Free Headers: MLS returns to being serious about U.S. Open Cup

The 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup final was Toluca against Tigres. The 2026 Leagues Cup final will be Toluca against Monterrey (with Club León against Club América in the third-place game.)

Maybe Major League Soccer is getting serious about the U.S. Open Cup for a simple reason: there aren't any Mexican teams, so they have a chance at winning a trophy, for once.

In all seriousness, it's good to see that Major League Soccer will, in 2027, go back to having all 27 American teams participate in the venerable U.S. Open Cup. The last few years - 2024, in which they tried to take all of their teams out of the competition and eventually sent just eight teams, and 2025, when they sent 16 of 27 - have been a bit of a black eye for the league.

Yes, there's nothing perfect about the U.S. Open Cup. Plenty of MLS teams don't treat it like a first-team competition, and some of the games can look pretty ugly on television.

I can acknowledge this is true, while also saying: so what?

If MLS teams don't want to be serious about it, they can go ahead and get beat at home by a third-division team, like Minnesota did in 2022. If that was embarrassing for them, well, good - it should be embarrassing.

In 2023, MLS commissioner Don Garber called the tournament "a very poor reflection on what we're trying to do with soccer at the highest level," and then his tried to make the tournament worse by pulling out all of his league's teams, which is pretty hilarious.

I love the U.S. Open Cup. It's the one thing that connects all the eras of American soccer, from Bethlehem Steel right through the present day; it's the one thing that connects all the many and varied participants in the modern men's game. I recognize that while this opinion may be widely shared online, it's not shared in the general population, at least from the attendance numbers; Minnesota has always had trouble drawing fans for U.S. Open Cup games, even for what should be huge nights, like the semifinals in 2025.

The Open Cup has been dominated by MLS teams for years. The official press release said, "MLS clubs have been a part of the U.S. Open Cup since the League’s inaugural season in 1996, and an MLS side has won every edition of the tournament since 2000," and frankly you can just feel the self-satisfied tone oozing off the page there. (And honestly we still don't talk enough about the 1999 edition of the Rochester Raging Rhinos beating four MLS teams en route to the title.)

My opinion is the opinion of someone that's old enough to remember the old days, when Minnesota wasn't an MLS team, when every player in the squad looked forward to the rare nights when they could prove themselves against an MLS side.

2004, when Minnesota beat the LA Galaxy 1-0 at the Metrodome. 2005, when Johnny Menyongar and Melvin Tarley led the Thunder on a free-scoring run through the bracket, beating Real Salt Lake, Colorado, and Kansas City before finally capitulating to the Galaxy in the semifinals. 2012, when the cash-strapped club sold hosting priority to Real Salt Lake, then went to Utah and won 3-1, a game forever memorialized as the "Take the Money and Run" game by Loons fans.

I'll tell you right now: those nights didn't feel like a poor reflection on the game. Those nights felt like the best of soccer. And anyone who's taking that away over some ugly fields or empty stands or less-than-professional TV broadcasts is doing more of a disservice to soccer fans than the U.S. Open Cup ever could.

Anyway, MLS teams will enter the round of 64 in July, right as they're getting ready to kick off the 2027-28 season - and they'll host in the first round, too, so they can put the games into their season ticket packages. (Honestly, this seems to be just about the only way they can guarantee fans in the stands.) I look forward to the eight or so MLS teams who will lose in the round of 64, who will endure jokes about them being a poor reflection of what the U.S. Open Cup is trying to do with soccer at the highest level.

Donovan the latest local player to go pro

Nathan Donovan had himself a year for Minneapolis City. Not only did the Crows go undefeated in the regular season, 12-0-0, but Donovan scored 16 goals in 11 games, tied for the league's Golden Boot Award, and was named the League Two player of the year.

It was in keeping with his college career at UW-Eau Claire, where he scored 94 in 83 games, including 26 goals his senior year to lead the entire NCAA.

I'm told that "Dr. Goals" - top-tier nickname there - is eventually headed to medical school, but his next move is to USL League One, where he's signed what was announced as a 25-day contract with Spokane Velocity in USL League One. (No, I do not know why the contract would be exactly 25 days, nor why 16 goals in 11 starts wasn't enough to earn him at least an entire month.)

Perhaps Donovan can talk to former Minnesota captain Dr. Kyle Altman, who deferred his own medical school years to play some soccer, and once - memorably - helped win a playoff game by so annoying San Antonio (and future Minnesota) striker Pablo Campos that Campos hauled off and punched him, getting himself sent off in the process.

It led to this photo, which did not win a Pulitzer, for reasons I cannot fathom.

Anyway, here's hoping Donovan gets a chance to prove himself in Spokane, in the three-and-a-half weeks he's apparently scheduled to be there.

Minnesotans in the Majors

As someone who used to study back-of-the-Sunday-sports scoreboard page, including the "Minnesotans in the Majors" box that showed how Minnesota natives were doing in Major League Baseball: Congrats, Zach Zengue, on making your Major League Soccer debut!

Zengue is from North Oaks and played for Shattuck-St. Mary's, before heading to Georgetown and then to MLS. St. Louis City just took him on a loan from Columbus, and threw him on for a 19-minute debut in a 3-3 draw with Dallas.

We shall watch his future progress with considerable, and parochial, interest.

On the women's side, Maddie Dahlien (Edina) has been tearing things up with Seattle in the NWSL. Dahlien has played in 19 of 21 matches this year for the Reign, starting 16 of them, and has three goals and two assists - tied for second on the squad, behind Maddie Mercado.

A quick check of the stats reveals that while there are two other Maddies in the NWSL, neither one has scored a goal, which makes one wonder why Reign FC is also Maddie FC.