Sporting Kansas City and the Seattle Sounders stand at the precipice of Open Cup history.
Today, in 2024 – the 109th edition of the country’s oldest and most historic soccer tournament, and the 27th year of MLS’ comparatively short life – the honor of having been named five-time champions remains the exclusive domain of clubs from yesteryear. But SKC and the Sounders, both of MLS, and both four-time winners with a tradition of prioritizing the Cup, stand on the cusp of that rarefied air.
Before the flash and buzz of today’s MLS, there was soccer in this country. It had its hard times to be sure, but it survived in booms and busts through the early years of the last century to this very bright, shining here and now. The Open Cup, formerly known as the National Challenge Cup, being handed out to the best team in the land every year beginning in 1914 is the evidence of a country with deep-lying soccer traditions and heritage.
FORGED IN STEEL
The first club to claim five titles was Bethlehem Steel – the Pennsylvania outfit widely regarded as the first Super Club of American soccer. Playing at their Steel Athletic Field, this country’s first soccer-specific stadium, built long before any concrete was poured in Columbus, Ohio in 1998, they dominated the Teens and 1920s.
The team was built around the bulk and influence (and dollars) of the company of the same name that dominated shipbuilding and steel-making – a superpower in global commerce.
Leave a Reply