CONFIRMED
St. Louis City are cup winners for the first time. ESPN reports they beat Columbus Crew 5-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the U.S. Open Cup final on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. The night came with a scare: captain Roman Bürki was stretchered off and taken to hospital after a knee to the head.
What we know
The headline fact is simple and historic. ESPN confirms St. Louis City, who began play in MLS in 2023, have won their first trophy. ESPN and CBS Sports both frame it as silverware in the club’s fourth season. The Guardian’s headline puts it plainly too, saying St. Louis City topped Columbus Crew to win the US Open Cup.
It was not a smash-and-grab with style points. ESPN reports Columbus outshot St. Louis 16-3 in regulation. The Crew had the ball and the chances, St. Louis had the clean sheet. Neither side scored through extra time, and it went to spot kicks.
Then the drama found the goalkeeper. ESPN reports Bürki took a knee to the head from Crew winger Anass Zaroury as he tried to make a save. He was treated on the pitch and stretchered off. USA Today described the contact as inadvertent. That matters for tone: this reads as an accident in a goalmouth scramble, not a villain’s moment.
The best news came from the club itself. St. Louis City confirmed to ESPN that Bürki was conscious and moving all extremities on his way to hospital. ESPN notes he joined from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and wears the armband, so the whole squad was playing that shootout with one eye on the ambulance.
Enter Ben Lundt. CBS Sports reports the final was only his fourth appearance of the season. ESPN and CBS Sports both report he saved Columbus’s first penalty, taken by Santi Rodríguez. Daniel Edelman then stepped up and scored the winning kick. A backup keeper walking in cold and stopping the first penalty of a cup final shootout is the sort of plot a scriptwriter would reject as too neat.
ESPN reports eleven minutes of injury time were added because of the Bürki stoppage.
What we don’t know yet
How badly Bürki is hurt. The club’s update to ESPN says he was conscious and moving all extremities, and nothing more. No diagnosis, no timeline, no word on whether he stayed overnight.
One low-tier outlet, streamlinefeed.co.ke, called it a “severe” head injury. No official source has said that. Until St. Louis City or a credible outlet says otherwise, treat that word as unconfirmed.
The exact timing is also messy. ESPN puts the collision at the 70th minute. CBS Sports, USA Today and Front Row Soccer give the 78th as the minute Bürki left the field and Lundt came on. Those can both be true if treatment took a while, but we will not pick a single number before the official match report does. Reports also differ on how many stoppage minutes were played.
On the officiating, there is nothing to rule on yet. CBS’s live blog noted a possible penalty review around the incident, but no decision has been officially explained, so there is no referee’s reasoning to test against the Laws of the Game.
What it means
For St. Louis, this is a landmark. Four seasons in, the club has a trophy, won the hard way: outshot, out-possessed and relying on a goalkeeper who barely plays.
For Lundt, it is a career night. For Edelman, it is the kick people will replay for years.
For Bürki, the celebrations should wait on a medical update. The club’s early word to ESPN is encouraging. Everything beyond that is still unknown, and the next statement from St. Louis City is the one that counts.
