Fans of the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup live by its magic moments. And the Round of 32 of the 2025 competition tossed up a good few of those between May 6-7. Join us for a look back at eight moments of note from the 16 games in which MLS asserted its Major League Dominance and Bob Lilley’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds became lone Cinderella standard bearers for dreamers everywhere with the round’s single Cupset.
It’s a development we must consider. Near-total dominance of teams from this country’s Division I, Major League Soccer, upon entry in the Round of 32. It’s never gone thus, thinking back hard as we might, that 15 clubs from MLS bullied through to the Round of 16, boxing out those spirited contenders from the lower leagues. This is the first year, ever, since the invention of MLS in 1996 that 15 teams from the top flight have reached the Final 16 and we must ask the question: Why? Well, hell, we don’t know exactly. But a commitment to showing out, to not being bounced and embarrassed at the first hurdle in this most historic of competitions, surely had something to do with it. Rotated squads that featured the best of MLS’ youth ranks wedged into hybrid teams with excellent veteran presence, created a synergy that was hard to contend with. And the return of some teams after missing out on last year’s edition, seemed to create a reunion of spirit and purpose. St. Louis and Philadelphia Union – clubs and regions with deep history in our Open Cup – showed out in front of fans, some of whom carried banners with slogans like SAVE USOC and The Cup Matters. And while we’d argue we don’t need saving – we’ve been here all along – the latter, dear friends, is right as spring rain.
It’s a time, then, of reflection for our Division II friends from the USL Championship. All but one of their representatives were humbled in this Round of 32 – so often a showpiece stage full of upsets and chips on shoulders. But let’s focus on the one who stood tall. It’s no surprise the round’s only Cupset came on the banks of the mighty Monongahela, with the late-day sun glinting off the buildings of downtown Pittsburgh. A ball was lost early in the game, gobbled up by the river, before a train rolled by tooting a salute to the fighting spirit of the hometown Riverhounds. Bob Lilley – a massive figure, a steady winning influence through decades of coaching in this country, set out a side to do what they often do in the Cup. Absorb pressure. Make it ugly. Turn everything into a battle and make it hard on the big-league visitors from the Big City (New York City FC). And just like it was last time they played an MLS team at their jewel box of Highmark Stadium, the crowd was sent home buzzing. There was a late corner-kick for the Hounds after a rare foray forward, with no goals yet and OT looming. Beto Ydrach rose at the far post and his header snuck inside the front one. The celebrations were raucous – a communion of fan, mascot and lower-league swagger. We may not have had a lot of the Old Cup Magic in this round, but what we had was exquisite.
The supersub and the superstar are concepts worth a moment. Top-flight coaches – in early rounds of Cup play – want to expend the least amount of life-force to get the win. It’s survive-and-advance, single elimination, after all. A true star on the field or an ace up the sleeve, sitting on the bench filing his claws, dressed and ready if needed, are luxuries most non-MLS teams can only dream of. And the utility of such weapons proved crucial to many victorious Division I outfits in this Round of 32. Down by two to El Paso Locomotive, and facing humiliation and another early exit, Austin FC’s burly striker Brandon Vázquez sprang to life. He bagged two goals and one assist – in the space of just six second-half minutes – to force a 3-2 comeback. ‘Big Pat’ Agyemang did a similar thing for Charlotte FC, though he did it coming off the bench. He entered the game in the 78th minute, with no goals on the board against North Carolina FC, and scored one and assisted another in a goal-littered extra-time session. Jack Mglynn came in midway through the second half against Detroit City FC with his Houston Dynamo tangled at 1-1. He went on to score a dream-screamer in another 4-1 OT win.
Legendary Liverpool manager Alan Hansen said once: You can’t win anything with kids. It’s a sentiment well-taken, lauding the merits of experience, but some of the MLS teams in action this round proved otherwise. Orlando City, our 2022 Open Cup Champions, drove down I-4 and put an almighty beating down on their Division II neighbors the Tampa Bay Rowdies. And the man who scored the first two goals of the 5-0 rout was one Gustavo Caraballo. He’s just 16. He doesn’t drive and he has braces on his teeth. We recommend you keep an eye on him – as we also do Cavan Sullivan of the Philadelphia Union. The 15-year-old prodigy gave us clear insights into why he’s so ballyhooed when he lined up wide in the Union’s slim 1-1 draw with Indy Eleven that they eventually sealed via shootout. Sullivan became the fourth generation of his family to participate in our Open Cup, by the way, a fact outlined in a wonderful piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Jonathan Tannenwald. Mohammed Sofo, clinging to the edge of his teens, matched Caraballo for output – with two goals for his New York Red Bulls in a 4-1 win over the Switchback in Colorado Springs. So, with all due respect, maybe you can’t win everything with kids. But you might be able to win our Open Cup.
AV ALTA, a first-year Division III pro side from California’s Antelope Valley, were in a bind from the opening whistle. On the road in Frisco, Texas against two-time Open Cup Champions FC Dallas, they fell behind after only three minutes when Lucho Acosta – the former MLS MVP who coach Eric Quill started as a signal of intent – put the ball in the back of the net. The California Dreamers’ long shot just got longer – which makes what happened next so poetic. Midfielder Osvaldo Lay, with no options, and sensing a wandering goalkeeper, hit a looping shot from 60-plus yards out. He was deep in his own half and the shot seemed to write in the sky – why not? It bounced once. FC Dallas keeper Michael Collodi panicked. The ball bounced over his head and ended up in the back of the net. Suddenly, the game’s tied and it’s all to play for – the Cupset dream is painted again in technicolor. But it doesn’t last long. Lionel Messi himself learned that it takes some doing to knock Lucho Acosta out of an Open Cup (Check the highlights of our 2023 Semifinal between FC Cincinnati and Inter Miami CF for proof of that). In the end, the long shots from Lancaster went down. So did the other three remaining Division III teams. Chattanooga Red Wolves, Union Omaha and Tacoma Defiance all lost out to top-tier MLS clubs. But, and trust us on this, the dream that drove them survives.
Andrew Thomas has often been the hero of Starfire – the teeny sports complex in Tukwila, WA where he helped the Seattle Sounders reach the Semifinal last year and where legendary Open Cup moments are too many to count. He gave everything he had in a hunt for another – up against long-time rivals the Portland Timbers (MLS) as a member of the Sounders academy affiliate Tacoma Defiance (MLS NEXT Pro). A man of uncommon intensity, the goalkeeper seems to absorb energy from the lodgepole pines that surround the stadium – and from the fans who roar there. With the score tangled at 2-2, and facing a penalty, he guessed wrong and was beaten from the spot late in the game. The moments were fading, seconds only left. The day was dying. One last corner kick for the trailing Defiance, so up Thomas went – raging the full length of the field at a full sprint. He threw caution to the winds and rose to head the ball at the back post. Reckless is the only word for how he attacked it. It fell in the area, awaiting a Defiance player to send the game to OT and ignite the energies that live and breed in the dense forests that ring the little ground. But it didn’t come and the game ended with three blasts of a whistle. The air left the little building with a sigh. The Cupset hung there – remaining only in future possibility – when Thomas ringed the pitch to salute the fans for giving it their all and plenty.
Statistics. Aren’t they just overdone these days? Is it just us? Why so set in our ways? There are some numbers worth considering from our Round of 32. And we’ll begin, as we always do, with an important one: 30. That’s how many goals fell in our 16 games on May 6-7. That’s nearly two per game and that’s pretty damn good. We’ve discussed Philadelphia Union’s young Cavan Sullivan. And we’d like to put his age (15) in further context. When he was born, in September of 2009, Alejandro Bedoya (38) had already graduated from Boston College and had started his pro career in Sweden. Sullivan wasn’t yet walking when Bedoya earned his first cap (of an eventual 66) for the USMNT. But the two were both in the line-up for Philadelphia Union in this 2025 Open Cup Round of 32 – with a full 23 years spanning between them. Bedoya scored and was named Man of the Match. Sullivan was outstanding – and became the youngest-ever starter in the Union’s history that night. 5 is another good number. It’s how many goals fell in the 30 minutes of extra-time between North Carolina FC and Charlotte FC. The game ended 4-1 to CFC after 90 minutes of regulation couldn’t produce a single goal (there was another game in which 3 goals fell in OT – Phoenix Rising vs. Houston Dynamo). And of course, the big hairy monster number in the room is the number 15. That’s how many MLS teams are through to the Round of 16. And that’s the most ever in history – up one from the previous high of 14 in 2019 and 2023.
This part’s the hardest. Every round we lose some of our favorites. It’s the nature of the Cup, and of competition in its most direct form. So remember fondly with us some of our dear fallen dreamers. Like the 10 USL Championship teams, among them Sacramento Republic, who – led by their aging captain and hero RoRo Lopez – couldn’t conjure the Magic that sent them to our Final in 2022. Charleston Battery – another famous Finalist (from 2008) – you went close, but no cigar. AV ALTA, we’re going to keep an eye on you as you climb higher and higher out there in Lancaster. Chattanooga Red Wolves, you survived three times on penalties, but came up just short of the line in Nashville. Same as Rhode Island FC, who, in their brand new soccer-specific stadium in Pawtucket, stretched the Revolution to the wire and look good for future runs in our beloved Open Cup.
So there we have it. Time only to take a breath, gather ourselves and go again – for a Round of 16 on May 20 and 21 when the cream of this country’s pro pyramid, 15 teams from Major League Soccer (MLS), gang up on the small-but-mighty Riverhounds of Pittsburgh. It’s right there around the corner. That constant tomorrow. An Open Cup sunrise for every sunset.
See you soon, friends.
Fontela is editor-in-chief of ussoccer.com/us-open-cup. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.