INTERludes: Young Herons advance at Open Cup; Can Messi contribute at World Cup? | OneFootball

Second-half rally leads IMCF II over Miami United 4-2 in Cup opener

Inter Miami II began its quest for the U.S. Open Cup with a 4-2 win against Miami United on Wednesday at Chase Stadium.

Trailing by a goal at the break, the Herons' determined MLS Next Pro side netted the next four scores before the self-anointed "People's Team" got one back late in the match. Midfielder Yuval Cohen, 19, scored twice for Inter Miami II.

The junior Herons -- MLS Next Pro is considered a third-division league in the United States' unofficial soccer pyramid -- continued their promising form with a 4-2 win against Columbus Crew 2 on Sunday, improving to 1-1-1 in Next Pro play, good enough for fourth place. Inter Miami II will host Miami FC, which plays in the USL Championship (second division) at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, April 1, in the Cup's second round.

Miami United plays in the United Premier Soccer League, a fourth-division circuit).

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the nation's oldest soccer competition and should be considered one of its most prestigious (More on that in the future). The Cup -- known as the National Challenge Cup when it was created in 1913 -- is the United States' domestic club championship, the equivalent of England's FA Cup, Spain's Copa Del Rey, or Germany's DFB Pokal. The competition is a single-elimination "knock-out" tournament open to teams from professional and amateur associations.

Brooklyn Field Club won the first Cup, which was renamed in 1999 to honor North American Soccer League and Major League Soccer executive Lamar Hunt (who also was a pioneering owner in the American Football League, which eventually merged with the NFL).

MLS teams have won the cup every year except one (Rochester Rhinos, 1999) since 1996 but, for now at least, the two teams with the most Cup wins are Bethlehem Steel from Pennsylvania and Maccabee Los Angeles, each with five. MLS sides Chicago Fire, Seattle Sounders and Sporting Kansas City, along with Fall River FC, Greek American AA and Philadelphia Ukrainians, have four cups each.

Inter Miami's senior team finished second in 2023, losing 2-1 to the Houston Dynamo in the final at Chase Stadium. Due to schedule congestion caused by the introduction of the Leagues Cup tournament created by Major League Soccer and Liga MX (Mexico's first-division league), the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to allow some MLS teams to skip the Open Cup or enter their developmental teams in their place.