Loons coach, player want a chance to play for U.S. Open Cup trophy

Minnesota United's last-chance 1-0 victory over Portland on Sunday at Allianz Field brought it three points in the standings and closer to reaching the playoffs for the first time in three MLS seasons.

Its rematch with the Timbers on Wednesday night in the very same place is the two teams' second game in four days, but one that United midfielder Ethan Finley calls "completely different."

It is a U.S. Open Cup semifinal, a competition beyond the two league games they'll play against each other this season.

England has its venerable F.A. Cup — Football Association Cup — now 148 years old that's contested among clubs in its soccer system 10 levels deep. Europe's domestic leagues have their own, their Champions League and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) cups. Same, too, for South America and its Copa Libertadores de America.

American club teams, amateur and professional, have played for the now-named Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup since 1914 in an expansive, inclusive competition that's part of the sport's fabric worldwide and delivers the same kind of prize awarded in England and Europe:

A trophy.

"This is why we play this game," Finlay said. "We play to win trophies, to stand on top of podiums with our teammates and celebrate all the hard work we put in together. It's a little bit unique to the soccer culture, playing for cups. But it's extremely important to us. It's no different than the F.A. Cup and other cups they have around the world within leagues and this is a big one in our league."

United has reached the semifinals for the first time. Wednesday's winner advances to play Atlanta United, which beat Orlando City 2-0 Tuesday night in the other semifinal, in the Cup final later this month for $300,000 and the chance to play in the prestigious CONCACAF Champions League that pits every winter and spring four qualifying U.S. teams against top clubs from Central America and the Caribbean.

The Loons have reached this point in their third MLS season, reaching Wednesday's game undefeated in its past 10 MLS and U.S. Open Cup games. United defeated league opponents Sporting KC and Houston and New Mexico United from the USL Championship league in Cup games.

The game will be shown on ESPN+, the network's subscription web channel.

"There are teams that have been in this league eight, nine years that haven't won anything," United coach Adrian Heath said. "For us to get to a final in under three years would be great for the club considering what we've done.

"If we could get to a final, it'd be unbelievable for us. … I'm not going to shy away that Wednesday is a huge game for us."

Heath's teams never have been this far in an Open Cup before. United's predecessor, the Thunder, reached the 2005 semifinals before losing to the L.A. Galaxy.

But United's Ozzie Alonso and Ike Opara have done it all.

Alonso's minor league Charleston Battery team reached the 2008 U.S. Open Cup final, the last non-MLS team to do so. His Seattle teams won it four times from 2009 to 2014 and was runner-up in 2012.

"It's a trophy, you have to try to win it," Alonso said. "I got a lot of memory. I got a chance to win four times the Cup, but I'm hungry for more. I'm looking for my fifth. A trophy is a trophy. If you win a trophy, you put it in your record. I think this will be first time for the team to win the Open Cup, so we have to go for it."

Kansas City won it twice in Opara's six seasons there — in 2015 and 2017 — and won the MLS Cup in his first season there, 2013.

"There probably are a few things in this game of soccer you play for and trophies are one of them," Opara said. "You'll have a forever lasting memory. I remember all the trophies I won in Kansas City. They stick with you forever."

Heath won the 1984 F.A. Cup with Everton, was injured for the 1985 Cup final against Manchester United and finished runner-up to Liverpool in 1986 during his 18-year playing career. His teams there won the first-division league championship twice before it was called the Premier League.

"When I look back on my career, some of my greatest moments — and I was fortunate, we won the league a few times — were those nights winning the semifinals and going to a F.A. Cup final," Heath said. "That will never leave me. I grew up in an era when playing in a F.A. Cup final was every kid's dream."