Our 2025 Quarterfinalists, the New York Red Bulls, are three wins away from becoming the first U.S. Open Cup Champion from the Metropolitan New York area since semi-pro side Brooklyn Italians roared to the crown way back in 1991.
And though it’s been a good long while since any team from in or around Gotham has communed with the iconic prize, the area – comprising approximately 20 million people hailing from every nation on earth – has produced the most U.S. Open Cup champions in history.
Metro New York, which includes all five of NYC’s boroughs and parts of New Jersey, lays claim to 17 separate Open Cup winners with 25 titles shared between them. That includes the inaugural Champions, Brooklyn Field Club, from back in 1914. The only New York-based team to be crowned Open Cup Champs and to not call Metro New York home are upstate combatants the Rochester Ragin’ Rhinos, who became the only non-MLS-based Champion in the MLS Era of the Open Cup in 1999.
Join ussoccer.com for a look back at all the champions from in and around the Big Apple, a long-time soccer hotbed and immigration destination since even before Lady Liberty first lifted her lamp beside the golden door.
1913-14: Brooklyn Field Club 2-1 Brooklyn Celtic
1920-21: Brooklyn Robbins Dry Dock 4-2 Scullin Steel
1921-22: Scullin Steel 3-2 Todd Shipyards
1922-23: Paterson FC 2-2, 3-0 (forfeit) Scullin Steel
1928: New York Nationals 4-1 (agg) Chicago Bricklayers
1928-29: New York Hakoah 5-0 (agg) St. Louis Madison Kennel
1937: New York Americans 5-2 (agg) St. Louis Shamrocks
1939: Brooklyn St. Mary’s Celtic 5-1 Chicago Manhattan Beer
1943: Brooklyn Hispano 5-4 (agg) Morgan Strasser
1944: Brooklyn Hispano 4-0 Morgan Strasser
1945: Brookhattan 6-2 Cleveland Americans
1951: New York German-Hungarian SC 8-6 (agg) Heidelberg SC
1954: New York Americans 3-1 (agg) St. Louis Kutis SC
1955: SC Eintracht 2-0 Los Angeles Danes
1962: New York Hungaria 3-2 San Francisco Scots
1965: New York Ukrainians 5-2 (agg) Chicago Hansa
1967: Greek American AA 4-2 Orange County Soccer Club
1968: Greek Americans AA 2-1 (agg) Chicago Olympic
1969: Greek American AA 1-0 Montabello Armenians
1970: Elizabeth SC 2-1 Los Angeles Croatia
1971: New York Hota 6-4 San Pedro Yugoslavs
1972: Elizabeth SC 1-0 San Pedro Yugoslavs
1974: Greek American AA 2-0 Chicago Croatian
1979: Brooklyn Dodgers 2-1 Chicago Croatian
1980: New York Pancyprian-Freedoms 3-2 Maccabi Los Angeles
1982: New York Pancyprian-Freedoms 4-3 Maccabi Los Angeles
1983: New York Pancyprian-Freedoms 4-2 St. Louis Kutis SC
1984: New York AO Krete 4-2 San Pedro Yugoslavs
1991: Brooklyn Italians 1-0 Richardson Rockets
No less than 19 U.S. Open Cup Finals (or Final legs) have been played in the NYC area in the last 110 years, at mythical grounds like the Eintracht, Zerega and Metropolitan Ovals, the long-gone Polo Grounds (seen in the top photo at the top of this story) and Randall’s Island. Scroll on for a rare photographic look back at the enduring love affair between America’s oldest soccer tournament and its most famous city.
Brooklyn Field Club won the first U.S. Open Cup (then the National Challenge Cup) in 1914. Above they pose with the Dewar Cup – the original Open Cup trophy that now lives out its retirement years in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco. Texas. Bet you didn’t know they were also at the forefront of early 20th-century photo doctoring!
A trip back to the era of warm-up sweaters! Robbins Dry Dock of Brooklyn, seen above, won the 1921 U.S. Open Cup (then called the National Challenge Cup) scoring 21 goals that year in five games. Harry Ratican is third from right down front. A top striker in his day, he went on to coach at West Point and was inducted into the Soccer Hall of Fame in its inaugural year of 1950
1928 U.S. Open Cup (National Challenge Cup) Champs the NY Nationals. Bob Millar (front and center with steely eyes in the above photo) played for 12 teams in 20 years and was considered as good a brawler as a player. He went on to coach Bart McGhee (front, right) at the first FIFA World Cup, played in Uruguay in 1930. That USMNT’s third-place finish still stands as this country’s best-ever performance in a Men’s World Cup.
New York Ukrainians, seen here in living color at their home pitch in Queens, were among the national powers of the era. Look close and you can see a young Joe Machnik (top row & second from left) who was the back-up goalkeeper for the team that year and has remained a vocal advocate for the competition in his role as a TV rules analyst.
Saint Mary’s Celtic, seen above in their Sunday Best and ready for take-off in 1936, were among the early powerhouses of the U.S. Open Cup. That year, the Brooklyn-based side reached the Semifinal of the U.S. Open Cup and lost out to Philadelphia’s German Americans.
Action from the 1944 U.S. Open Cup Semifinal between a pair of New York City super-clubs of the time, Brooklyn Hispano (with the H on their chests) and Brooklyn Celtic. Hispano went on to win that year’s edition of the tournament by beating Morgan Strasser of Pittsburgh.
New York Hungaria, above, beat the San Francisco Scots to claim the 1962 U.S. Open Cup with Andy Mate and Steve Karsey scoring in the 2-0 win in the Final at Queens, NY’s Eintracht Oval. Additionally, the side boasts six NYC Cosmopolitan League titles in their history.
Soccer in a Baseball World! The 1944 U.S. Open Cup (National Challenge Cup) Final was played in Upper Manhattan’s fabled Polo Grounds (seen above). Brooklyn Hispano won a rematch of the 1943 Final against Morgan Strasser of Pittsburgh.
The late Jackie Hynes (seen above) is a New York City soccer legend. In addition to playing in a pair of U.S. Open Cup Finals, one with Brooklyn St. Mary’s Celtic and another with the New York Americans, he was an NYC Firefighter, four times capped for the USMNT – and earned a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge during his military service in World War II.
1944 Open Cup/National Challenge Cup-winning captain Frankie Fernandez of Brooklyn Hispano poses at the Polo Grounds with the Dewar Cup (the original Open Cup/National Challenge Cup trophy).
Werner Roth – a future U.S. Men’s National Team player who went on to star alongside Pele and Sylvester Stallone in the 1981 major motion picture ‘Victory’ – hits an overhead kick for the NY German-Hungarians on one of those ancient Sundays out on the Metropolitan Oval. Look close and you can see the iron rail that used to ring the field at the famous old ground.
The Brooklyn Italians were a big name in NYC’s semipro soccer scene in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. They won the U.S. Open Cup/National Challenge Cup under the name Brooklyn Dodgers in 1979 and then did it again in 1991 (team photo from the 1991 Open Cup Semifinal).
An early photo, above, of those same influential Brooklyn Italians, who still operate as a soccer club and occasionally still compete in the U.S. Open Cup from the amateur division.
Back in the days of pre-game bouquets. Saint Mary’s Celtic (seen above) lost the 1938 Final second leg at Starlight Park in the Bronx against Chicago Sparta, who went on to claim that year’s U.S. Open Cup crown 6-2 on aggregate.
The New York Red Bulls known, simply, as the MetroStars from the year of MLS’ founding in 1996 through to a name/ownership change and rebrand in 2006. Three years before the changeover, the MetroStars of 2003 (seen above) reached their first Final of a U.S. Open Cup – top-scorer Amado Guevara, USMNT stars Clint Mathis and Eddie Pope, and 1995 champion Richie Williams, were all a part of the side that lost out 1-0 at home in the Meadowlands to the Chicago Fire.
It was a whole new world – and a new-look U.S. Open Cup – the last time a team from Metro New York City reached our Final. Jesse Marsch’s New York Red Bulls – led on the field by silky creator Sacha Kljestan, top-scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips and baby-faced future USMNT star Tyler Adams – lost out 2-1 on the the road at Children’s Mercy Park in 2017 as Sporting KC scooped their fourth crown.
AngeloMaduro is a senior reporter at large for ussoccer.com/us-open-cup.