The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is a knockout tournament in American soccer. The tournament is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the U.S. and is currently open to all United States Soccer Federation affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to the professional clubs of Major League Soccer.
The Open Cup was first held in 1913–14, when it was called the National Challenge Cup.
The defending Open Cup champions are Sporting Kansas City, who beat the Seattle Sounders FC 1-1 on penalty kicks in the 2012 final. It was Sporting Kansas City's first title since 2004, when they won it as the Kansas City Wizards.
Read more about Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: History, Qualifying, Criticism, Winners, Winners By State
Famous quotes containing the words hunt, open and/or cup:
“O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather.”
—Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885)
“I have passed down the river before sunrise on a summer morning, between fields of lilies still shut in sleep; and when, at length, the flakes of sunlight from over the bank fell on the surface of the water, whole fields of white blossoms seemed to flash open before me, as I floated along, like the unfolding of a banner, so sensible is this flower to the influence of the sun’s rays.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The cup of Morgan Fay is shattered.
Life is a bitter sage,
And we are weary infants
In a palsied age.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)