Wednesday night in Columbus belonged to the visitors. The St. Louis CITY first trophy celebration spilled onto the field at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field after the club beat the Columbus Crew 5-3 in a penalty shootout to lift the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. One hundred and twenty scoreless minutes solved nothing, so the 111th final in tournament history went to the spot. St. Louis buried all five of its kicks. The first piece of silverware in club history is real β and so is the berth in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup that came with it.
St. Louis CITY First Trophy: How the Shootout Was Won
Nobody inside the sold-out stadium in Columbus could have predicted the script. The Crew carried the play for most of the night, piling up a 16-5 edge in total shots. But chances came and went, and both keepers held firm: three shots on target apiece, three saves apiece, and nothing separating the sides after regulation and two extra-time periods.
So it fell to penalties, and St. Louis turned ice-cold. Timo Baumgartl buried the first attempt. Then the game tilted: backup goalkeeper Ben Lundt guessed right and pushed Santiago RodrΓguez’s opening effort away. The order never wavered after that β Lukas MacNaughton, Chris Durkin, and Damion Downs all converted before Daniel Edelman stroked the decisive kick home for the 5-3 win.
Edelman didn’t jog back to halfway. He sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate with the roughly 2,000 traveling supporters, who spent the rest of the night singing. There’s a twist: he’d been here before β he scored the winning penalty when St. Louis knocked Columbus out of the 2024 MLS postseason in a shootout. Two years later, he did it again, on a bigger stage.
“It’s the first trophy for me and for a lot of guys and for the city,” Edelman told CBS Sports afterward. “They completely deserve to have some silverware. And for us as a team, what we’ve been through this year, it’s phenomenal for us to have this night and have this trophy.”
Lundt to the Rescue
The night’s strangest storyline belonged to a man who never expected to play. Captain and starting goalkeeper Roman BΓΌrki went down in a scary collision and had to be stretchered off the field, later taken to a local Columbus hospital. Into that chaos walked Ben Lundt in the 78th minute, cold off the bench, in a cup final, with everything on the line.
All he did was hold the line through extra time and then produce the single biggest moment of the shootout. RodrΓguez’s penalty was Columbus’s chance to set the tone; Lundt’s save flipped the pressure entirely onto the Crew. It was the second time this season Lundt has come on for an injured BΓΌrki and ended up winning a shootout β a pattern that’s starting to look less like luck and more like a habit.
It’s the kind of performance that gets talked about for years β and his teammates treated it that way, mobbing him before the medal ceremony.
From Six Points to Silverware
Zoom out and the trophy looks even more remarkable. Ten matches into the 2026 MLS season, St. Louis had six points and sat near the bottom of the Western Conference β fans were doing playoff-elimination math, not planning trophy parades.
Then everything changed. The club ripped off a league-record 21-match unbeaten run in all competitions β 19 of them in league play β and climbed to second place in the West, within touching distance of the top spot. Under a first-year head coach, the turnaround went from survival story to history.
And the Open Cup wasn’t an accident. Forward Simon Becher said the staff made it a stated goal on day one of preseason, and the whole squad bought in β through the early rounds in April to a final on the road against an established power. Ten months later, the plan came good.
There’s poetry in the location, too. St. Louis calls itself the soccer capital of America, and the Open Cup is woven through its history β ten St. Louis clubs lifted it between 1920 and 1988. Nearly four decades later, the trophy is coming home to the city again, this time carried by the MLS club.
Sources and Resources
- The Sporting Page β St. Louis CITY Wins First Trophy With U.S. Open Cup Shootout Victory
- St. Louis CITY SC β Official Match Report: 5-3 Shootout Win Over Columbus Crew
- MLSsoccer.com β St. Louis CITY Savor First-Ever US Open Cup Title
- World Reach Daily β more sports news and St. Louis CITY first trophy coverage from our newsroom.
Related coverage from World Reach Daily: more sports news and St. Louis CITY first trophy coverage, St. Louis CITY first trophy photos, player reaction to the historic St. Louis CITY first trophy win, analysis of the St. Louis CITY first trophy run, and what the St. Louis CITY first trophy means next.
Who scored the winning penalty for St. Louis CITY?
Daniel Edelman. He converted the fifth and final kick of the shootout to seal the 5-3 win over Columbus. It was a familiar feeling β he’d also scored the decisive penalty when St. Louis knocked the Crew out of the 2024 MLS playoffs in a shootout.
Why was Ben Lundt in goal instead of Roman BΓΌrki?
BΓΌrki, the club captain and starter, was hurt in a collision and stretchered off during the second half. Lundt came on in the 78th minute, kept a clean sheet through extra time, and saved Santiago RodrΓguez’s opening penalty in the shootout.
What does winning the U.S. Open Cup earn St. Louis?
The first trophy in club history, plus an automatic berth in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup. That’s the continental competition β a first taste of international soccer for the young club.
When did Columbus last win the Open Cup?
2002. The Crew hadn’t reached the final since then, so Wednesday was a heartbreaker for the home crowd at a sold-out ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. They’ll take the hurt into their push for an MLS playoff spot.
How bad was St. Louis’s start to the season, really?
Six points from the first ten league matches, sitting near the bottom of the West. Then came a league-record 21-game unbeaten run across all competitions. Second place in the conference and a cup final later, “bad start” feels like ancient history.
Conclusion
Trophies change clubs. St. Louis CITY arrived in Columbus as the league’s great turnaround story and left as champions β first trophy, continental berth, and a night nobody in that traveling section will forget. The season started with six points from ten games. If the second act matches the first, the rest of MLS has a problem.