When the timing, draw, bounces and breaks somehow start falling your way in a competition that lacks consistent rhythm, rhyme or reason by design, the British traditionally ask whether that means “your name is on the cup.” Maybe only destiny can inject a bit of order into the mayhem. It provides a narrative foundation for the chaos that unfolds during a season-long, multileague, single-elimination tournament.
The cliché hasn’t migrated across the Atlantic like so many other football Britishisms, but the feeling has. How else could we explain what’s happening in California’s capital, a city so often overshadowed by its cosmopolitan neighbors to the west and south? Sacramento Republic, a nine-year-old USL Championship club whose bid for MLS membership disintegrated during the pandemic, is now 90 minutes from the most improbable trophy engraving in the U.S. Open Cup’s 109-year history.
After missing the USL playoffs in 2021, Sacramento retooled and reloaded. This year, as the Open Cup returned from a two-season hiatus, Republic defeated the San Jose Earthquakes, LA Galaxy and Sporting Kansas City during a six-game run to Wednesday’s final. There, it’ll play host Orlando City for the trophy, title and a spot in next season’s Concacaf Champions League. Only two lower-tier sides had beaten three MLS foes in one Open Cup campaign before Sacramento, most recently in ’05. No lower-division team has reached the final since ’08, and none have won it since the 1999 Rochester Rhinos.
