CHICAGO – U.S. Soccer today announced the 32-game First Round schedule for the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – U.S. Soccer's annual club championship. The First Round will take place between March 18 and 20 and be made up exclusively of professional vs. amateur contests; all 14 USL League One clubs will enter in the First Round.
The amateur teams in the 2025 First Round will consist of the 14 survivors from last fall's Open Cup Qualifying Rounds, the 2024 USASA National Amateur Champion NY Pancyprian Freedoms, the UPSL Spring Champion Soda City FC of South Carolina, seven teams from the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and nine more from USL League Two. Their opponents from the professional ranks will be eight clubs from the Division II USL Championship, 14 from the Division III USL League One and 10 from MLS NEXT Pro.
This is the second year in a row that sees the Open Cup First Round comprised exclusively of pro vs. amateur matchups – thus creating massive potential for dramatic outcomes and underdog storylines. The 2024 Open Cup First Round produced no fewer than seven upsets, setting the table for more drama this year.
Of the 64 teams taking part in the First Round, 26 are making their debut in the U.S. Open Cup. The Amateur/Open Division will provide 15 new faces.
For the 2025 First Round, teams were paired on a geographic basis with the restriction that each professional team was matched with a team from the Open Division. Hosts were determined by random selection when each team applied to host with a venue that met the competition standard. Random selection was also used in cases where there was no logical geographic fit or there were more than two teams from the same proximity.
The winners of the First Round will play each other in a Second Round consisting of 16 games. The 16 Second Round winners will then be matched up against the 16 highest-ranked professional teams from the USL Championship in the Third Round. USL Championship Teams were seeded by conference, with the top eight clubs in each conference entering in the Third Round. Third Round-winners will square off against the teams of Major League Soccer (MLS). There will be 16 MLS teams competing in the 2025 Open Cup – up from eight in 2024 – and they will all enter the competition in the Round of 32.
Tuesday, March 18
Wednesday, March 19
Thursday, March 20