Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
What is the oldest cup competition in the world of soccer? It’s not the FA Cup, Coppa Italia or the Copa Del Rey, it’s actually the US Open Cup. The 2019 edition is the 106th consecutive edition of the tournament dating back to 1914 and has been handed out even through multiple world wars. While the sport of soccer has ebbed and flow in the US, this tournament has not.
But ask any fan of the sport and the US Open Cup at times seems like a foreign oddity or even a nuisance in the middle of a long league year. For years, early round games barely were televised or streamed, and the Final wasn’t available widely on TV until recently too. Most teams can’t even use their primary stadiums to host games for various reasons too, putting games in exotic, yet not glamorous venues. Due to the structure of the tournament, the likelihood of a team like fifth tier Lincoln City in the 2017 FA Cup making a cinderella run is not high, because just to get to games against a MLS team, they have to win three proper rounds first.
For a tournament with such history, it often feels in US Soccer like an afterthought. Even as MLS teams are on a supposed “break” from league play, some could be playing two USOC games while they’re supposed to be off. In one case this year, a team’s coach wasn’t even on the sidelines to take a USSF licensing course. How can MLS, and the powers that be, get this tournament to be what it can be and should be?
US Soccer needs to give this tournament a major shot in the arm. They’ve reported a $130 million surplus in recent times, and part of that surplus should be invested into this tournament. Only $300,000 goes to the winner of the tournament, $100,000 for the runners-up and $25,000 goes to the furthest advancing team from each division. In today’s game, even in the lower leagues, that money doesn’t go far. While winning the FA Cup isn’t earning a club a massive check, £3,600,000 is at least a meaningful amount of money. With a new TV deal from ESPN+, presumably paying US Soccer a decent fee, why can’t that money be invested to improve not just prize money payouts, but making the tournament more accessible to all clubs? This year, only 84 clubs entered the tournament proper, down from 97, and since the format changes wildly every year, the consistency that is needed is not there. Only 11 lower league teams reached the stage to play MLS teams in this year’s Cup. That number needs to be a lot higher.
Such investment would allow the tournament to expand to bring in more amateur and local teams to compete in a more structured format. Not only would that bring more consistency in qualification, but a structure that brings MLS teams in earlier to the tournament and has them playing more lower league opposition than they have been. Since the number of MLS, USL Championship and League One teams changes seemingly yearly, a structured system from qualifying right through to the main round would be huge for the tournament, making it feel like America’s favorite knockout tournament, March Madness. Said system would also produce far more upsets, which there aren’t enough of now in the Open Cup.
For example: there are 46 eligible MLS and USL Championship teams for this year’s tournament. Instead of having three proper rounds before MLS teams enter, have one. Use those games to qualify the 18 (or whatever the number may be after expansion in both leagues) other teams from League One, semi-pro and amateur sides, create your geographic regions to reduce travel burdens and off we go. US Soccer could certainly use some of the surplus to help with travel expenses and costs for hosting games in these teams more usual stadiums instead of the alternate venues too often seen that don’t so much bring the “magic of the cup”, but more cheapen it significantly.
US Soccer needs to find a way, along with the leagues, to make these cup ties meaningful beyond getting fringe players minutes. Too often these games feel like throwaways for coaches because the reward for winning the trophy isn’t good enough. That isn’t solely because of the prize money, but also because of the schedule too, and how the Open Cup fits in. As MLS expands its calendar, this should leave more time for midweek Open Cup games without fixture congestion, but it should be easier for these teams to play meaningful squads in these games rather than reserve teams, even with the restrictions on foreign players.
This tournament could mean so much more not just to the teams playing it, but for the fans watching it. American sports fans love upsets, they love a single-elimination knockout tournament with everything on the line, and they love underdogs. The US Open Cup has all those things and more but doesn’t execute on that promise because of the schedule, the prize money, the structure and the significance of the tournament. US Soccer has the tools to improve all these areas so that this tournament can live up to its history but hasn’t chose to. MLS wants some of its teams to play in artificial tournaments against Liga MX teams in preseason rather than pump up this tournament. There is so much potential being wasted every year with a tournament that could be a gateway into the sport for so many yet never gets close to becoming that.
The oldest cup competition in world soccer is on American shores. For a country that loves its history, and everything a great knockout tournament brings, this tournament should mean so much more. It’s on US Soccer, MLS and the stakeholders in this game to make that happen. They have the resources, it’s time to use them to bring this great competition to finally reach it’s potential after a century of non-stop play.
