By Daniel Feuerstein | Columbus, OH | October 21st, 2026
It was the battle of the Wilfred Nancy Assistants as both Laurent Courtois and Yoann Damet took their respective clubs to the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final at Scotts Miracle-Gro Field in downtown Columbus along Stadium Row. It was an amazing match where both sides gave it all and looked for their one moment to convert a chance. Instead, we got a match where both sides were battling it out for 120 minutes and couldn’t convert until they moved on to the penalty kick shootout. After going through five rounds of the shootout, it was St. Louis City SC that stood at the top of the mountain and hoisted the Lamar Hunt Cup, winning 5-3 in the shootout after a scoreless draw in regulation and after extra time
The Crew were attacking, but nothing came of it
For the 120 minutes, the Columbus Crew were on the front foot and made multiple attacking runs, putting shots on frame and couldn’t beat the backline and/or the goalkeeper. The Crew had so many chances; they just couldn’t get anything into the back of the net. At times, they took one or two too many touches on the ball, going wide or high over the crossbar. While they have had a massive run in the Open Cup with interim head coach Laurent Courtois, the Crew were the ones who took their second-place medals at home and will now think about trying to get back over the playoff line and take a playoff spot.
St. Louis City defended very well
For most of the match, St. Louis defended their end of the pitch, trying to frustrate the Crew and keep them from getting past. Their backline did an amazing job deflecting shots, forcing the Crew to overthink their attacking runs, and frustrating them in the midfield to take away chances. Roman Burki was on his game and made a few saves to keep the score deadlocked. This was one of the best defensive games for St. Louis, and when they did get some offensive chances, they couldn’t get anything past Nicolas Hagen.
Big injury to Burki
In the 69th minute, a big injury happened to the Captain and starting goalkeeper, Roman Burki, as he was attempting to prepare to make a save on the Crew’s attacking sequence. The play originally started at the top of the area, where the Crew was attacking, and a challenge occurred as the ball was lost; at the same time, a possible foul wasn’t called. But the ball was still in possession for Columbus as the shot was sent toward the far post. Burki made the save and was sprawled down on the grass until the ball was spilled and a rebound chance was available. When Mohamed Farsi made the move to get the ball, he tried to leap over Burki, who got the ball, but accidentally struck Burki in the back of the head.
It took 10 minutes for the medical crew and the medical trainers from both sides to attend to Burki and get him strapped up on the gurney. He was being rolled off to the far corner entrance to get to the ambulance and take him to the hospital, as Roman Burki was diagnosed with a concussion. During the match, there were reports that Burki was doing well and was moving all his extremities. Ben Lundt came in as a substitute in the 79th minute to keep the match scoreless from regulation to extra time. After the final whistle blew at the end of the second half of extra time, the match went into the penalty kick shootout.
Penalties decided the trophy
During the coin toss to see who would go first in the shootout, St. Louis City won the toss. Timo Baumgartl went first for St. Louis and converted, but the big moment came when Santiago Rodriguez was the first kicker for the Crew, as he tried to go to his right and Lundt, with that big frame of his, dove toward the far post and got his left hand on the ball to knock it off the post and out to keep the lead at 1-0. For the rest of the shootout, St. Louis City converted their next three penalties, while the Crew also converted their next three penalties. But on the final chance, Daniel Edelman, who had success against the Crew in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs in Game 2 of Round 1 when he was on Red Bull New York with his winning penalty, got the winning penalty again for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The large contingent of visiting St. Louis City fans who were in the south side second deck cheered and celebrated as the city of St. Louis, which has won 10 Open Cup Championships under the clubs of Ben Miller FC, Scullin Steel, three-time champions Stix, Baer and Fuller FC, two-time champion St. Louis-Simpkins Ford, Kutis SC, and St. Louis Busch Senior, now can add MLS side St. Louis City SC as the 11th club in the city of St. Louis to take home the National Championship of American Soccer.
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