It’s officially official. Atlanta United is one of eight MLS clubs and eleven MLS NEXT Pro Clubs participating in the altered edition of the U.S. Open Cup in 2024.
MLS and U.S. Soccer have come to an agreement to keep MLS clubs – at least some of them – in the country’s oldest cup competition after drama in December where the league stated they would only be entering MLS NEXT Pro sides in the tournament. This drew massive backlash from fans, pundits, and players alike, many of whom enjoy the storylines and potential Cinderella runs indicative of a country cup competition.
The seven other MLS teams participating this year will be Houston Dynamo (winner of last year) and the top seven U.S. teams based on Supporter’s Shield standings other than the ones playing in Concacaf Champion’s Cup. This includes FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City, LAFC, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, and Seattle Sounders.
The eleven MLS NEXT Pro clubs in the tournament will be Austin FC II, Carolina Core, Chattanooga FC, Chicago Fire II, Colorado Rapids 2, Crown Legacy FC, Los Angeles Galaxy II, Minnesota United 2, New York City FC II, New York Red Bull II, and Portland Timbers 2.
The format will also be slightly different in an attempt to have more First Round matches between amateur and professional clubs. The first round of the U.S. Open Cup will 32 amateur squads facing off against 32 Division III sides (magic of the cup!), and those amateur sides consist of 11 Qualifying Round winners, 11 USL League 2 teams, 8 UPSL teams, the USASA National Amateur Cup champion, and the UPSL Spring Champion. The Division III teams will be represented by 12 USL League One squads, nine NISA sides, and the 11 MLS NEXT Pro teams.
The winners of the first round will face off against each other in the second round before 16 Division II teams from USL Championship enter the fray. From there, the eight other USL Championship clubs and the eight MLS clubs all enter in the round of 32. From there it’s a melee until there is one team left standing with the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, September 25th.
U.S. Soccer CEO JT Watson said of the tournament, “First and foremost, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all our members for their invaluable input over the past couple of months— sharing with us of the reasons the U.S. Open Cup is so great, and what we can do to make it even better. After extensive discussions, we have put together a competitive format specific to the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, promising exciting matchups from the First Round and through the entire tournament. U.S. Soccer values the tradition and importance of the U.S. Open Cup, and we will continue to have conversations with all our members to explore avenues for enhancing future editions of the tournament and how we all work together to grow soccer in every community in the country.”
For Atlanta United’s intro to this edition of the Open Cup, they’ll play their first match on either Tuesday, May 7th or Wednesday, May 8th. They were unceremoniously bounced from the competition last year by Memphis 901, coached by former Atlanta United and Atlanta United 2 coach Stephen Glass.
The dates for all rounds are as follows:
First Round Tuesday, March 19 – Thursday, March 21
Second Round Tuesday, April 2 – Wednesday, April 3
Third Round Tuesday, April 16 – Wednesday, April 17
Round of 32 Tuesday, May 7 – Wednesday, May 8
Round of 16 Tuesday, May 21 – Wednesday, May 22
Quarterfinal Tuesday, July 9 – Wednesday, July 10
Semifinal Tuesday, Aug. 27 – Wednesday, Aug. 28
Final Wednesday, Sept. 25
U.S. Soccer also noted that it will be investing more into the competition this year with a variety of new partners, including Marriott, Michelob Ultra, New York Life, and Nike. We’ll update this post as soon as we’ve verified how each round will be broadcast, as it’s unclear if Bleacher Report will continue to be the main, early-round broadcast partner. Regardless, prep for some wild matches in March and April!
The winner of this year’s competition will still receive a spot in the 2025 Concacaf Champion’s Cup and $300,000 in prize money. For Atlanta United – and any team, really – the Open Cup represents the most direct and simplistic route to a CCC spot. It won’t be easy, however, as the “magic of the cup” cliche comes true more often than not in these types of competitions.
Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the format below! Do all MLS teams put as much stock into it as the lower division sides certainly will?
Here’s to hoping S&S grows into something si M hilarious to DSS in terms of match threads, lively discussions, etc.
*similar (not whatever the hell that ended up being)
Definitely! We’ll have the match threads and everything else and they seem to be doing well with the reception, for the most part! We appreciate ya making the move over 🫡
Our Copa do Brasil started small, in the 90´s, and now pays a bigger prize than Serie A, some 20 million USD to the winner. My suggestion: win it as many times as possible, and they will count as big trophys in the future.
Josef has looked a lot more physical, fit, and quick for Montreal so far. Only a game and a half, but he looks a lot better.
I hope he can be a star again and bag 20 goals.
Shameful that an agreement even had to be reached. Everyone’s participation should’ve been a given from the start.
Why?
The simple solution to this Open Cup participation debate is for the MLS to open up the roster rules and salary cap to allow for more depth on the roster. Then multiple competitions would not be an issue. As configured today, teams cannot take the injury risk with to many competitions. We saw firsthand what 1 major injury can do to a season.
Having said that, I am in favor of participating, if we take it seriously. Disappointed to see the team make the Instagram announcement with KSU as the background. Continues to imply the half-in mentality. The messaging starts from the top. In this situation, the club starts the messaging that trickles down to the players and fans and ultimately sets the expectations. The first message sent is one implying that it is still a 2nd class competition. Should we then be disappointed if attendance and product on the field is poor, or rather we expect it with the club implying so?
It is a second class competition. Sad, but true. It’s not televised, sponsored. Nobody outside of the hardcore know anything at all about it. I love the idea of it. But it’s far from what it could and should be.
US Soccer has to take the initiative and fix that though.
I’m glad we are in it. I was a bit annoyed when MLS wanted to pull out completely. It’s the oldest tournament in the county, I want it to remain relevant.
The format is what it is. I cant understand why Atlanta would want to participate in a watered down format when then team from the top down has shown it does not care about this competition.
“But WCA, its the easiest path to CCL.”
Does CCL matter much anymore? Is there even a Fifa club world cup still?
I know the Leagues Cup format is not well liked (and I agree with that take), but it does feel like the future, and more valuable to fans and the FO than playing NYRB II and Birmingham Legion, with the hopes of parlaying that into a matchup with W Connection of Trinidad and Tobago.
Just my opinion.
For me it’s the overall soccer culture in the U.S. To so many other teams this is their time to shine, and silverware is silverware IMO lol.
And yes, Club World Cup is still a thing, gonna be expanded and hosted in the U.S. coming soon 😀
As Tyler said, but I’ll elaborate, yes the Club World Cup is still a thing. There are 2 different versions now though.
1) The old annual Club World Cup with only 7 teams still exists. The winner of CCC (CCL is no longer the name of the tournament, by the way) goes to this. This gets played 3 years out of 4.
2) Every 4 years there will be an expanded Club World Cup with a lot more teams. This starts in 2025. The last 4 CCL/CCC winners get into this. There is no other path for MLS teams to enter either tournament but to win CCL/CCC.