US Open Cup Semifinals: Four MLS hopefuls with remade rosters aim for the final

After 119 days, the 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup is set to resume Wednesday night. America's national soccer championship is down to four as four Major League Soccer teams face off in Colorado and Ohio.

With news that all US-based MLSteams are returning to the competition in 2027, and with amateur qualifying for the 2027 tournament now underway, it might seem hard to focus on the current tournament. Especially after the "summer of soccer" has run its course and as the MLS regular season nears its end.

But the 2026 semifinals have a lot of interesting threads to cover. The two western teams are trying to win their first US Open Cup, one of which comes from one of America's most historic soccer cities.

The other semifinal includes two teams heading in opposite directions in the east, yet each are two wins away from a title. Not to mention a spot in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup...though, do we even know how the CCC is working next year, given the MLS calendar flip?

Anyway, let's read up on the two semifinal matches taking place later tonight as the 2026 Open Cup nears its conclusion and its trophy presentation.

One-time champs collide

An MLS original hosts a 2015 expansion side with recent history winning the competition. Overall, 2026 has not gone well for Columbus as the team flounders in the lower half of the Eastern Conference. While the season started off poorly for Orlando City, the Lions rebounded post-World Cup break and now have Antoine Griezmann leading their attack.

The winner of this semifinal will host the 2026 US Open Cup final on October 21, facing off against either the Colorado Rapids or St. Louis City SC.

Starting with the hosts, the Crew have gone from bad pre-World Cup to worse in the late summer. They've only got two wins in their last ten matches, and since interim head coach Laurent Courtois took over the team in mid-May, his team has only secured 10 of a possible 33 points.

Before that drop off, the Crew did enough to get here in the tournament. Two wins over lower division sides Richmond Kickers and One Knoxville SC were followed up by a 1-0 win over New York City FC in the Quarterfinals.

Off the pitch, Columbus has been active in the transfer market, adding former New York City FC attacker Santiago Rodríguez, plus Eric Bailly, Brais Méndez, Gonzalo Tapia, Josef Martínez, and Brooks Lennon. This seems to be in hope of offsetting the departures of Diego Rossi, Max Arfsten, and the outgoing loan of top Open Cup goal scorer Hugo Picard, who joined French Ligue 1 club ESTAC Troyes.

On the other side, Orlando seems to be one of the best comeback stories of this season. Orlando started the season by losing six of eight games with only one win, but the Lions now sit in sixth place in a crowded MLS Eastern Conference table. Since the World Cup break, the side has won seven of 11 matches, including an ongoing three-game win streak (five undefeated) in the league.

That slow start also applied to the tournament, where Orlando only beat USL League One side FC Naples 1-0 in their first game. The Lions followed that up by scoring four goals in their next two games against the New England Revolution and Atlanta United FC in the Quarterfinals.

The summer transfer window is a big reason for this sudden surge. Orlando added a few names you might know: French World Cup champion and Atlético Madrid all-time leading scorer Antoine Griezmann, plus former United States men's national team striker Daryl Dike.

Griezmann has nine goals and three assists across all competitions since joining in July. Orlando also added Brazilian left back Vinícius Nogueira on loan, hoping to stop a bleed of goals allowed. Team captain and all-time appearances leader Robin Jansson has also returned from foot surgery that sidelined him earlier this year.

Orlando and Columbus met once this year in league play, playing to a 1-1 draw on April 12 in Columbus. In the tournament, the two teams have only met once, and that was in 2015. That Round of 16 match saw inaugural-season Orlando City beat the Crew, 2-0, thanks in part to a debuting Kaká who scored the game's opener.

Columbus has won the US Open Cup once all the way back in 2002, with two more runner-up performances. Orlando City also only has one championship after the team beat Sacramento Republic FC in 2022 for its first trophy as an MLS side.

Prediction: Even with it being a rough year, the Crew are still two wins away from a fifth trophy in six years. After witnessing the Crew's loss to Red Bull New York last weekend, the team's lack of offensive options is hard to overlook. Orlando is firing on more cylinders, including being one of only three teams to have a win over Supporters' Shield leaders Nashville SC this season. Take the Lions, 3-0.

Potential MLS playoff preview out west

While one semifinal features two teams seeking a second Open Cup title, this one has two sides looking to win their first. Both the Colorado Rapids and St. Louis City SC are playing good soccer in the bloodbath that is the Western Conference of MLS.

For St. Louis, this is a chance to add onto a city's already rich history with the tournament. Only two cities, New York and Los Angeles, have more overall Open Cup titles (also known as the National Challenge Cup historically).

Past St. Louis-based US Open Cup winners

On the other side, the Rapids can slightly erase an embarrassing piece of their own history, when they reached the 1999 Open Cup final but lost to the Rochester Raging Rhinos, the last non-MLS team to win the tournament (and last team from the state of New York to win the cup, as well). The Rapids would also become the first Colorado side to ever win the tournament, should they pick up two more wins.

Similar to Orlando, St. Louis stumbled out of the gates earlier this season under first-time MLS head coach Yoann Damet. The team only had one win through its first 10 games, but St. Louis hasn't lost a game since May 3 on the road against Austin FC, now riding what's a 16-match unbeaten streak. That stretch includes the penalty kick shootout in over Houston Dynamo FC back in May's Quarterfinal match that got them here.

Within two points of second place Houston Dynamo FC, a sometimes shaky defense gets bolstered by a well-rounded offense. Simon Becher and Marcel Hartel (who is now off the roster, having joined Hannover 96 in Germany) lead the team with seven and six goals respectively, and Becher is one assist behind team leader Conrad Wallen's six.

The club hasn't been afraid to make changes, bidding farewell to its three all-time leading scorers. João Klauss went to LA Galaxy, Hartel to Hannover, and Eduard Löwen got traded to the San Jose Earthquakes. A mix of veteran presence, youth such as Daniel Edelman, Becher, and former NYCFC academy player Dante Polvara, plus two new Designated Players in Carlo Holse and ex-Rapids striker Rafael Navarro, has allowed the squad to gel.

For the Rapids, a brutal April and May have made way for a slightly sunny summer. Since the Open Cup quarterfinals, the team has risen from just outside the playoff field to seventh place in the Western Conference, going 6-1-4 in that span. Six clean sheets in the eleven games has helped that run immensely, since five of those games have been 1-0 wins.

Colorado sold 18-year-old Australian defender Lucas Herrington to Hull City for a club-record outbound transfer fee during the summer transfer window. They made up for that, and other departures like Navarro going to St. Louis for $12 million, by adding experience: Loïc Williams, Sayed Abu Farkhi, Youssef Maziz, plus club-record signing Morgan Whittaker.

Like the Crew, Colorado played two USL sides on route to the semifinal, beating Union Omaha before needing penalty kicks to knock off in-state rival Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. A win over the San Jose Earthquakes in the Quarterfinals got them here.

Colorado and St. Louis have already met twice this season, with City winning both games by the same 1-0 score line. This is, however, a first-time meeting in a knockout competition.

For the Rapids, just being in the semifinal is an accomplishment. As pointed out by TheCup.us: Only five players on their current roster (Zach Steffen, Rob Holding, Keegan Rosenberry, Youssef Maziz and Reggie Cannon) were born the last time Colorado reached the final four in 1999. The team went on to win its semifinal match, but lost in the final to the Rochester Raging Rhinos.

On STL's side, this is only the team's third time participating in the Open Cup, with the deepest previous run being to the Round of 16 in 2023.

It is a sort of return to the semifinals for the city of St. Louis, though. Teams from Missouri have won the Open Cup/National Challenge Cup 11 times, with 10 of those wins by St. Louis-based teams. (The 11th Missouri-based Open Cup winner: St. Louis City SC's now-rivals, Sporting Kansas City, who won in 2004 while still known as the Wizards.) The last time ANY team from St. Louis reached this far in the tournament, it was in 1988 when Busch Soccer Club defeated Astoria, Queens' New York Pancyprian-Freedoms, 3-2, in the semifinals.

Prediction: It's tough to separate these two teams. Colorado has a tremendous defense but their attack isn't clicking enough to make enough games one-sided, two outlier 3-0 wins over San Diego FC and Columbus not withstanding. On the other hand, St. Louis is on a historic run of form, but I have to wonder if the side may rotate some to try and stay fresh in the season. Then again, they're playing Toronto FC this weekend and Toronto is 25th in the Supporters' Shield table. City should do just enough to keep Rapids/Arsenal FC owner Stan Kroenke from adding a first-ever US Open Cup alongside his first Premier League trophy. 1-0 St. Louis.