Dating back to 1914, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the oldest cup competition in United States soccer and is among the oldest in the world. Open to all affiliated amateur and professional teams in the United States, the annual U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament.

The U.S. Open Cup is very similar to the domestic cup competitions popular in Europe, South America and the rest of the world. Cup competitions, which usually run concurrent with a country's league sason, are open in the early stages to any club that can qualify, giving local amateur teams a chance to compete against the best teams a country has to offer.

MLS teams have taken part in the competition and dominated it since 1996, making the tournament a true "national" championship. In fact, the only non-MLS team to win the title since 1996 were the Rochester Raging Rhinos in 1999, with former Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad in net. The Chicago Fire have won four Open Cup titles in their 10 years of existence.

For the first time in 2012, all 16 domestic MLS clubs directly entered the competition in the third round.