CHICAGO - U.S. Soccer today announced the Second Round schedule for the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. U.S. Soccer's annual club championship resumes with the 32 First Round winners competing in 16 Second Round matches across the country between Tuesday, April 2 and Wednesday, April 3.
In its fourth U.S. Open Cup participation as a league, 11 of 12 USL League One clubs advanced to the Second Round, leading all leagues in the First Round in total wins and win percentage. The 11 First Round victories and 92% win percentage are both League One records in an opening U.S. Open Cup round, topping the previous record of 8-3 (73%) when 11 League One clubs entered in the Second Round of the 2022 U.S. Open Cup.
Notable Second Round matchups involving League One clubs include Knoxville and Greenville facing off in the third all-League One U.S. Open Cup match, Spokane hosting a U.S. Open Cup match for the first time, Omaha battling USL League Two power Des Moines Menace and former USMNT midfielder Sacha Kljestan in a rematch of the clubs' first meeting in the 2022 U.S. Open Cup, Northern Colorado facing defending MLS NEXT Pro regular season champions Colorado Rapids 2, which it defeated in the preseason, and Jermaine Jones' Central Valley taking on 1993 U.S. Open Cup champions El Farolito.
Overall, six of the 11 League One clubs will host their Second Round match, and four of the 11 will face pre-professional opposition. The 16 Second Round winners will advance to the Third Round (April 16-17) in which 16 USL Championship clubs will enter. Second Round pairings were made on a geographical basis, and if three or more teams/pairings were from the same proximity, matchups for those teams were made by random selection. Streaming and additional information will be available at a later date.
The 2024 U.S. Open Cup winner will earn $300,000 in prize money, a berth in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup and have 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 will earn $100,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division will take home a $25,000 cash prize.
Tuesday, April 2
Wednesday, April 3