No Rest for the Dreamers: #USOC2025 Second Round Preview
The country’s oldest and most venerable soccer tournament continues its 110th edition between April 1-2 with a 16-game Second Round and six surviving amateurs trying to keep the dream alive.
We’re back at it, Open Cup People.
Just enough time has passed from our barnstormer of a First Round for you to take on fluids in preparation for a return to action. The Second Round of our beloved Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup runs from April 1-2 and consists of 16 games and 32 teams. Aix of those teams are surviving amateurs from the First Round – and the rest are full-time pros of the Div. II USL Championship, the Div. III USL League One and MLS NEXT Pro (also Div. III).
We recently announced our Open Cup Broadcast deal with CBS Sports – and the news that all games of the 2025 Open Cup from the Third Round and beyond will be shown on Paramount Plus, CBS Sports Network or CBS Sports Golazo, but this week’s Second Round contests remain on U.S. Soccer’s YouTube Channel where you can WATCH all 16 Games LIVE and FREE.
All Hail the Amateur Underdogs
First and foremost, and in keeping with the ancient spirit of our historic Open Cup, we’ll focus our attention on the six remaining Cinderellas from the all-amateur Open Division.
Two of the six games being played on Tuesday, April 1 feature amateur clubs against professional opponents. We’ll begin our discussion of that hopeful sextet with El Farolito – San Francisco’s underdog heroes who knocked off Real Monarchs of MLS NEXT Pro in the First Round.
El Farolito will have one of the toughest tests on offer in the Second Round, lining up against one of seven competing USL Championship sides from this country’s pro ranks. They’ll also be playing away from home, at Cardinale Stadium in Seaside, California, against a Monterey Bay FC outfit who put the hurt on El Farolito’s SFSFL league mates International San Francisco (4-0) in the First Round.
Monterey Bay players celebrate after their First Round win against Inter San Francisco
But there’s no need to fear a blowout as El Farolito – who won the Open Cup in the old semi-pro days of 1993 before our Modern Era took hold – have a knack of causing sensations against pro foes. In the four Open Cup games they’ve played in 2024 and 2025, they’ve beaten two professional opponents – and both times on the road.
The other amateur team in action on Day One of the Second Round is FORO SC. The Dallas-area part-timers, also aiming for a third win over professional opposition in the space of two years, are coming off an impressive 2-1 victory against USL League One pros Texoma FC. They’ll be hoping for more Cup Magic out on the road (again) against powerful Div. II pros South Georgia Tormenta of USL League One.
“I couldn’t even get to sleep that night,” enthused FORO SC midfielder Braden Anderson, who’s also a member of the U.S. Men’s Deaf National Team. “There was so much energy from the win over the first-year pros of Texoma and we’re just a bunch of guys who have full time jobs and try to train as much as possible. Nobody thought we could do it, but we proved that anything is possible.”
Day Two of the First Round serves up four games with amateur strivers hunting underdog fireworks.
First up is another Amateur-vs-Div. II mismatch when Virginia Dream, Open Cup debutants, travel the short distance to take on the Old Dominion State’s USL Championship pros Loudoun United FC. This one looks, on paper at least, like a potential drubbing – but we urge you to take a look at the footage of the Dream’s 3-1 road win over Div. III pros and 1995 Open Cup Champions the Richmond Kickers in the First Round before you make up your mind.
“The next step is to cement ourselves as a top semi-pro side and climb the next rung on the ladder. That’s The U.S. Open Cup,” said coach CJ Taylor of his exciting group of Virginia-based amateurs who’ve become a force in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in only their second year as a club.
The NY Pancyprian-Freedoms, three-time Open Cup winners in the 1980s, powers for the last five decades in NYC’s amateur ranks and reigning USASA National Amateur Champions, hope to make it two-for-two against pro sides this year when they meet USL League One contenders Westchester SC – who boast former Honduran Olympian Juan Carlos Obregon and former New York Red Bulls (MLS) man Kemar Lawrence – on the road in Mt. Vernon, NY.
The NY Pancpyprians are amateur royalty – here they celebrate the 2024 USASA National title
“We don't train as much as our opponents do. But what we do have is quality. We have a higher average age, which means that we have more experience,” said Pancyprians captain-turned-head coach Andreas Chronis. “We need to use our experience.”
Let us not overlook the Little Rock Rangers, the only amateur team to knock off a Div. II pro side in the First Round when they defeated 2023 Open Cup Quarterfinalists Birmingham Legion 1-0 in Arkansas. They’ll have no respite to think back fondly on past achievements as they’re on the road again in the Second Round – this time up against FC Naples, the first-year USL League One pros who survived a dramatic Florida derby with USL league Two side Sarasota Paradise in the First Round.
“In the Cup, you’re going to go through moments where everything isn’t going to be perfect,” said FC Naples coach Matt Poland, who made a name for himself in the amateur ranks when he guided Chicago House AC through to the 2023 Third Round and a date with four-time Open Cup Champs Chicago Fire. “You’re going to have to suffer, but we’re going to suffer together and build something strong here.”
Last but not least, we turn our attention to Iowa where the “underdog” “amateurs” of the Des Moines Menace meet the Div. III pros of Union Omaha (USL League One). It’s the second game between the two sides in the Cup in as many years, but this time the Menace is loaded with MLS stars of yesteryear, like four-time Champion Ozzie Alonso, former USMNT members Benny Feilhaber, Dax McCarty, AJ DeLaGarza and Sacha Kljestan (in his second year in the Open Cup with the Menace). Also in the roster are former MLS scoring ace Bradley Wright-Phillips and MLS Defender of the Year Matt Hedges.
Does this make the Menace favorites? No, it does not. Never underestimate the ravages of Father Time or the absolute professionalism and class of our 2022 Open Cup Quarterfinalists Union Omaha.
Cup Underdogs Elsewhere
The majority of the remaining ten games pit teams from lower pro divisions against teams from higher pro divisions – condensing the Magic of the Cup into a most potent brew.
On Tuesday, Columbus Crew 2 (MLS NEXT Pro) will have some heavy lifting at home at Lower.com Field (where hangs a proudly-displayed banner in honor of Columbus Crew’s 2002 Open Cup title). Their opponents, Lexington Sporting Club, hail from the Div. II USL Championship and did a number on debutants Southern Indiana FC (5-0) in the First Round. Another MLS NEXT Pro side, Inter Miami FC II, have their hands full with USL Championship pros Miami FC, who boast a former USMNT man and 2013 Open Cup Champion (with D.C. United) between the posts in veteran Bill Hamid.
The other two games on Tuesday, April 1 pit MLS NEXT Pro sides on the road at USL League Two clubs in a battle of both sides of the Div. III pro coin.
Mike Jeffries’ Charlotte Independence, with new sensation Rafael Jauregui coming off a two-goal day against the Long Island Rough Riders, host Carolina Core – an independent club in the MLS NEXT Pro system run by a raft of former USMNT stars of yesteryear. AV ALTA – a first-year USL League One side – aim to make it two for two in their debut Open Cup when they open their doors to LAFC2. The young Angelinos are coming off a huge 7-1 win in the First Round and, it should be noted, are the academy side of reigning Open Cup Champions LAFC.
Wednesday, April 2 rounds out our Second Round and boasts some spicy contests you won’t want to miss.
Portland Hearts of Pine, the USL League One side that began life as a club in our First Round, return to their home-away-from-home in Lewiston, Maine. This time they’ll be the underdogs as the Div. II USL Championship pros of Hartford Athletic make the trip north with the aim of matching their best-ever run in the Open Cup with a spot in the Third Round.
“You always have to ride your luck a little in the Open Cup,” said Hearts head coach Bobby Murphy, a member of the 2022 Union Omaha coaching staff who helped guide the underdogs Owls to the Open Cup Quarterfinals. “But if you can dig yourself in and find your footing, then confidence and belief can grow.”
Perhaps the marquee matchup of the Second Round – at least among the games that don’t have an obvious underdog – is the Battle for Chattanooga. Historic Finley Stadium will be the venue for home side Chattanooga FC (MLS NEXT Pro) to take on city rivales Chattanooga Red Wolves (USL League One) in a battle for bragging rights and city dominance.
“This is such a big game,” said Markus Naglestad, the Norway-born striker and icon of FC Chattanooga who scored the OT winner in a First Round test against the amateurs of Corpus Christi FC. “There’s a lot of familiarity and a lot of pride among booths sets of players. There’s a lot on the line for all of us and for the fans too.”
The two remaining games where an underdog can win out are Forward Madison of USL League One, who host Div. II powers FC Tulsa, and Ventura County FC (the MLS NEXT Pro affiliate of LA Galaxy who won their First Round contest 7-0) hoping to cause a sensation at home against USL Championship (Div. II) pros El Paso Locomotive.
The Second Round concludes with a Pacific Northwest grudge match between Div. III pros Tacoma Defiance (MLS NEXT Pro) and Spokane Velocity (USL League One) and an all USL League One tilt between Greenville Triumph, who needed a shootout against amateurs Asheville City in the First Round, and One Knoxville SC.
So, let’s do all this. It’s bound to be fun.
BE SURE to WATCH all 16 SECOND ROUND Games LIVE and FREE on U.S. Soccer’s YouTube channel. DIRECT LINKS to ALL SECOND ROUND Games HERE.
Fontela is editor-in-chief of ussoccer.com/us-open-cup. Follow him at @jonahfontela on X/Twitter.