The Columbus Crew entered Wednesday’s championship match with an opportunity to lift the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup trophy for the first time since 2002. A St. Louis CITY SC side, making its first appearance in the final since joining MLS, stood in its way.
However, neither team broke the deadlock in regulation or in 30 minutes of extra time, which led the 111th edition to be decided by a penalty kick shootout.
In front of a sold-out crowd at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, St. Louis converted all five attempts, while backup goalkeeper Ben Lundt made one big save to give the visitors — and roughly 2,000 traveling fans — a 5-3 win in the shootout.
It was the second time in this year’s competition that Lundt came off the bench to replace injured starter Roman Bürki, and ultimately win a penalty kick shootout.
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With the win, St. Louis CITY became the 12th Missouri-based club in tournament history to lift the trophy and the 11th from the Mound City. CITY’s first major trophy also earns them an automatic berth in the 2027 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
“It’s amazing. For me, it’s more the feeling I get for the players. Those guys, I see them every day. They wear their hearts on their sleeve and they really push all season long,” St. Louis head coach Yoann Damet told CBS Sports after the game. “Those guys are the same that were there in March when we were not winning. They were working as hard, and they were focused as much and today is the reward … And I’m super happy for them and super proud of the effort tonight.”
CITY entered the match looking to bounce back after the club’s league record 21-game unbeaten streak was snapped. That bounce back did not appear to be taking place in the first half. The game was largely controlled by the Crew in front of 20,250 fans, a crowd that nearly doubled Columbus’ previous club record for Open Cup attendance (11,257 set in the Third Round of the 1999 US Open Cup vs. Carolina Dynamo).
The home team led by interim head coach Laurent Courtois, fielded an attacking lineup featuring Josef Martinez, Santiago Rodriguez, Brais Mendez and Anass Zaroury. That talent was nearly gifted a goal in the 12th minute when Bürki’s pass went right to a Crew player who immediately played the ball into the box for a one-time shot by Santiago Rodriguez. The Semifinal winner of TheCup.us Player of the Round award took the shot but it was blocked.
Bürki made up for the mistake with multiple saves as the Crew kept the pressure on throughout the opening half. The best chance of the opening frame came from Mohammad Farsi who dribbled to the top of the box and fired a low shot that took a deflection in front and forced Bürki to get a fingertip to the ball which then deflected off the post and was cleared by his backline. Columbus outshot St. Louis 11-1 going into halftime.
The game took a dramatic turn in the 69th minute when Columbus played a ball through to Rodriguez on the left side of the St. Louis box. Rodriguez cut inside and Carlo Holse tracked him down and knocked the ball away. Before many Columbus players and fans could shout for a penalty kick, the ball was retrieved by Mendes at the top of the box and played through to Anass Zaroury. When Zaroury got a touch to it, he immediately shot but Bürki had come off his line to slide to knock it away. Zaroury jumped to avoid Bürki but his knee hit the goalkeeper in the head, which led to the medical staff to rush out to the field where the Swiss international was carted off the field and replaced by Lundt.
It marked the first time in the tournament’s Modern Era (1995-present) that a goalkeeper had to exit the game due to injury.
While St. Louis became more threatening in the second half, they were unable to get on the scoresheet. The Crew were also unable to break the deadlock so the match went to extra time. Over the next 30 minutes, both teams canceled each other out as the tournament’s championships game was decided from the penalty spot for just the fifth time in the competition’s Modern Era (1995, 1997, 2012, 2015). At the end of 120 minutes, Columbus held a 16-5 edge in shots.
In the shootout, Columbus netminder Nicholas Hagen guessed correctly on three of the five St. Louis attempts but was unable to keep any of them out. Meanwhile, Lundt used all of his 6-foot-6 frame to make the deciding save on the Crew’s first attempt, diving to his left and stopping the opening attempt by Rodriguez.
For St. Louis, goals were scored by Timo Baumgartl, Lucas MacNaughton, Chris Durkin, Damion Downs, with the winning PK coming from Daniel Edelman. He fired his shot right down the middle, while Hagen dove to his left and helplessly watched the ball find the back of the net leading to instant celebrations by the St. Louis players and coaches.
It was the second time that Edelman had eliminated the Columbus Crew with a penalty kick in his career. In 2024, as a member of the New York Red Bulls, Edelman scored the winning spot kick to punch his team to the MLS Cup Final.
“It felt amazing, I’ve been there before and I’ve practiced the mindset needed when you step up for a penalty,” Edelman told CBS Sports. “It’s all about process. How you’re going to strike the ball and don’t let any thoughts enter the brain and just strike the ball well.”
For Lundt, he got another opportunity to play hero during CITY’s 2026 Cup run. This was the second time that the German-born keeper came off to bench after Bürki was injured. In the Quarterfinals, Lundt was thrust into action in the 26th minute when Bürki had to leave due to an injury after slipping and falling while trying to play the ball. Just like in Wednesday’s Final, Lundt came up big in the PK shootout, making two saves to help St. Louis reach the Semifinals.
“I like penalties throughout my career. I’ve been good on penalties so I know what I can do,” Lundt said. “It’s obviously hard coming into a game and it’s even harder to see the captain of your team and your friend that I’ve been with for four years, come out of the game on a stretcher, it doesn’t get harder than this. The stakes are high, the stadium was loud. It was a very hard assignment … I was very confident in and I knew I make one save and that could be enough.”
For the Crew, it was the club’s third time finishing as the runner-up (1998, 2010, 2026).
“Really sad for the guys because … it goes to extra time and what they were able to provide in terms of content and effort, and two days after what we had to do at Cincinnati on Sunday was brutal,” Courtois said. “Disappointed for the guys. We believe they deserve better, but congratulations to St. Louis.”
Josh Hakala also contributed to this report