St. Louis City SC is hitting the field for their first ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final this Wednesday against the Columbus Crew. This isn’t just another match, though; it’s a chance to snap a brutal 38-year championship drought for one of America’s biggest soccer hotbeds.
The Long Road Back to the Final Stage
For decades, many seriously doubted if an MLS team from St. Louis would ever make it back to this stage. The last squad to hoist the Open Cup from that area? The Busch Seniors, way back in 1988. Think about that: almost four decades. Goalkeeper for that 1988 Busch Seniors team, Jeff Robben, told CBS Sports that once USL and MLS teams started competing for the Open Cup, what his amateur team did simply “was just not gonna happen again.” He pointed to a St. Louis team this year that advanced to a home game in the Open Cup, only to lose “seven or eight to nothing” against a USL team out of Omaha. That score alone shows just how massive the difference is between the pro and amateur levels these days. St. Louis City SC itself is pretty new, only founded in 2019 and starting play in 2023, backed by local powerhouses like Enterprise Holdings and World Wide Technology. So yeah, this isn’t the same game Robben played.
More Than Just a Game: St. Louis’ Deep Soccer Roots
To really get why this final is such a big deal, you gotta rewind the clock even further. Long before the Busch Seniors, the St. Louis Simpkins-Ford team snagged their second National Challenge Cup (the Open Cup’s old name) in three years back in 1950. That team was so stacked, five of their players , Bob Annis, Charley Colombo, Frank Borghi, Frank “Pee Wee” Wallace, and Gino Pariani , went on to represent the U.S. men’s national team in the World Cup that very same year. Talk about a legacy! Joe Olwig, the head coach of those Busch Seniors, put it best when he said “The history of St. Louis soccer goes way back.” He explained how the early days of Open Cup champions really stemmed from kids growing up, with soccer often being their primary sport. Apparently, if you ask folks in St. Louis how they got into the game, you’ll often get the same answer: teams banding together in Catholic parishes, playing soccer and baseball depending on the season. That’s a deep-rooted soccer culture you just don’t see everywhere.
So, on Wednesday, St. Louis City SC isn’t just playing for a trophy; they are playing to bridge nearly four decades of history, facing the Columbus Crew in a match that truly matters for the spirit of soccer in the Gateway to the West. You can catch all the action live on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network at 8 p.m. ET. It’s gonna be a showdown.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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