Soccer in America is truly a sport where you stand on the shoulders of those who came before you, and few places know that like St. Louis City SC prepare for the first Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final in their history as they'll face the Columbus Crew on Wednesday (live on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.
But while many may have never expected a day that an MLS side would be in the Open Cup final from the area, the greater St. Louis area has a rich history in the competition, with the last team winning the competition being the Busch Seniors, who triumphed in 1988 after St. Louis' first final in 1920.
Louis did not have an MLS team, no," Jeff Robben said when asked if he ever saw a St. Louis team making the Open Cup final after his Busch Seniors, where he played goalkeeper. "Once the USL teams started competing, and then the MLS teams started competing for the Open Cup, how my Busch Seniors team accomplished what they did, that was just not gonna happen again.
As a matter of fact, there was a team this year here in St. Louis that was competing in the Open Cup, and they had advanced and earned a home game and played, and I believe they played a team out of Omaha that was a USL team, and they lost seven or eight to nothing, so that goes to show you how vast the difference is." It's been 38 years since the area has seen an Open Cup championship, and for most of that time, they didn't even have an MLS team, as St. Louis City SC wasn't founded until 2019, before beginning play in 2023 with the backing of local St.
Louis businesses in Enterprise Holdings and World Wide Technology. But to understand where St. Louis is now, you have to roll the clock back to the Busch Seniors.
When speaking to people about soccer, I like to ask how they got into the sport, as most of the time it leads to an interesting story about how people found the game. Louis, it's the first time that I've asked multiple people that question and got the same answer. Teams band together in the Catholic parish and play soccer and baseball depending on the season.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
