First off, I'm not saying they shouldn't have this competition, but just asking what's it's purpose. Who qualifies for it? And what's its significance?
It's the oldest soccer competition in the United States. Any professional team can qualify for it, and they have it because it's a tournament, why do they have the FA Cup? The winner is the best club team in the United States.
Yeah, I'm serious. I just have no idea about club competition for the most part. I've been a soccer fan all my life, but been more of a fan of international soccer. I've only very, very recently gotten into club soccer. Therefore, I know very little about club soccer competition, the tournaments, etc. I've posted topics on other boards asking about the UEFA Cup, and Champions Cup.
It's not limited to pro teams. Any pro or amateur team in a league sanctioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation is eligible to participate, though all leagues below MLS use qualifiers to gain entry into the main tournament itself.
Yup. I played in it when I was a weeee lad of 17 and again at 18 as part of my town's team. Qualifying was different in them days, since the NASL teams didn't compete. Of course, we would've been about 12-15 wins away from getting anywhere near one of those even if they did play.
Yes. The bottom 4 US-based A-League teams from last year start in the 2nd round of this year's tournament, and the top 4 2004 finishers start in the 3rd round.
It's really fun to look through the past winners from way back in the day. It's almost a geographical history of immigramt groups and labor unions in the USA.
Just to be clear, the Canadian teams and the Puerto Rican team in USL-1 are not in the tourney, only the US teams.
The pre-cursor (not the same tourney, mind) to the Open Cup (predates the Yankees): http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/americancup.html And I have to agree with the earlier post, "dude, are you serious?" Can't believe you haven't checked out/found this site (the Mecca of US footy): http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/index.html
I didn't see the list of champs posted yet, so here it is... http://www.soccerhall.org/US_Open_Cup_Champions.htm And I think the original poster might not be clear on the fact that the NASL didn't enter (can't recall why). I doubt if the New York Pancyrian Freedoms would've troubled the Cosmos very much, but they might've been able to embarrass a couple of the league's lesser lights. Of course, my guess is that the USOC was conducted under international rules (no 35-yard line for offside, etc), so maybe that had something to do with it. Of course, if you've never been to the site Jimmyco linked, get off bigsoccer for a few days and learn more about the game's history in the US. It's the best site I know of for American soccer.
http://pointme.to/soccer/usopencup.htm scroll down for a better list, as this one mentions the runners up, too. I seem to remember a more detailed list out there, but my google-mojo isn't working today.
How 'bout this one? ...damn. He's really upgraded that site! There's a lot of details in there about each year's tournament.