion,” Columbus defender Malte Amundsen said. “Sometimes you can get too focused on wanting to win that particular game that you freeze a little bit. For me, it’s about going out there and enjoying the fact that we’re able to be here to play a final. This is what we all dreamt of when we were kids. Maybe we don’t get this opportunity again. Maybe we will. We don’t know. But let’s enjoy this game for what it is, with the fans and the crowd. Again, it’s just a game against another MLS team that we play every week, so, let’s play the game.”
“It's the same games, the same rules. It's a normal game,” St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki said. “There's nothing special [about the game itself], it’s the people around it [that] make it special. The event makes it special. But the coach said it this morning: We play the game, not the event. So that's what everybody should keep in mind. It's obviously a privilege to be in a final to play for a trophy, but as soon as we step on the field, it's a game. It’s a game that we play a lot of, every weekend, every three days, and we are very good at the moment.”
Columbus’ run to its first Open Cup Final since 2010 started with back-to-back convincing victories against a pair of third-division USL League One challengers—first against the 1995 Open Cup-winning Richmond Kickers, then against defending League One champions One Knoxville SC. From there, the Crew constructed a pair of one-goal victories against MLS opposition—downing New York City FC on a Max Arfsten winner against his U.S. Men’s National Team partner Matt Freese in the Quarterfinals before outlasting Antoine Griezmann’s Orlando City SC in the Semifinals last month.
“The most important thing is that it’s not only one game; it’s everything in the year,” Columbus forward Josef Martínez said. “When you face a final, it’s different. I’m grateful to God that I’ve had the opportunity to play these kinds of games. But when you’re on the pitch, you’re only thinking about winning. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the better team or the worse team, or whether they have better players on the field. We’re 11 guys, and the most important thing is to fight until the end because you never know what’s going to happen. The final isn’t just about playing; it’s about winning. That’s the difference.”
Chris Durkin celebrates a St. Louis goal in the Semifinal match against the Colorado Rapids at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park on Sept. 16, 2026 (Photo by Dustin Bradford/USSF/Getty Images)
St. Louis kicked off its third Open Cup campaign with a 4-0 drubbing against second-division USL Championship runners-up FC Tulsa before dispatching three consecutive MLS opponents—all of whom are currently poised to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs. CITY SC came from behind to knock off Chicago Fire FC in the Round of 16, relied on backup goalkeeper Ben Lundt’s penalty kick shootout heroics in the Quarterfinals to send Houston Dynamo FC home, and handed the Colorado Rapids a three-goal home loss in the Semifinals.
“We give the same importance to both competitions,” Damet said of Open Cup and league play. “At the end of the day, I believe that the cup gave us something else to chew on and to get a different feeling, which was amazing. When you advance to the next round, it gives you confidence and it helps you grow as a team. So, was the cup important in our journey? Most definitely. I think it gave us that confidence and that growth that we needed in the regular season.
“Now at the end of the year, we’re in both of those competitions [and have] high aspirations,” Damet added. “When you're in the final, you know why you're there. In the regular season, we're also competing to reach what we want to reach in the end. So, I think it's a good place to be. I'm very excited about how we've been able to create momentum with the cup but also like in the league.”
Tomorrow evening in Columbus, a new champion of American soccer will be crowned, either extending Columbus’ recent dominance or returning to one of the soccer capitals of the country in St. Louis. A trophy will be handed off to the winning team’s captain—either adding to Columbus’ growing trophy case or kicking off St. Louis’ collection—and the winning side will also enjoy a $600,000 prize and a coveted berth into the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
Although both sides played league matches over the weekend and are on short rest, the expectation is full intensity and total focus for a high-stakes final.
“Tomorrow we’ll finalize the preparation, and I know that there’s a mental element to that game that defies the laws of the human body a little bit,” Damet shared. “When your mind wants it, and when you’re angry, it doesn’t matter how much rest you have. I think everybody is ready to go, no matter what.”
