Fans of the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup live by its magic moments. And the Third Round of the 2025 competition tossed up a good few of those between April 15-16. Join us for a look back at eight moments of note from the 16 games in which 35 goals were scored, four Cupsets tumbled out of the late-night dark and everyone’s favorite amateur underdogs, El Farolito, bid us a prideful farewell.
It’s that time of year again, when Open Cup kick-offs are bathed in the warm glows of spring sunshine. But as the sun set over the horizon, the warming breezes gathered into a Mischief Wind. Four Cupsets were conjured – all of them under cover of deep, inky darkness. Union Omaha got the party started with Dion Acoff seeing off USL Championship favorites San Antonio FC. Then, as if a signal was sent to the last two of the night’s underdogs, another pair of upsets followed. AV Alta FC – first-year debutants – saw off neighbors Orange County SC amid raucous scenes in California’s Antelope Valley. The taker of Alta’s final penalty in the fateful shootout, Miguel Pajaro, wore a swim-cap to keep the wound suffered earlier in the game from oozing blood. It was also bye-bye for OCSC’s USL Championship league mates Oakland Roots, who met the demon elves who live among the lodgepole pines of Tukwila, Washington and lost out to the Seattle Sounders’ reserve side, Tacoma Defiance of MLS NEXT Pro. It was late in the night too, on Day Two, when the Cupset weevils began to weave their nightmare webs. Chattanooga’s Red Wolves, in the last breaths of the round’s last game, saw off Las Vegas Lights via shootout at Cashman Field in Sin City.
While we’re here in the dark of night, worried and wondering, let us turn to our friend the owl. Wise and old are attributes often ascribed to the bird. But the Owls of Union Omaha are no professors, be-tweeded and thoughtful. No no. They’re the hunting kind. They’re mean and when you’ve seen their wide wings blocking out the sun, their razor talons up close, dear friends, it’s too late for you. To call it a Cupset when the Div. III side from Nebraska beat a team from a higher division feels somehow wrong. It’s what they do. They first did it in 2022, when they knocked off two MLS teams (Chicago Fire and Minnesota United FC) to reach the rare air of our Quarterfinal in their debut tournament. It’s a habit they’ve sustained through the years. In 2023, they beat on-paper favorites El Paso Locomotive before losing 5-1 away to MLS’ St Louis CITY SC in front of 22,423 fans. And now, while they pick pieces of San Antonio FC out of their teeth, the Owls are off to meet an MLS team once more. It’ll be St Louis CITY again – and they’ll be predator or prey on the day.
That leads us to Rivalries and Derbies. It’s tricky business in a country as huge as ours. But new ones are born all the time, like the Gulf Derby in Southwest Florida. Tampa Bay’s Rowdies saw off the underdogs of FC Naples. It took penalties, and a last-gasp goalline clearance from Forrest Lasso, to see the USL Championship club limp away with a win over their Cinderella neighbors who live 50 miles down the Gulf Coast. New Mexico United didn’t fare so well in their Derby del Camino Real against El Paso Locomotive, who finally reached our Round of 32 after years of struggling in Cup Play. And with Tacoma Defiance winning out, and the Portland Timbers of MLS joining the festivities in the next round, we’ve got a re-birth of the Cascadia Cup (of a kind only the Open Cup can provide). And it’ll be at Starfire Sports no less, with Andrew Thomas likely in goal again for Tacoma – same as he was for the Sounders First Team that roared to last year’s Semifinal.
We have to take some extra inches to talk about what’s going on in old New England. There was a derby born in our Third Round. Portland Hearts to Pine (Div. III), in their debut year, met Rhode Island FC (Div. II), in their second year. On the field for the Hearts, who would lose out despite the best efforts of their wild fans who braved the cold and wet in Lewiston for a third straight game, was one Nathan Messer. The London-born defender, formerly of Providence College, also lined up last year for Vermont Green FC, the amateurs who caused a sensation and are part of a new crop of lower-league soccer teams popping up out of the ground in New England like early-spring forsythia. Rhode Island FC, having reached highest toward the warming sun this year, now face a date with the New England Revolution (Div. I). If there’s an old guard of MLS, the Revs are it. Their name is a concept, like the now-defunct Burn or Clash or Fusion or Mutiny. They play in a borrowed football stadium and they’re, well, let’s just say, a little old fashioned. When the peerless Carles Gil leads them to the Centerville Bank Stadium on May 7, the Revs will be facing a bright shining future of Soccer in New England – up against RIFC in their brand-new soccer specific stadium in Pawtucket (20 miles or so from the Revs’ Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts)
Some things build slow and over time while others ignite in a flash. On the fields of the Open Cup, how quickly things can change from one second to the next. Charlotte Independence were up a goal and rolling, and visions of Cupset sugar plums were dancing in their heads in the Dogwood Derby against North Carolina FC. Until they weren’t. Six minutes was all it took for Oalex Anderson and Rodrigo da Costa (2) to turn the scoreline upside-down (3-1). In those moments, games are won and lost. Lasso’s clearance off the line, with seconds to go, stripped FC Naples of a huge win – and a bright shining future built on that win. “The Open Cup is magical. It’s chaos, there’s opportunities left and right,” said Lasso after the final whistle in Florida. Magic acts can produce (think rabbits in hats) or they can vanish (think David Copperfield and the Statue of Liberty). The alternate realities of what-if are infinite in the Open Cup.
Oh yeah, hats. Moments and circumstances – the forces of nature and coincidence – they all play a part. But sometimes it’s just about who’s better. And sometimes it’s about the efforts and strengths of one man on one night. South Georgia Tormenta were in good shape early away at the Charleston Battery. But a saved penalty by Christian Garner, turned the tables. Then MD Myers flipped the table over and did a merry dance on the wreckage of the carefully prepared dinner. He scored three time in the Third Round’s only hat-trick and made sure to take the ball home with him after the final whistle went on the 4-0 rout. We’re not sure exactly what Myers has against the third-division soccer team from Statesboro, Georgia, but his numbers speak to great levels of animosity. He’s got six goals in two Open Cup wins against Tormenta, both hat-tricks. It should be noted that the win sets up a rematch of the 2008 Open Cup Final, which the underdog Battery lost to D.C. United.
While we're in the headspace of numbers, let’s take some time to talk about stats. As our regular readers know, this is tricky business for us. The Open Cup is a place of sorcery. And numbers, while they have their place, leave us a little flat. But here goes anyway. Goals. We always start with goals. Over the course of our 16 Third Round matches, 35 of them fell. That’s more than two per game. And we have to thank Hayden White of Indy Eleven, whose strike three minutes into stoppage time against Miami FC saved us from what would have been our only 90-minute period of regular time to end scoreless. Union Omaha are now 9-3-2 all-time in Open Cup play (and those two draws ended in technical ‘wins’ via shootout). The Div. III Owls of USL League One have only ever lost to MLS teams in the Open Cup. And how about the periods of extra soccer we had on Day Two. Half of that night’s eight games (4) needed extra-time and had to be settled from the penalty mark. Those are numbers, folks. And they signify, well, something.
This is the hard part. Every time. Every Round. Survive-and-move-on has a close relative and it’s the many agonies of defeat. So we’d like to say a few words over our dear fallen friends. First up, Portland Hearts of Pine. You filled us with your dream and created an Open Cup wonderland in Lewiston. We’ll not forget it soon, and we’ll see you next year. Charlotte Independence, you made some music – and so did you Westchester SC debutants. Matt Poland and FC Naples, you were stunning in your debut too. We expect big things from you all in the future. And, of course, our hearts break for El Farolito, the lone-remaining amateur side heading into this Third Round. There wasn’t much between you and Sacramento Republic – Div. II professional powerhouses. As you’ve done many times before, you made our world a little bigger. And for that, we salute you. Burritos Up!
So there we have it. Time only to take a breath, gather ourselves and go again – for a Round of 32 between May 6 and 7 when the cream of this country’s pro pyramid, 16 teams from Major League Soccer (MLS), join our Open Cup circus. 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.