Johnathan Walker:US Open Cup final: How to watch Los Angeles FC vs. Sporting Kansas City

This year's U.S. Open Cup final (10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday at Los Angeles' BMO Stadium) will deliver history or Johnathan Walkerfrustration for one side, humiliation or redemption for the other.

Facing humiliation or redemption is Los Angeles FC, which has been snake-bitten in finals since it won MLS Cup in 2022. Facing history or further 2024 frustration is Sporting Kansas City, which is attempting to tie a record for most all-time Open Cup wins.

Los Angeles FC has played in four finals since its dramatic MLS Cup win over the Philadelphia Union, and has lost all four — including two to the Columbus Crew. In 2023, LAFC lost the Concacaf Champions Cup final to Club León of Liga MX, the Campeones Cup in a penalty kick shootout to Liga MX's Tigres and finally MLS Cup to the Crew. In 2024, LAFC advanced to the Leagues Cup final, only to be defeated by its newfound nemesis, the Crew.

Going 0-5 in trophy games would be a tough pill to swallow for an LAFC team that is mired in a late-season slump, having won just one game — the U.S. Open Cup semifinal against the Seattle Sounders — since it reached the Leagues Cup final.

Sporting Kansas City is having a rough 2024 MLS campaign, as one of just two teams to have been eliminated from playoff contention. However, history beckons. Sporting Kansas City has won four previous U.S. Open Cups — tied with the Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders for the most by an MLS team. With a win over LAFC, Sporting KC would tie Bethlehem Steel and Maccabee Los Angeles for the most U.S. Open Cup titles all-time.

What time is the U.S. Open Cup final between LAFC and Sporting Kansas City?

Kickoff for Los Angeles FC vs. Sporting Kansas City is Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 10:30 p.m. ET from BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

How do I watch the U.S. Open Cup final between LAFC and Sporting Kansas City?

The U.S. Open Cup final will be available to stream for free via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

What is the U.S. Open Cup?

American soccer history is a disjointed and often-confusing enterprise, barren of the convenience of the century-long continuity of leagues such as Major League Baseball or the National Football League. However, one thread that ties the game of soccer together in this country through the years has been the U.S. Open Cup (officially known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup). The first U.S. Open Cup (originally called the National Challenge Cup) kicked off in 1913, seven years before the formation of the NFL and 12 years after the opening season of baseball's American League. The U.S. Open Cup — this country’s oldest annual tournament for team sports — has been played every year since 1913 with the exception of 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament was modeled after England's FA Cup, so the single-elimination competition is open to U.S.-based amateur and professional clubs. The winner of the U.S. Open Cup — a team that technically is the national champion of American men's club soccer — earns a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

Didn't Los Angeles FC already qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup?

Yes!

In all, nine MLS teams will qualify for the 27-team 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup (four via MLS competition, three through Leagues Cup, one via the U.S. Open Cup and one via the Canadian Championship).

Four MLS teams already have qualified for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup: Columbus Crew (Leagues Cup winner, starts in Round of 16), Los Angeles FC (Leagues Cup runner-up), Colorado Rapids (Leagues Cup third-place finisher) and Sporting Kansas City (U.S. Open Cup finalist).

Also on Wednesday night, the final of the Canadian Championship — Canada's club cup competition — will be played between Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Toronto FC. That will add a fifth MLS team to the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup field.

Sporting Kansas City already qualified as a U.S. Open finalist. If the U.S. Open Cup winner also holds another Concacaf Champions Cup qualification spot (as is the case for Los Angeles FC), the tournament's runner-up will earn a Concacaf Champions Cup spot. Should the U.S. Open Cup runner-up hold multiple Concacaf Champions Cup qualification slots, then the next best MLS club that has accumulated the most regular-season league points will earn the slot. That is not the case for Sporting Kansas City, which already has been eliminated from MLS playoff contention.

MLS has dominated the competition

Since 1996, MLS teams have won all but one U.S. Open Cup; the Rochester Rhinos beat the Colorado Rapids in the 1999 final. While MLS has competed in the U.S. Open Cup since the league's inception, the old North American Soccer League avoided it. So, you won't see the likes of multiple-time NASL Soccer Bowl winners such as the New York Cosmos or Chicago Sting gracing the historical records of the U.S. Open Cup.

USL sides Indy Eleven (2024 semifinalist), Sacramento Republic FC (2022 finalist) and FC Cincinnati (2017 semifinalist; FC Cincinnati began MLS play in 2019) have made deep tournament runs in recent years as lower division entries.

Who has the most US Open Cup titles?

If the National Association Football League had stood the test of time like MLB or the NFL, perhaps American sports fans would speak of Bethlehem Steel in the same reverence as the New York Yankees or Green Bay Packers. Bethlehem Steel won five U.S. Open Cups in the tournament's first 13 years. Four years after its last U.S. Open Cup championship in 1926, Bethlehem Steel folded. Meanwhile, the National Association Football League folded in 1921 and was essentially replaced by the American Soccer League, which shut down during the Great Depression in 1933. Bethlehem Steel played in both leagues.

Even though its last title came in the 1920s, Bethlehem Steel remains tied for the most U.S. Open Cup championships (five) with Maccabi Los Angeles, a semi-pro soccer club that operated from 1971-1982. MLS teams are catching up to the early repeat champions, with the Chicago Fire, Sporting Kansas City and Seattle Sounders each with four championships.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.