COLUMBUS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Columbus Crew\u00a0begin\u00a0the\u00a02026\u00a0Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the\u00a0historic competition\u2019s\u00a0Round\u00a0of 32\u00a0with an away match\u00a0against\u00a0USL\u00a0League\u00a0One’s\u00a0Richmond\u00a0Kickers at\u00a0City Stadium\u00a0in\u00a0Richmond, Va.,\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday, April\u00a015\u00a0at\u00a07:30\u00a0p.m. ET.\u00a0The match will\u00a0be available\u00a0to\u00a0stream live on\u00a0Paramount+.<\/p>\n
With a\u00a0victory,\u00a0the Black & Gold\u00a0would\u00a0travel to\u00a0face\u00a0the winner of the D.C. United-One Knoxville SC\u00a0matchup\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0Round of 16 on\u00a0April 28-29.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Crew\u00a0hold\u00a0a\u00a022-13-14\u00a0all-time record\u00a0in the U.S. Open Cup, dating back to\u00a01998.\u00a0The Black & Gold won their first trophy\u00a0in Club history\u00a0on Oct.\u00a024, 2002, defeating the LA Galaxy 1-0 at Historic Crew Stadium to\u00a0claim the\u00a0championship.\u00a0In 2025, Crew 2 reached\u00a0the\u00a0Third Round after\u00a0earning\u00a0a 4-1\u00a0victory over\u00a0NY Renegades in the First Round\u00a0on March 19\u00a0and a\u00a03-0 win against Lexington SC\u00a0on April 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is U.S. Soccer’s club championship and has crowned a Champion annually since 1914 (with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19). The prestigious tournament is conducted on a single-game, knockout basis and open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. It is the longest running national soccer competition in the United States and the world’s third-longest continuously run national cup tournament. It is the only tournament in USA-based team sports where amateurs have the chance to play professionals in direct competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2026\u00a0U.S. Open Cup winner will earn $600,000 in prize money, a berth in the 2027\u00a0Concacaf Champions\u00a0Cup\u00a0and have its name engraved on the Dewar Challenge Trophy \u2013 one of the oldest nationally-contested trophies in American team sports \u2013 now on permanent display at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas. The runner-up will earn $250,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division will take home a $50,000 cash prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The Columbus Crew\u00a0begin\u00a0the\u00a02026\u00a0Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the\u00a0historic competition\u2019s\u00a0Round\u00a0of 32\u00a0with an away match\u00a0against\u00a0USL\u00a0League\u00a0One’s\u00a0Richmond\u00a0Kickers at\u00a0City Stadium\u00a0in\u00a0Richmond, Va.,\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday, April\u00a015\u00a0at\u00a07:30\u00a0p.m.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,153470,829,3,248652,1026,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-561271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-homepage-news","10":"tag-latest-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-open-cup","13":"tag-press-releases","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}