St. Louis CITY Beat Columbus on Penalties to Win First Trophy, the U.S. Open Cup

St. Louis CITY SC won the first trophy in club history on Wednesday night, beating the Columbus Crew 5-3 in a penalty shootout after 120 scoreless minutes in the 2026 U.S. Open Cup final at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio.

The win gives St. Louis its first U.S. Open Cup title. U.S. Soccer said it is the 11th Open Cup championship won by a club from St. Louis, a city whose teams lifted the cup in the 1920s and 1930s and again in 1988, but whose current Major League Soccer club had never won a trophy before Wednesday.

Columbus controlled the game and could not score

The hosts ran the first half. Columbus fired shot after shot at the St. Louis goal while holding CITY to almost nothing at the other end, and the Crew finished the first 45 minutes with 11 shots to one for the visitors. Their closest moment came late in the half, when defender Mohamed Farsi smashed an effort off the post, with a diving save from Roman Burki helping the ball stay out.

Columbus kept pushing after the break, but the match stayed scoreless. The Crew ended the night with 16 shots to five for St. Louis, and three shots on goal for each side, according to the club match report.

A backup goalkeeper decided the final

St. Louis lost its captain late in normal time. Burki, the starting goalkeeper, was forced off in the 78th minute after a collision with Columbus attacker Anass Zaroury, and backup Ben Lundt took his place for the rest of the match and for extra time.

Neither side scored in the extra 30 minutes, so the 111th Open Cup final went to penalties, with Lundt in goal for St. Louis. He saved the first Columbus kick, from Santiago Rodriguez, and his teammates did the rest. Timo Baumgartl, Lukas MacNaughton, Chris Durkin and Damion Downs each scored, and Daniel Edelman converted the fifth and decisive kick. St. Louis went a perfect five for five in the shootout.

What the title means for both clubs

Columbus was playing for its first Open Cup title since 2002 and had home field for the final after beating Richmond, One Knoxville, New York City FC and Orlando City on its run. St. Louis reached the final by beating Colorado 3-0 in its semifinal.

Instead, the night belonged to the visitors and to a city with a long cup history. CITY SC joins the line of St. Louis winners that U.S. Soccer traced back to the Ben Millers of 1920 and the Stix, Baer and Fuller teams of the 1930s, and the club now holds a trophy to show for its fourth season in MLS.