Graphic from US Soccer
Starting tonight, the USL Championship enters the 2024 US Open Cup. In this round, 16 USL Championship clubs enter and in the Round 4 the remaining 8 USL Championship clubs will enter along with the 8 US-based MLS clubs who didn’t qualify for CONCACAF Champions Cup, nor entered their MLSNP sides in the competition (with the exception of DC United, which we can explain another time).
Eight of the 16 survivors of Rounds 1 and 2 are from USL League One which is no surprise. But the other eight are worth focusing on.
MLS Next Pro: Two MLS Reserve Teams survive the opening rounds - unsurprisingly its Chicago Fire II and New York FC II. Why do I say this is not s surprise? Despite the Fire’s reputation for awful management, their academy has recently been filled with some pretty good prospects from the Chicagoland area as well other parts of the Upper Midwest. NYCFC II has been a delight so far with young, technical and athletic players. Carolina Core, an independent club in MLS NP has also advanced.
NISA : I’ll have a piece later this week on the level of play in NISA over the first two weeks of their season - it’s been a pleasant surprise. However, after a very strong first round of USOC, NISA clubs struggled in the second round with only Michigan Stars FC and Irvine Zeta FC advancing. But guess what? Both beat MLS NP reserve teams and in the case of Zeta’s win over Ventura County FC (who are Los Dos no matter what name they plaster on the club) I could tell within minutes of kickoff, the NISA team had the better side.
NPSL: El Farlito and the Lubbock Matadors advanced to Round 3. Lubbock boasts some of the best home support outside the top two divisions of American soccer so it’s a pity they’ve been sent on the road in this round.
While the Burrito shop jokes about El Farlito write themselves, they’ve been a solid club with LOTS of good players coming through for at least two decades now. Am I surprised to see them in Round 3? Yes. Am I shocked? No.
USASA: Miami United of USSL, a league that operates in Florida and Texas (the NSL-USSL split is too complicated and quite frankly stupid to get into here) is the lone survivor from the qualifying rounds of the Open Cup.
We did a full video on their USOC history (mostly from when they were in NPSL and did not have to go through qualifying, which makes this run all the more remarkable).
Irvine Zeta did the soccer world a big favor by blowing out Ventura County FC; the latter is such an abomination. It really is the reserve team for LA Galaxy, has as its "owner" the guy who couldn't get along with anyone else so was kicked out of the Oakland Roots, pollutes the brand name of Ventura County Fusion (a hallowed community soccer club that has nothing at all to do with VC FC), and has virtually no fans nor community presence.....
Looking forward to seeing the Detroit City v Michigan game tonight. And I think Irvine Zeta has a realistic chance against Monterrey Bay.
One note of disappointment tomorrow is that Bham Legion will play their game tomorrow at Univ of Montevallo. It's about a 40 minute drive (and my son is in school there), so it's not terribly inconvenient. But I believe that facility only accommodates about 400 fans. If they had gotten a venue in Bham, they certainly would draw more people. It's the second year in a row they've been out of town for a home Cup game (Tuscaloosa last year). The issue is related to the UFL team playing in our same stadium.