MLS Cups are nice, and so are Supporters Shields. A Champions League title would be epic, and a Club World Cup win would be sublime. But the Open Cup is something else. It is the history of the American game. It’s America’s longest running soccer tournament, and one of the oldest soccer tournament in the world.
Wining the tournament means your name is etched in American soccer lore. It means joining the 105 names before it on the Dewar Trophy in the National Soccer Hall Of Fame. It means immortality in the way only a century of competition can mean.