The 2004 Open Cup Final

• Scott Tann
• Tue Mar 27 2007, 8:18pm GMT

In 2004, I wrote a five-part series for MatchNight on the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It was called "A Toast to the Open Cup." This is Part 5. (Note: Kansas City won, 1-0 in overtime, but Chicago won their fourth title in 2006.)

The 2004 final of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup takes place tomorrow evening at Arrowhead Stadium.

Over the course of several months, amateur, PDL, A-League, and MLS teams have been whittled down to two teams fighting for the championship.

The Kansas City Wizards will go for their first Open Cup title as they try to prevent the Chicago Fire from becoming the first team to win back-to-back cups since the New York Pancyprian Freedoms in 1982 and 1983.

History on the line

If the Fire - who won in 1998, 2000, and 2003 - defeat the Wizards, they will become just the fifth team in the tournament's 91-year history to win the U.S. Open Cup four times or more.

The previous four-time (or more) winners:

• Bethlehem Steel (1915, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1926)
  
• Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals (1960, 1961, 1963, 1966)
  
• New York Greek-Americans (1967, 1968, 1969, 1974)
  
• Los Angeles Maccabee (1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981)
  

The historically-minded may want to add another name to the list above.

The Fall River Rovers won the Open Cup in 1917. The Fall River Marksmen, a different team, won in 1924, 1927, 1930, and 1931 - but there is an asterisk by the last championship.

The team that won in 1931 had moved from Fall River, MA to merge with the New York Soccer Club. They were known as the New York Yankees, but they had registered for the Open Cup as Fall River FC.

As great as Sam Mark's teams were, they only won the U.S. Open Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup, three times.

With a victory tomorrow night, the Chicago Fire - already in the same elite group as the Fall River Marksmen - could join the ranks of mighty Bethlehem Steel, arguably the greatest soccer team in American history.

But wait

History will be made tomorrow night. Kansas City will lift the Dewar Cup for the first time, or Chicago will raise it for the fourth time. But it will not be easy to catch the final of America's oldest professional sports tournament on television.

The Open Cup championship will not be televised on Fox Sports World, ESPN2, or Direct Kick, and it certainly won't be on the networks. You will have to watch it on Gol TV, not the most accessible station in many markets.

So what should be the crown jewel of American sport continues to languish in relative obscurity. Since World War II, the U.S. Open Cup has been treated - and regarded - as a second-rate event at best.

It may not be easy to find on television, and you may not hear anything about it in the newspaper or on the radio. Even though it registers the tiniest blip on the American sports radar, a lot of people still care: the players and coaches most of all.

Something to lift

After talking with players and coaches over the past few weeks, it became clear that they take the Open Cup seriously.

"We take it incredibly seriously," said Crew head coach Greg Andrulis. "It's a very important trophy - not just because our owner's name is on it. We felt that way before (the trophy's name change)."

Of course, many believe that the MLS Cup takes precedence over the Open Cup. "I think you place most of your importance throughout the year in winning the MLS Cup," said Fire midfielder Jesse Marsch in a press conference yesterday. "It’s an eight-month, 10-month process so you’d be lying if you said that the Open Cup, at the end of the day, is as valuable."

Others, like Andrulis, disagree.

"For me, they're equal. They're two trophies you have to compete for in single-elimination format. Obviously, you compete for the MLS Cup over thirty games and the Open Cup is four or five, depending on when you enter. For me, though, it's something to be proud of.

"It's hardware. It's not often that you get to compete for trophies. When you have the opportunity, you have to take advantage of it."

That sentiment - that the Open Cup was a piece of championship hardware which, in itself, deserved respect - was repeated over and over.

"I just saw it as another championship to win," said MetroStars captain Eddie Pope, who, as a member of D.C. United in 1996, won the Open Cup in the first match to include an MLS team.

Crew and U.S. men's national team defender Frankie Hejduk agrees with Pope's take. "It's a trophy. At the end of the year, the more trophies you have, the better you feel. Every tournament's important no matter what it is."

"All around the world, winning trophies is what big clubs are all about," said MetroStars coach Bob Bradley, who won the Open Cup in 1998 and 2000 with the Fire.

Hejduk, who played in Germany and Switzerland before arriving in Columbus, added that while a double or a treble is the ultimate goal in Europe, simply winning any championship is special.

"Over there (the cups are) the same. They should be. If you win the open cup then everyone's happy. If you win the championship and the open cup, then it's a perfect year."

Columbus defender/midfielder Duncan Oughton remembers the Crew's Open Cup victory in 2002 with fondness. "It was just a great experience," he said, eyes widening. "It was the Crew's first piece of major hardware. It was great to be a part of it. You saw all of the emotion from the guys when we did win it.

"We were coming off a disappointing loss to New England in the playoffs. We felt we should have made it through to the final that year. We had a good team and we deserved to go further, so the Open Cup was huge for us. If you back and look at the game, you see the emotion of the guys, the fans running around. I remember running through the stands, slapping hands, all the boys taking photos... I'll never forget it."

Something to cherish

While the Open Cup is a championship which comes with its own hardware - a beautiful trophy known as the Dewar Cup - players and coaches don't ignore the history that drips from the tournament.

"Obviously it's the cup that has the most tradition here in the United States," said Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman. "It's something that perhaps, within the MLS season, some teams overlook. But I think when you win it you realize exactly what it is that you've achieved.

"We won the Open Cup in 2001 and it's something I'll always relish. It's the most prestigious tournament in the United States and has the most tradition. It's something that I'll always hold sacred."

"When you win the Open Cup once, I think you realize how special it is and you yearn to win it again," echoed Fire midfielder Jesse Marsch.

"It was important to me when I went to Chicago to make sure that our players recognized the importance of the Open Cup and took advantage of the opportunity," said Bradley. "So obviously it was special to win in '98 because that was part of a double.

"To see players set that as a goal every year, to understand a little bit of the history, and to understand how special it is if you can win it or win a double, I think that's part of the growing process of professional soccer in this country and of MLS. I think it's important to try to impress that upon your team and take advantage of that opportunity every year."

Something to ignore

While players and coaches hold the Open Cup in high regard, many soccer fans don't even know the tournament exists.

Attendance for qualifying matches is usually dreadful. Attendance for the final will, by all indicators, be shameful.

Oughton was grateful for the fans who saw Columbus defeat the Galaxy in 2002 at Crew Stadium, but he thought there was room for improvement. "The one disappointing thing about the final was the number of fans. There weren't enough fans here. That was disappointing."

Why is the nation's oldest professional tournament so neglected? Why don't people seem to care?

The general consensus among players, coaches, and GMs is that The United States Soccer Federation could do a better job promoting, organizing, and marketing the tournament.

They acknowledge the logistical difficulties of scheduling a tournament among many different leagues. They acknowledge that the $100,000 first prize, while a bit thin, is better than it used to be.

Still, more can be done - and effectively.

Gansler and Sarachan don't visit MatchNight

The media have also been criticized in the way they cover the U.S. Open Cup.

"I think we’ve still got to do some educating of ourselves and the soccer folks out there," said Wizards head coach Bob Gansler. "We haven't caught the romance of this. We don't have a handle of this. It's a strange concept for American sports to be running a tournament within a season and all of that.

"Rather than questioning it, let's extol its virtues. Extol the romance, the excitement, the David and Goliath things."

"That’s well said," followed Fire coach Dave Sarachan. "I think that education is the key. Each year more and more people, hopefully, will be exposed (to the Open Cup) thanks to you people, the media, because they’re picking up the papers every day and they’re listening to the radio every day, they’re turning on the TV every day and if there's no Open Cup news then the education gets stunted. We’re all in this together."

One general manager suggested that instead of trying to emulate other sports, the USSF, MLS, and the media should embrace the Open Cup as something unique to soccer.

Maybe then, as MLS continues to grow - and we in the media help educate one fan at a time - Andrulis's prediction will come true.

"I think the Open Cup in years to come will be like England's FA Cup. It will get that kind of aura. Right now it doesn't, but it's going to get there as our league gets more and more developed."

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