CHICAGO (Nov. 18, 2024) – There were 21 games played on the weekend of November 16 and 17 in the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Qualifying Rounds. The winners of seven decisive Third Round games booked passage to next year’s Tournament Proper, which will kick off in March of 2025, while fourteen more clubs moved on to all-or-nothing Fourth Rounders on December 7 and 8.
Following that Fourth and Final Round of Qualifying in December, the complete field of 14 teams – from an original field of 114 Qualifying Round entrants – will be known.
Five of the seven teams that booked their place in next year’s Tournament Proper this weekend will be making their debuts. CD Faialense, the historic club from the outskirts of Boston, made easy work of visiting FCY New York of Buffalo with a 3-1 win. France-born former UMASS Lowell standout Yanis Lakhlifi scored all three goals for the Cambridge-based side who play out of the Bay State Soccer League.
Southern Indiana FC also scored three in a 3-0 result over Georgia’s Dalton United to book their place in next year’s Tournament Proper – the 110th edition of the U.S. Open Cup.
Clifton-based UPSL club New Jersey Alliance just barely edged a back-and-forth thriller against Maryland’s Steel Pulse FC to book their first place. Late goals in regulation and extra-time saw the contest end 2-2 before a 4-2 penalty shootout victory for the Garden Staters.
Virginia Dream may only be in their third year as a team, but they’re as good as their name. With help between the pipes from 2013 Open Cup-winning goalkeeper Bill Hamid – a long-time MLS standout with D.C. United, the Falls Church, VA-based side, known for the style of their kits as well as their play, edged out fellow Virginians Aegean Hawks FC 2-1. Mike Akinkoye and Nicholas Likulia did the scoring.
It was the same scoreline (2-1) that pushed West Chester United SC through at the expense of historic Vereinigung Erzgebirge. Long-time coach Blaise Santangelo’s men were the only one of the five teams that booked their place on Saturday that won’t be making a debut in the Tournament Proper. Kenneth Roby and Joshua Luchini claimed the goals for the Pennsylvania-based club.
NY Renegades FC faced a tough test to book their debut in the 2025 Tournament Proper – up against Open Cup regulars and national amateur powers Lansdowne Yonkers FC on Sunday. The game ended in a 1-1 draw after extra-time on Long Island with the UPSL-based Renegades coming out on top via a decisive 4-1 scoreline in the penalty shootout.
Harpos FC – who’ve become an institution in Colorado’s amateur soccer scene since first qualifying for the Open Cup back in 2015 – earned a 2-0 win against neighbors and rivals Azteca FC in an all Colorado-Premier-League showdown. Adam Mickelson scored one and assisted on the other as Harpos made a return to the Tournament Proper by halting a 13-game unbeaten Azteca FC run in Qualifying.
The 14 other weekend winners will now face off for the last seven remaining spots to the Tournament Proper from the 2025 Qualifying Rounds. Among them are Bay Area SFSFL powers International San Francisco, Dallas’ FORO SC and Seattle’s Washington Athletic Club. Sunshine State amateur giants Miami United FC also won through thanks to a 3-0 win over SoFla neighbors O’Shea’s FC.
Recent darlings of the Tournament Proper, Tulsa Athletic and Chicago House AC, will hold an official coin toss in Missouri this week to decide who will host their Fourth Rounder – in what has all the makings of the marquee matchup of that weekend. The coin-toss will take place at, roughly, the halfway point between the two cities of Tulsa and Chicago and will be contested by Chicago House president and owner Peter Wilt (former Chicago Fire GM and Open Cup-winner) and Tulsa Athletic owner Sonny Dalesandro.
The seven teams that qualified for the Tournament Proper via this November Matchday will be joined by seven more at the conclusion of Matchday Four (Dec. 7 and 8). Those 14 teams will join USASA National Amateur Cup winner NY Pancyprian Freedoms, UPSL Spring Champion Soda City FC and 16 teams from the National League Qualifying Track, split between the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and USL League Two.
O'Shea's FC 0 vs. 3 Miami United FC
Southern Indiana FC* 3 vs. 0 Dalton United
CD Faialense* 3 vs. 1 FCY New York
New Jersey Alliance FC* 2 (4) vs. 2 (2) Steel Pulse FC PKs
FC America CFL Spurs 2 vs. 0 Inter Nona SC
Harbor City FC 5 vs. 1 Palm Beach Flames SC
West Chester United SC* 2 vs. 1 Vereinigung Erzgebirge
Tulsa Athletic 8 vs. 0 Woodland FC
Virginia Dream FC* 2 vs. 1 Aegean Hawks FC
210 FC 2 vs. 3 Houston Regals SCA
Las Vegas Legends FC 2 vs. 1 Next Level Soccer
Real Galt FC 1 vs. 4 International San Francisco
Laguna United FC 3 vs. 1 Irvine FC
Bay Valley Suns Sports Club 0 vs. 1 Valley 559 FC AET
Harpos FC* 2 vs. 0 Azteca FC-0
Wisloka Chicago 1 vs. 2 Chicago House AC
StrikerZ DFW Soccer Club 1 vs. 4 FORO SC
NY Renegades FC* 1 (4)vs. 1(1) Lansdowne Yonkers FC PKs
Red Force FC 4 vs. 0 Pinecrest Premier SC
Washington Athletic Club 5 vs. 0 Deportivo Rose City
San Diego Internacional 3 vs. 2 Chula Vista FC
*Qualified Directly for 2025 U.S. Open Cup Tournament Proper
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – U.S. Soccer's Club Championship – has crowned a champion since 1914 in every year except 2020 and 2021. The 109th edition of the tournament concluded on September 25, 2024 with LAFC beating four-time Champions and fellow MLS side Sporting Kansas City 3-1 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles to become Open Cup Champions for the first time.
Our historic tournament is conducted on a single-game-knockout basis and open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. In 1999, the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States was renamed to honor American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.
The U.S. Open Cup winner earns $300,000 in prize money, a berth in the Concacaf Champions Cup and has its name engraved on the Dewar Challenge Trophy – one of the oldest nationally-contested trophies in American team sports now on permanent display at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas. The Runner-up takes home $100,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division earns a $25,000 cash prize.
usopencup.com is the official website of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Fans can also follow the competition on X/Twitter and Instagram @OpenCup and Facebook @OfficialOpenCup.