Nashville SC, the Tennessee-based club that played its first game in Major League Soccer in 2020, are in confident mood ahead of the 110th U.S. Open Cup Final on the road against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium on October 1. The 2025 Decider, LIVE on Paramount+ and on air at CBS Sports Network, is a second major Final for NSC – still hunting a first trophy after coming up short up against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami in the 2023 Leagues Cup Final.
Nashville SC hosted the Final of the Leagues Cup back in 2023, eventually losing out after extra-time (1-1) via a marathon penalty shootout (10-9). This time – in our historic U.S. Open Cup – they have the chance to lift a trophy again. In-form ace Sam Surridge leads the scoring charts in this year’s Open Cup and is close to the top of the MLS scoring list. First-year coach B.J. Callaghan – of USMNT cult hero status – has every reason to believe his side could bring home the first pro sports title in the history of the great state of Tennessee.
And the former National Team interim boss knows his Nashville side has a secret weapon. “This team is a team,” Callaghan said on the eve of the Final. “Like the dictionary definition of a team – and we want to out-team everyone else.”
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, our historic 111-year-old tournament, is played in a straight knockout format with competitors drawn from all levels of soccer in the U.S. – from the amateur ranks to the Division I of Major League Soccer (MLS), who entered the 2025 competition in the Round of 32.
The road to the Open Cup Final is never without its bumps, and Nashville SC needed to hang on for a slim 1-0 win in their opener back in May against the Chattanooga Red Wolves (of Division III USL League One), with a goal in the 18th minute from Josh Bauer the only difference between the sides.
From there on out, it was exclusively fellow MLS opposition for Nashville. The Round of 16 contest against local rivals and 2022 U.S. Open Cup Champions Orlando City on the road was a back-and-forth affair that still hung in the balance in the 79th minute, when Wyatt Meyer sealed the deal and a nervy 3-2 win. That set up a Quarterfinal that Callaghan remembers as a “big growth moment” when his side came back from two goals down at home against D.C. United in an eventual 5-2 rout.
“Semifinals are always the hardest games,” said Callaghan before the Final Four contest at home in GEODIS Park against the Philadelphia Union, the club where he started his pro coaching career as an assistant and video analyst. “Philly really pushed the limits physically,” said Surridge, who scored a sumptuous hat-trick – capped by an exquisite volleyed third – to send Nashville to the Final (3-1) and cement his place at the top of the Open Cup scoring charts with five goals from two games.
“I got my three stitches out this week so it looks a little better than last week,” said Edvard Tagseth, Nashville’s Norwegian midfielder, who caught a stray elbow in the over-tough Semifinal against Philly and has become the tireless symbol of Nashville’s all-energy, team-centric approach.
“You have to match your opponent in Cup play – the physicality, the aggressiveness, all of it,” said the diminutive dynamo, his black eye fading to a faint yellow ahead of the Final.
Coach Callaghan tips his cap to the man known as Eddi in the locker room, and how his “intensity and work rate make everyone in the team better.” The coach’s smile spreads widest when talk turns to the one-for-all-and-all-for-one ethos alive in his squad – and driving them on.
“Everybody has a role, a responsibility,” said the coach, who famously went unbeaten in his seven games in charge of the USMNT in a troubled summer of 2023 – guiding the side to a Concacaf Nations League title. “They all do their job, they all contribute. This is what makes us a really difficult team and we have a lot of the things you need if you want to win a trophy.”
Nashville also has those other things you need to win a trophy. Namely, the stars. In Hany Mukhtar, the Coyotes have one of the all-around best players in MLS history, as evidenced by his scooping of the league MVP honors in 2023 when Lionel Messi was also in the running. And while he’s yet to open his scoring account in this year’s Open Cup, the danger Mukhtar poses will be more than enough to keep Austin FC’s defenders concerned.
Six Nashville players have scored in this Open Cup run, but it’s the lethal goal-mouth threat posed by Sam Surridge that’s been most noteworthy. In the space of two games, the Englishman, tall and rangy and with a bloodhound’s nose for goal, basically assured himself Golden Boot honors.
Surridge is no stranger to domestic Cups and the so-called “magic” they can provide, having reached the FA Cup Quarterfinals with former club Nottingham Forrest, when they were still in the DII Championship in 2022. He also had a Cinderella run to the Fourth Round as a youngster with lower-league Oldham that included a win over Premier League outfit Fulham.
“If I’m out on the field I want to score a goal – it’s really that simple,” said Surridge, who had a two-goal day against D.C. United before his peerless triple in the Semis. “I always want to help the team with goals and it won’t be any different against Austin in the Final with a trophy on the line.”
The drive to lift a first trophy for the club – and for all of Tennessee pro sports – is the main force propelling Nashville SC. “It adds fuel to the fire; people always remember who won that first trophy for a club even years and years into the future,” said Surridge. Teammate Tagseth is in full agreement: “It’s a big motivation. A massive thing for me, for the club, for Nashville and for all of Tennessee.”
“It’s a special moment,” added Callaghan, the man with the plan. “If you lift that first trophy as a group, for a club, no one can take it from you.”
Be sure to tune in for the 2025 U.S. Open Cup Final on Paramount+ and on air at CBS Sports Network on 8:00 pm ET (pre-game at 7pm ET) on Wednesday, October 1.
Fontela is editor-in-chief of usopencup.com. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.