The 99th edition of the annual national championship, the 2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, ran from May 15 through August 8.

Sporting Kansas City defeated Seattle Sounders FC on penalty kicks 3-2 for the championship.

The tournament is a single game, single elimination tournament with random drawings deciding the home team (provided the home team stadium meets USSF standards)[11] for the first round through the quarterfinals.

The home team for the semi-finals and finals will be determined through competitive bidding as has been done in prior years.

Qualification for the lower tiers of the soccer pyramid was mostly completed by April 29[12] and the pairings for the first two rounds were released on May 1.