No matter who wins the 109th U.S. Open Cup Final, history will be made.
If it’s the home side, Los Angeles Football Club, it will mark the 2022 MLS Champions’ first time lifting the oldest and most historic soccer prize in this country’s history. Should it happen that MLS originals Sporting Kansas City win the day away, they’d raise the Open Cup trophy for the fifth time – and become the first side in the tournament’s Modern Era, and the first representative from MLS, to do so.
A victorious Sporting KC would join American soccer royalty of yesteryear. Bethlehem Steel, who ruled the early days and won their five Open Cups between 1915 and 1926, the Fall River Marksmen (1924, 1927, 1930, 1931 and 1932) and Maccabee AC of LA (five-time winners and seven-time Finalists of the 1970s and 80s) are the only three clubs who’ve worn the U.S. Open Cup crown five times.
Before we get too caught up in the sepia-tinted old-days, let's focus on the here and now. September 25th will see LA’s BMO Stadium lit up and dressed for a big modern party. A sold-out crowd is expected and LAFC are every inch the favorites to win the day.
“We want to make it a big party,” said Timothy Tillman, the former Bayern Munich prodigy who joined LAFC after their 2022 MLS triumph and is eager to lift his first trophy with the club. “We have a great chance to win a title at home in an important game – and we have to bring the energy on the field.”
Steve Cherundolo’s LAFC will be playing at home, in front of the fans who captain Ilie Sanchez calls “the best in the league.” They’re soaring in MLS’ western conference, currently in third as the playoffs approach. They were crowned MLS Champions in 2022 and are loaded with world-class talent like Olivier Giroud up front, his French World Cup-winning teammate Hugo Lloris in goal – and the likes of standouts Denis Bouanga and veteran metronome Ilie in between.
But the LAFC, who only first began life in 2018 and are among the most ambitious clubs in the U.S. top-flight, have lost their last three Finals (2023 MLS Cup, 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup and, most recently, the 2024 Leagues Cup Final). They’ll be desperate to halt that streak before it gets to four.
“The farther we get away from who we are as a team, because it’s a Final, the less chance we’ll have to win,” said LAFC’s zen master and deep-lying midfield skipper Ilie, who still remembers the Open Cup trophy he won as a member of Sporting Kansas City in 2017 as “a very special moment” and a “perfect start” to his “American soccer journey” which began eight months earlier.
“Sporting Kansas City have the chance to make their season here,” the captain, Ilie, said about his struggling former club limp into the Open Cup Final with MLS playoff hopes virtually gone. “They will invest everything in this. We must also do the same. And when the Final comes we have to give 120 percent, of course, and stay true to who we are.”
While LAFC head into the Final with legitimate dreams of winning a second MLS Cup out on the horizon, Sporting Kansas City, who’ve struggled through a miserable year in league play, really have no tomorrow to speak of. But as coach Peter Vermes – the longest-serving manager in MLS – recently said: “We’ve had times where we’ve had unbelievable moments of brilliance.”
But the coach also admits those moments have been overshadowed by periods where brilliance wasn’t the word top of mind. “We need to be 100-percent focused,” added Vermes, a former legend of the USMNT.
Sporting Kansas City can lean on their perfect record in Open Cup Finals. The Kansans won four of four – including one away from home in 2015. It’s also worth noting that they’ve only lost one MLS Cup Final out of their three.
“Opportunities to win trophies don't come around often,” said KC’s Scottish-born captain Johnny Russell, who joined the club in 2018 – one year after their last successful campaign in the 2017 Open Cup. “You have to do everything you can when that opportunity arises.”
Sporting Kansas City’s players will know, and most will accept, that they’ll be labeled as the underdog on the day of the Open Cup Final. Playing away, against a much ballyhooed opponent, makes them outsiders to lift an historic fifth trophy. But that – and we’ve seen it before – can be a secret advantage.
“Playing at home can work both ways,” said KC winger Erik Thommy, playing the head-games expected before a big Final. “We’re the underdogs, of course, away from home and were fine with that.”
William Agada, the always-smiling attacker who scored twice to help KC to the 2024 Final, is brimming with anticipation. “I can’t tell you what it would mean to help bring a trophy, and some glory, back to the people in Kansas City,” said the 25 year-old, who took a circuitous path from Nigeria to the American Midwest through the State of Israel. “I know what it means and I know how important it is.”
It should be noted that the only time these two teams – separated by 18 points in MLS’ western conference standings – met this season was way back in March. That game ended in a goalless draw.
“Rarely do you get chances to play in Finals or lift trophies,” said SKC Coach Vermes, who'll know the Open Cup – a trophy he’s won three times with SKC – is likely his side’s only chance to put some gloss on a poor 2024. “When you do get the chance you can't miss out on the opportunity because you don't know how many of them you’re going to get as a professional.”
“I've always been really clear with our teams over the years,” Vermes added. “When you’re in Finals you have to understand: This could be the one, and the last one.”
Whoever lifts the trophy after the final whistle at BMO Stadium on September 25th is sure to be making their own kind of history. A first or a fifth, it will be a triumph to celebrate long into the hot Los Angeles night. So be sure not to miss out on all the action and WATCH for FREE on APPLE TV.
Fontela is editor-in-chief of usopencup.com. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.