With U.S. Soccer announcing today the format and details for the 111th edition of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Atlanta United has confirmed its participation as one of the 16 MLS teams taking part in the historic tournament.
This will be Atlanta’s seventh time participating in the Open Cup, but the first since 2024, as the club was limited to Leagues Cup play in 2025 due to the previous year’s table position. The Five Stripes saw success in the tournament in 2019, lifting the Open Cup at home after besting Minnesota United for the title, but has otherwise found difficulty advancing far into the knockout round. The past two campaigns saw Atlanta eliminated at the hands of USL Championship sides Indy Eleven and Memphis 901 FC in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
In an effort to work around this summer’s FIFA World Cup schedule, the tournament has slightly shrunken, down from eight total rounds to seven, and decreasing from 96 total teams to 80. This decrease comes primarily from the USL Championship, who will send 17 of 23 teams based on last season’s standings, with expansion clubs deemed ineligible for participation. 13 USL League One, 2 MLS Next Pro, and 32 amateur/semi-pro sides from earning berths from league/competition performances or from Open Cup Qualifiers will round out the competition.
Further changes to this year’s edition include a rule designating that professional clubs must enter their highest-level teams, a move excluding the majority of MLS Next Pro sides. However, there will also no longer be rules designating the amount of players on Open Cup rosters, meaning all players from a club are eligible to participate, and can be added to the roster up to one day prior to a match (subject to eligibility and registration, of course).
The tournament’s First Round will be held in mid-March, but Atlanta United will not join the fray until MLS sides enter in the Round of 32, which will be April 14th and 15th. Atlanta will be one of the 8 MLS sides with a “home” match seeding for the Round of 32 live draw to be held on April 2nd.
The tournament will break following the Quarterfinals in May before picking up again in September, with the Final scheduled for Wednesday, October 21st. CBS Sports will remain the broadcasting partner for the tournament, while teams will compete for a $1 million prize purse and a qualifying spot into the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
The full schedule for the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup can be found below.
- First Round: Tuesday, March 17 – Thursday, March 19
- Second Round: Tuesday, March 31 – Wednesday, April 1
- Round of 32: Tuesday, April 14 – Wednesday, April 15
- Round of 16: Tuesday, April 28 – Wednesday, April 29
- Quarterfinals: Tuesday, May 19 – Wednesday, May 20
- Semifinals:Â Tuesday, Sept. 15 – Wednesday, Sept. 16
- Final:Â Wednesday, October 21
“…professional clubs must enter their highest-level teams, a move excluding the majority of MLS Next Pro sides. However, there will also no longer be rules designating the amount of players on Open Cup rosters, meaning all players from a club are eligible to participate, and can be added to the roster up to one day prior to a match”
So an MLS side could just call up a bunch of guys from lower division rosters and play them in the cup, thus entering their highest-level team but leaving out some or maybe even all of their highest-level players?
To be fair, that is what Atlanta has done in the past when we would call up some of the 2s player when we used to not play our regulars in the early rounds of the Open Cup
Yeah, but with removing roster size limits, MLS teams that don’t care about the Open will be able to effectively sit it out and still say, “hey, we entered our highest-level team.”
It seems the Cup wants to be able to say they want the top squads to complete, but not really mean it.