U.S. Open Cup 2019

Lore & Background

Seattle had entered the U.S. Open Cup every season since 2009, and the competition had become a familiar source of both excitement and frustration. The Sounders reached the final in 2017 and 2018, losing on both occasions, which made the 2019 campaign feel like a third strike that could not be missed. The path through the bracket saw the club navigate lower-division and MLS opponents with a blend of set-piece ruthlessness and open-play flair that fans had come to expect from the Lumen Field crowd's thunder.

The final itself was a proper cup tie: open, end-to-end, and decided in the closing minutes. Real Salt Lake, a club with its own Open Cup pedigree, pushed hard and kept the game alive, but Seattle's quality in the final third told. Ruidiaz, who had scored the decisive goals, became the name chanted through the post-match celebration that spilled onto the pitch and into the stands. For a city that had waited ten years for its first piece of major silverware, the moment carried a weight that transcended a single 90 minutes.

The 2019 cup remains a touchstone in Sounders lore. It is the trophy that proved the club could go the full distance in a knockout competition, and it gave the fanbase a shared memory that still anchors the identity of the green-and-gold movement in the Pacific Northwest.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Lumen Field hummed against the December dark. The pitch was a deep, saturated green under the halogen glare, and the stands were a single breathing organism of green scarves and raised fists. The ball sat on the penalty spot for a free kick, and the air was so still you could hear the rustle of a thousand programs being clutched tighter. Ruidiaz stepped up, the Salt Lake wall a wall of white and red, and the crowd exhaled as one. The ball curved, dipped, and kissed the inside of the net with a soft thud that somehow carried louder than a thunderclap. The noise that followed was not sound; it was pressure, physical, pressing the chest plates of every person in the stadium. He ran, arms wide, and the green wave crashed over the lower tier like a tide finding its shore. Somewhere in the 200-level, a stranger was hugging a stranger, both of them crying, both of them certain this was the night they would tell their children about for the rest of their lives.

Reader's Guide

The 2019 U.S. Open Cup Final pitted Seattle Sounders FC against Real Salt Lake at Lumen Field on December 11, 2019. The Sounders took a 3–2 victory in a match that swung back and forth, with Real Salt Lake threatening to extend their own Open Cup legacy. Raul Ruidiaz was the decisive figure, scoring two goals that gave Seattle the edge in a tight, competitive affair. The third Sounders goal and the two RSL responses made for a genuine cup-final tension that kept the Lumen Field crowd on their feet for the full 90 minutes.

This was the Sounders' first U.S. Open Cup title, ending a run of final appearances in 2017 and 2018 that had ended in disappointment. The trophy sits in the club's honours list alongside the 2009 and 2017 MLS Cups, completing a domestic trophy cabinet that had, until December 2019, been missing its cup component.

Key statistical note: Ruidiaz's two-goal performance in the final remains the defining individual display of the competition for the Sounders in that season. The 3–2 aggregate in the final is the scoreline most associated with the club's first Open Cup triumph.

Did You Know?

• The 2019 U.S. Open Cup was the first major domestic trophy in Seattle Sounders FC history, ending a decade without a cup or league title beyond the MLS Cups of 2009 and 2017.
• Real Salt Lake, the final's opponents, were themselves a proven Open Cup club, having won the competition in 2009 and 2013, which made the 3–2 result a statement of Seattle's arrival in knockout football.
• Raul Ruidiaz had joined Seattle just before the 2019 season, meaning his heroics in the final came within his first competitive campaign with the club.
• The Sounders had reached the Open Cup final in both 2017 and 2018 without lifting the trophy, making the 2019 victory the culmination of three consecutive deep runs.