US Soccer has finally announced the format for this year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The tournament will feature 80 teams up from 68 last year. The additional teams and scheduling issues surrounding that probably lead to the delay in the announcement. You can read all about it here.
The big change for this year is the tournament is more spread out giving teams a chance to rest and recuperate between rounds. This is a welcome change as the Hounds would often find themselves playing four games in the span of two weeks. The other change is because of the increase of amateur teams the USL PRO squads will be entering all together in round 2. Last year the USL was split between round 1 and round 2. Here’s the schedule-
First Round— May 7 (16 amateur teams: 5 PDL, 4 USASA regional qualifiers, 5 NPSL, 1 US Club Soccer, 1 USSSA): Teams from the same qualifying pool cannot be paired with each other.
Second Round— May 14 (8 First Round winners, 26 remaining amateur teams [14 PDL, 6 USASA regional qualifiers, 6 NPSL], and 14 Division III [USL PRO] clubs): Teams from the same qualifying pool cannot be paired with each other.
Third Round— May 28 (24 Second Round winners and 8 Division II [NASL] clubs): Each Division II team will be matched geographically to play the winner of a specific Second Round pairing. The winners of the 16 remaining Second Round matches not paired with a Division II side will play each other.
Fourth Round— June 10-18 (16 Third Round winners vs. Division I [MLS] clubs): Each Division I team will be matched geographically to play the winner of a specific Third Round pairing. The exact date for each match will be determined by the club selected as the home team from among those dates where the visiting team doesn’t have a league game already scheduled. The date selected must allow the visiting team at least two rest days before and after the match date.
Fifth Round— June 24-25 (16 Fourth Round winners face each other): Each Fourth Round pair will be matched geographically with another Fourth Round pair to determine the Fifth Round possibilities.
Quarterfinal (Sixth) Round— July 8-9: Each Fifth Round pair will be matched geographically with another Fifth Round pair to determine the Quarterfinal Round possibilities.
Semifinal Round— Aug. 12-13: Each Quarterfinal Round pair will be matched geographically with another Quarterfinal Round pair to determine the Semifinal Round possibilities.
Final— Sept. 30-Oct. 1
The Hounds have traditionally done alright in the tournament though in recent years they’ve fizzled out in the second round. Back in 2001 they made it all the way to the quarter finals before losing to the Chicago Fire. Even with poor results the Open Cup is always an interesting tournament where we get to see amateur teams, and with luck an MLS squad, come to Highmark Stadium.
And now for the part we care about-
New York Red Bulls U-23s (NPSL) or Vermont Voltage (PDL)
vs
Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Wednesday May 14th | 7:00 PM
Highmark Stadium
We’ll be treating this like any other Riverhounds game. We’ll have more info on as the date gets closer.
#UNLEASH
