US Open Cup Final Preview

The U.S. Open Cup is a unique tournament, pitting professional superstars against pub league amateurs in a one-off, single elimination tournament. In this year's edition (following preliminary qualifiers), 12 MLS sides, 14 minor league professional sides, 8 college summer league qualifiers, and 8 amateur champions partook, leaving Chicago Fire and Los Angeles Galaxy to do battle for the Dewar Trophy, the longest continuously-awarded trophy in the United States, stretching back to 1914. Along the way, MLS sides survived scares in hostile minor-league grounds, and CD Chivas USA earned the dubious honor of being the first MLS team to lose to an amateur team, when they drew Roma FC 0-0 and lost on penalty kicks.

How they got here
Chicago defeated: Kansas City (MLS) 2-0, New England (MLS) 2-1, DC United (MLS) 3-0
Los Angeles defeated: Roma FC (Amateur) 2-0, Colorado (MLS) 3-1 aet, Houston (MLS) 3-1

In league play, Fire are the hottest team in the league, only losing once twice since the All-Star break nearly two months ago. The Fire beat LA 2-1 on Saturday to win the season series (the two sides tied 1-1 in LA in April.) Los Angeles's fortunes are decidedly reversed. Last season's double winners sit in the Western Conference basement, with an 11th trip to the playoffs all but mathematically impossible with 3 matches to go. So with the history behind us, who will have the impact on the game?

Los Angeles: Landon Donovan. Donovan is the center of his team. The offense revolves around him, he scored on SAturday in a 2-1 loss, and without him, LA would likely be much worse than their record shows. However, Landon has a history of mailing it in in big games (World Cup, playoffs, etc.) For LA to win, Donovan has to have a great game, and I think he has to score, because Galaxy don't have a lot of weapons to work with.

Chicago: Matt Pickens. Pickens has started in net for all of Chicago's Open Cup games and has keyed the Fire's stretch run following regular starter Zach Thornton's injury. There is now a goalkeeper controversy in Chicago, where stability between the posts has reigned since 1998. His GAA has been 0.625 in that time, and he'll be tested again tonight.

Intangible stat: Only one team in the MLS era has won the Open Cup Final on the road (The 2003 Chicago Fire won at New York), and the Fire have never lost a home Open Cup game in club history.

My pick: Fire 2-0.