First Losers

[ornoth]

The US Open Cup is highly coveted as the longest-running soccer tournament in America. In 2025, 64 professional teams and 32 amateur teams competed, with the final championship match coming down to Austin FC and Nashville SC.

Orny & Inna in the stands for the 2025 US Open Cup final.

US Open Cup opening ceremony and pyrotechnics.

The supporters' groups' massive US Open Cup tifo.

The official 2025 US Open Cup match poster.

Somehow, Austin won the draw to host the final – the first-ever championship match in Austin FC’s 5-year existence – so I convinced Inna that we should be there for the biggest game in club history. It was her first time attending a soccer match.

Despite Austin being the home team, I didn’t really expect us to win. We have 12 wins this season to Gnashville’s 16, and Gnashville have two of the league’s best players in Hany Mukhtar (the 2022 league MVP) and Sam Surridge (one of the league’s top 3 scorers). Of personal interest, one of their backup players is Teal Bunbury, who played for the New England Revolution for 8 years.

In contrast, Austin FC doesn’t have any real star-caliber players, except for our legendary goaltender Brad Stuver. Although young backup CJ Fodrey had produced stunning last-minute game-winning goals in 3 of the 4 games preceding the Open Cup final.

As for the gameday experience, we benefited from having reserved parking at a bank just across the street from the stadium. Our first stop was the team shop, where I didn’t buy anything because they’d already sold out of Open Cup jerseys and scarves, but Inna picked up a baseball cap. Then we made our way to our seats.

The pregame fanfare featured a big Open Cup banner in the center of the pitch, some pyrotechnics, and an immense and impressive tifo put together by the supporters’ groups. Unfortunately, that is about all that Austin’s SGs are good for, because they’re really there just for themselves, doing nothing to involve the rest of the crowd.

As for the actual game… We had far more and better chances than the opposition, but Gnashville did a much better job putting their chances away, while we squandered ours, including having a priceless penalty kick blocked. We also don’t fare well trying to penetrate a set defense, moving the ball forward only to turn around and pass backward at any hint of pressure.

But the most infuriating aspect was the horrific officiating. Even before the game began, I commented to Inna that lead ref Tori Penso has a terrible reputation, and she more than lived up to my expectations, allowing Gnashville to cynically piddle away over 15 minutes of game time without so much as a warning. Then, with the match tied at 1-1, she awarded Gnashville a penalty kick on a dubious foul, which gifted the game to Gnashville. So much for the idea that referees aren’t supposed to decide the outcome of games.

Following the game, we tried to pick up a match poster, but they’d all been given away at the pre-match party, so I had to settle for downloading the electronic version and printing it myself on 11x17” poster stock. Although I didn’t think about it in July when I bought some foamcore to mount my Austin vs. New England match poster, it was handy that the foamcore had come in a multi-pack, so I had some left over to use for the US Open Cup poster.

Although the disappointing result meant we couldn’t celebrate Austin FC’s first championship trophy, we still enjoyed the experience. There was more pageantry and crowd energy than you’d get for a regular-season MLS game, so it made a good first experience for Inna, who was able to forget about her work stress for a few hours of entertainment. And who knows when Austin will get their next chance to host another championship game?

If you’re interested, here’s the 11-minute extended game highlights video:

Watch on YouTube