The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the longest running open soccer tournament in the United States, kicks off its 2026 rounds on St. Patrick’s Day.
Much like the FA Cup in England it is modeled after, the U.S. Open Cup gives larger professional clubs a series of byes until later rounds. Smaller, regional amateur clubs have to go through qualifying rounds. This year’s cup held those rounds between September 13 and November 23, 2025.
Twenty-four different soccer leagues across five different associations fielded teams for the initial first round of competition, which we break down below.
Qualification Round 1
- Dates: Sept. 13-14
- Eligible Teams: 145
- Teams with Byes: 101
- Matches Played: 22
- Shutout Wins: 9 (41%)
- Extra-Time Wins: 1 (4%)
As with any early round qualifying, there were plenty of beatdowns and big scorelines. Six matches featured five goals or greater. A few notable clubs with some U.S. Open pedigree appeared. FORO SC, who were surprise first round winners over Texoma FC of the USL-1 back in the 2025 cup, were early victims. They lost to Dallas Atletico 3-1. Another casualty was a previous U.S. Open cup winner NY Pancyprian Freedoms, who got blanked by NY Greek American SC.
Qualification Round 2
- Dates: Oct. 10-28
- Eligible Teams: 118
- Teams with Byes: 5
- Matches Played: 59
- Shutout Wins: 22 (37%)
- Extra-Time Wins: 8 (14%)
We had our first forfeits of the cup. Two, in fact. And there were some upsets of teams that made strong showings in 2025. Tulsa Athletic was toppled by the Denton Dynamos 5-4 in a thriller that went into extra time. My personal favorite club, Sharktopus FC, had a 5-0 win over Bellevue Athletic. That was one of 12 matches with 5 or more goals scored.
Qualification Round 3
- Dates: Nov. 1-2
- Eligible Teams: 64
- Teams with Byes: 0
- Matches Played: 32
- Shutout Wins: 13 (20%)
- Extra-Time Wins: 6 (19%)
By this round, the weakest sides have been winnowed down and the competition gets tighter. As a percentage of total, shutout wins start to decline and extra time games start to increase over previous rounds.
Only four days after their R2 triumph, Sharktopus got spanked by Ballard (a feeder club for Seattle Sounders). Virginia Dream FC finally joined the scrum and won easily 6-1.
Final Qualification Round
- Dates: Nov. 22-23
- Eligible Teams: 64
- Teams with Byes: 0
- Matches Played: 32
- Shutout Wins: 13 (20%)
- Extra-Time Wins: 6 (19%)
Winners of this round moved on to the big show, the actual Cup competition. Here’s how all sixteen matches played out.
- Steel City FC (USL-2) 3:2 Croatia Cleveland (NCSL)
- CD Faialense (BSSL) 5:2 FC Lonestar Gpse (UPSL)
- Briar United FC (UPSL) 0:2 Southern Indiana FC (UPSL)
- Virginia Dream FC (UPSL) 2:0 (AET) MSI Pro (UPSL)
- Valley 559 FC (UPSL) 1:0 Ballard FC (USL-2)
- Azteca FC (CPL) 3:3 (4:3 PK) Next Level Soccer (UPSL)
- San Diego Internacional (UPSL) 2:4 Laguna United FC (UPSL)
- Chicago House AC (MWPL) 2:3 BOHFS St. Louis (MWPL)
- Harbor City FC (UPSL) 1:1 (4:5 PK) FC America CFL Spurs (UPSL)
- SC Vistula Garfield (APSL) 2:1 Oaklyn United FC (APSL)
- Florida Badgers FC (UPSL) 5:3 Miami United FC (UPSL)
- ASC New Stars (HFA) 0:0 (4:3 PK) Denton Diablos (MPPL)
- Potros FC (UPSL) 0:1 Kalonji Pro-Profile (UPSL)
- City Soccer FC (UPSL) 1:4 Red Force FC (PFL)
- NY Renegades FC (UPSL) 3:2 Zum Schneider FC (APSL)
- The Olympic Club (SFSFL) 1:2 San Ramon FC (TLFC)
