Sam Surridge’s hat trick was more than enough for Nashville SC to defeat the Philadelphia Union in the 2025 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Semifinals, bring Nashville to their first US Open Cup Final and to earn himself TheCup.us Player of the Round honors.
The award is voted on by TheCup.us staff, a select panel from the North American Soccer Reporters and select backers (those that pledge $10 or more) from TheCup.us’ Patreon team.
Surridge ran away with the award over a pair of Austin FC players who were key to Los Verdes beating the Philadelphia Union 2-1 in extra time. Austin FC’s CJ Fodrey, who scored the game-winning goal in the 120th minute finished second, followed by Owen Wolff who assisted on Austin’s opening goal and played an all-around strong game.
Surridge is just the fourth England native to win the award.
Surridge opened the scoring for the match in the 36th minute. A throw-in was headed across the face of the goal by Nashville’s Jeisson Palacios, and Surridge completed the sequence by heading it into the net and scoring the only goal of the first half.
Surridge also scored the first goal of the second half, wasting little time and putting Nashville up 2-0 in the 50th minute. This shot was also a header; Surridge positioned himself in front of the net and was leapt up to rebound a saved shot and putting it in the top left corner over the outstretched arms of Philadelphia goalkeeper Andrew Rick.
Despite Surridge’s dominance, it felt like momentum had shifted after what would have been Nashville’s third goal was called back due to an offsides penalty, shortly followed by the Union’s Quinn Sullivan’s goal in the 70th minute, bringing the score to 2-1.
However, Surridge’s final goal solidified the victory for Nashville. He tracked a pass over his shoulder from Daniel Lovitz, leapt through the air and tapped the ball into the top left corner with his right foot.
With that third goal, he became just the second player in the tournament’s Modern Era (1995-present) to score a hat trick in the Semifinals. Surridge joins Diego Rossi and his TheCup.us Player of the Round performance with Los Angeles FC in 2018.
“However we would have got it done tonight, we would have been happy,” Surridge said. “I think that third goal was probably important. We’ve probably struggled to close out games, and I think that third goal cemented it.”
Surridge is currently the tournament leader in goals scored with five, and he will have the chance to extend that lead in the final match. He is one goal shy of the Modern Era record for most goals in a tournament with six which has been accomplished by 10 players (most recently by Darwin Quintero of the Minnesota United in 2019).
“We want to lift up a major trophy, and the US Open Cup is one of them,” said Surridge. “I think it’s special to win any trophy when you’ve got the teammates around you, hopefully we just get the job done.”