Fans of the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup live by its magic moments. And the Second Round of the 2025 competition tossed up a good few of those between April 1-2. Join us for a look back at eight moments of note from the 16 games in which 52 goals were scored, everyone’s favorite underdogs El Farolito shocked their betters again and Portland, Maine’s Hearts of Pine knit more high drama up north – this time with a major Cupset.
There was something about how El Farolito beat Div. II USL Championship pros Monterey Bay FC. It wasn’t so much that they did it. After all, they’ve made a habit of the kinds of underdog heroics we saw at Cardinale Stadium on Tuesday night. The winning goal was picture perfect in that imperfect Open Cup way. It came in the 83rd minute, seven minutes to go. Much, much later than most amateur teams are able to hang around and remain relevant against the pros. The tension built as Dembor Benson’s header was pushed off the crossbar by Samuel Gomez, Monterey’s outstanding goalkeeper. A scramble ensued. It was defined by desperation. And inevitability. Jonathan Perez’s follow-up shot from six yards was cleared off the line. So was the first try of Edgard Kreye, arriving in the box late. But with his second effort, he hit the back of the net to spark off multiple celebrations, brushfires of El Farolito yellow as the players embraced and soaked it all in. These moments are so fleeting, when the Magic of the Cup is conjured, but El Farolito had the uncommon courtesy of letting us linger in the madness and the beauty and, of course, the chaos, for a few seconds longer.
There was another Cupset that day. The team that pulled off the first one, young Columbus Crew 2, like El Farolito, usually wear yellow. And right there is where the similarities end. The average age of this MLS NEXT Pro side is just over 19 and the team is a feeder academy and reserve squad for our 2002 Champions the Columbus Crew of MLS. It's a kind of high-concept soccer lab. Slick and stylish and well-prepped. They play every day and get paid for the pleasure. We are not here to knock good organization and the common refrain of growing the game, but let us appreciate, also, the beauty in the cracks and the bumps, the natural simplicities and imperfections – what the Japanese call Wabi Sabi – of our friends El Farolito. Born in the ethnic leagues of San Francisco, the bump and grind of Boxer and Kezar Stadiums. From the hard-knock semi-pro days of the early 90s, when they won the Open Cup under the name CD Mexico, the club – with connections to a Mexican food staple born in the Mission District – skews older and wilier and the players learned their trade where the nitty gets gritty. They’re part-timers, passed a few bucks under the table, sure, and they know who and what they are. In the end, both teams won the day – so we celebrate both. For ours is a big tent.
On now to Lewiston, Maine. This down-at-the-heels mill town in Northern New England is fast becoming the Toast of the 2025 Open Cup. Portland Hearts of Pine were heavy underdogs against Hartford Athletic, Division II pros of the USL Championship. Down a man and a goal with four minutes of extra-time to go, you could forgive some of the frozen-solid fans heading for the gates and the warming cocoas of home. But there was more to come. There was the drama of penalties to endure. And it was all caused by an unlikely equalizer, in the 116th minute of play, by one Jake Keegan. The 33-year-old journeyman, a veteran of this country’s lower-leagues and others overseas, entered the game two minutes earlier. A hopeful hoof up and out from the back took an untrue bounce off the old, worn turf. Its course altered, just so, bouncing back toward him. Keegan got to the ball first and lifted it over the goalkeeper. It arced high in the sky, up where flakes of stubborn spring snow began to dance in the floodlights. It hung there forever before finally returning to earth to bounce again. This time, up into the roof of the net ahead of a pursuing defender. The ball is round, as the old saying goes. It can bounce any way it pleases. And in the Open Cup, dear friends, those bounces can be unruly.
Speaking of the ball and how it bounces, and all the ways the cookie crumbles, what a night we had in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Over 12,000 fans turned out to Finley Stadium for the first-ever meeting between long-standing home side Chattanooga FC, now of MLS NEXT Pro and so long a beacon for grassroots soccer in this country, and USL League One side Chattanooga Red Wolves. To say these two clubs have bad blood is, well, an understatement. And CFC’s claims to authenticity and originality – and being Chattanooga’s one true club – are valid enough on the surface. But on the fields of the Open Cup, that fickle stage where tension cranks and nerves can take over, the ball might not do your bidding. Chattanooga’s City Hall may have been lit up blue the night before the big game, the vast majority of the huge crowd may have been blue too – but in the end it was a red dawn on the field. A red flag waved over Chattanooga after the final whistle. The Open Cup, it would seem, isn’t in love with scripts. Even the well-written ones.
The lanky Yaniv Bazini has had a busy year. We remember this rangy forward – a menace near any goal – from his first time in our Open Cup. Last year, with the summer league amateurs of Vermont Green, he helped orchestrate a 4-3 First Round Cupset of pros Lexington SC in front of a huge crowd in Burlington. It was an immaculate night of Open Cup Magic. And the photograph, snapped by the magnificent Maddie Meyer and seen above, lives on as one of the indelible images of our 2024 tournament. So imagine how thrilled we were to see Mr. Bazini beginning his pro career in this year’s Open Cup, trading Vermont frosts for the moist haze of Statesboro, Georgia and Div. III side Tormenta. He came off the bench late against spirited amateurs FORO SC to provide a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win. That, in itself, is more than enough to be remembered by us forever. But Bazini, in the year between his Vermont Green heroics and now, was top-scorer for the University of Vermont Catamounts who made history by winning the 2024 NCAA National Div. I Championship.
There’s another noteworthy rise through the ranks. This one’s on the other side of the white stripe. Open Cup Sickos might recognize the coach of FC Naples – that skinny frame and ponytail. It’s Matt Poland, former boss of amateur Cinderellas Chicago House AC. In 2023, he guided that side to our Third Round and a famous date with MLS neighbors and four-time Open Cup Champs the Chicago Fire. So how did he become the head coach AND sporting director of brand-new professional side FC Naples in the USL League One? “I walked right up to the owner, told him I was a soccer coach from the area and that we should talk,” Poland told us in a recent interview. A man of competence and confidence, he’s guided his new Sunshine Staters past a tricky local derby with side Sarasota Paradise that needed late heroics and before orchestrating a 3-0 rout of the Little Rock Rangers (both amateur sides). Up next? A visit from one of the oldest pro teams in the country, the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship, who will be huge favorites. “It won’t always be easy, but we’ll get through it together,” said Poland. And that sounds a lot like the kind of all-for-one ethos you come to lean on in the Sunday leagues. “Sometimes it’s easier when you’re the underdog.”
Aren’t the stats so beguiling? What is there to be learned from all these numbers? Much? Nothing? Something? What’s the square root of a magic spell? Well, hell, here we go. A number that matters: 52. That many goals were scored across the 16 games of the Second Round. That, friends, is more than three per game. This is a number we approve of. So is zero – which, incidentally, is how many 0-0 draws we were forced to endure. The number 3 is also worth considering. It’s how many goals new man Pancho Bonfiglio has scored in two Open Cup games for Miami FC. And now, a stat we could only rely on our friends at theCup.us to provide. 12 is the number of years between Luis Gil's goal in Spokane Velocity’s 2025 loss to Tacoma Defiance and his first-ever in the Open Cup – way back in 2012 with Real Salt Lake (A 3-1 loss to the NASL’s Minnesota Stars). Oh, and remember that goal by El Farolito – from way up at the top? Well that goal, aside from all its other charms, was worth $50,000 U.S. Dollars – as it made the beloved Burrito Boys the farthest-surviving amateur team in the Open Cup for a second year running. We close with the number 12,131. That’s how many fans packed into Finley Stadium for the Chattanooga Derby. It’s 659 bodies shy of our Second Round attendance record of 12,790 set by FC Cincinnati (in their USL days) in 2017.
These goodbyes are hardest. Trust us when we tell you. No one brave enough to fight it out on the fields of the Open Cup can ever be called a loser. So to those who went out there in this Second Round, we salute you today and always. FORO SC, the relentless Dallas amateurs, you pushed all the way for a second straight matchday. So did Virginia Dream, up against the big boys from across the state in Loudoun County. And you Pancyprian Freedoms – three times our Champions in the so-called dark days of the 1980s – everyone thought you were dead when you sprung back to life and gave the pros of Westchester SC a late scare. Of course, there’s the Des Moines Menace, and their well-meaning band of aging stars led by noted Open Cup Romantic Sacha Kljestan and legends like Benny Feilhaber, Dax McCarty and four-time Champion Ozzie Alonso. We appreciate all your efforts and hope you return soon to delight us again with your commitment and your banter.
So there we have it. Time to take a breath, gather ourselves and go again – for a Third Round between April 15 and 16 when the cream of the Div. II USL Championship clubs debut. It’s right there around the corner. That constant tomorrow.
See you soon, friends.
Fontela is editor-in-chief of ussoccer.com/us-open-cup. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.