Since Nashville SC debuted in MLS in 2020, it has been the city's best-run, most stable and most consistently successful pro franchise.
So the first “major professional sports championship” for a pro sports franchise from Tennessee won't be won on a Super Bowl Sunday or in a Stanley Cup Final or in the NBA Finals.
It happened on a random Wednesday night in Texas. In a game broadcast by CBS Sports Network. To finish a side tournament that’s hardly known by anyone outside of the soccer world. And by a club that’s only in its sixth season in Major League Soccer.
But guess what?
Nashville SC won it all the same.
And it’ll always be able to say so after going on the road and pulling out a milestone 2-1 victory at Austin FC in the final of the 2025 U.S. Open Cup.
To those unaware, the U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament that dates to 1914 and welcomes all of the nation’s soccer teams of various levels. For a big-league team like Nashville SC, it took winning five matches in 2025 to claim the trophy. The NBA has a multi-stage midseason tournament, and the NFL and NHL don’t offer such opportunities.
Thus, when writing about this being the initial “major professional sports championship,” I'm employing quote marks. I'm quoting Nashville SC. That's how the club has worded it.
Fans of the city's other teams could fairly argue against claims of this being Nashville’s first major pro trophy — a nod, in particular, to the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy won by the 2017-18 Predators — but that shouldn’t diminish all that this accomplishment rightfully signifies for Nashville SC.
Because it's not just happenstance. It’s long-deserved.
Since Nashville SC debuted in MLS in 2020 as an expansion team playing at Nissan Stadium, it has been the city's best-run, most stable, most consistently successful pro franchise.
Top executive Ian Ayre and general manager Mike Jacobs have been here all along, and they had a vision. From the start, they didn’t chase aging European stars with huge salaries. Instead, they worked to unearth young talent like German Hany Mukhtar, an eventual MLS MVP who'd been playing in Denmark.
They’ve subsequently maintained their success by refreshing the roster with impactful signings like striker Sam Surridge, who was sitting on a bench in England before he was signed to a big role in Nashville, where he has become one of the most prolific goal-scorers in MLS.
Nashville SC reached the MLS quarterfinals in its infancy. Its first trophy could have easily come in 2023. That summer, it reached the final of another midseason tournament, the Leagues Cup, only to have Lionel Messi and Inter Miami show up at Geodis Park that night and snatch the trophy via penalty kicks.
When Nashville SC’s fortunes dipped in 2024, Jacobs made a tough call to end Gary Smith’s lengthy and prosperous run as the club’s coach. Smith’s replacement, U.S. national team assistant B.J. Callaghan, has proven to be the right hire. A more attacking style led to a resurgent 2025 for the club.
Up until a slump in recent weeks, Nashville SC had been among the top few teams in MLS this season. It’ll enter the league’s postseason playoffs soon with an eye on the MLS Cup.
Meantime, Nashville SC winning this U.S. Open Cup as a prelude wasn’t all that surprising. It made sense for a team that was formidable enough to enjoy a 15-game unbeaten streak from April into July.
It made sense, too, how it transpired in Austin, with Mukhtar and Surridge scoring the goals.
Mukhtar scored in the 17th minute on a sequence that started with a pass into the box by Surridge. Austin equalized prior to halftime, but after Nashville’s Jeisson Palacios earned a penalty kick in the 57th minute, Surridge stepped to the spot and booted the game-winner.
Having spoiled the occasion for actor Matthew McConaughey (a part-owner of Austin's club), Nashville SC's players celebrated with their fans who’d made the trip to Texas. Back at Geodis Park, fans who’d gathered to watch the match cheered the images on the screen. You even had Tennessee Titans star Jeffery Simmons as one of many to offer postgame congratulations on social media.
Which brought to mind that on Sept. 30, the day before the cup final, Mukhtar conducted pre-match interviews while wearing a Titans hat. This was a salute to the bonds Mukhtar has built here, and it also demonstrated how Nashville SC viewed the upcoming final as a city's collective opportunity, not a team's singular one.
“I love Nashville,” Mukhtar said, “and there's one piece missing. That's winning a trophy for the city, for all of us in our community. I think that is what we all deserve.”
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at [email protected] and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC's U.S. Open Cup trophy is a symbol long deserved
Category: General Sports
