WHY THE U.S. OPEN CUP STILL HAS A UNIQUE JOB IN AMERICAN SOCCER
All 27 U.S.-based MLS clubs will return in 2027. To understand why that matters, look beyond the Open Cup’s history and examine what the competition connects.
The U.S. Open Cup is one of the oldest soccer competitions in the country.
But age may not be the best way to explain its importance.
American soccer operates across different leagues and divisions. MLS clubs, lower-division professional teams and amateur organizations spend most of their seasons competing in separate environments.
The Open Cup gives them one national competition in which those boundaries can disappear for a match.
The 2026 tournament began with 80 teams. Its First Round included 32 professional-versus-amateur matchups before the field progressively narrowed and MLS clubs entered.
That doesn’t mean every team enters on equal footing.
Budgets, rosters, facilities and resources can be dramatically different.
The tournament doesn’t eliminate those differences. It creates an opportunity to test them on the field.
Lower divisions get their opportunity
The 2026 Round of 32 showed why that distinction matters.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks and Louisville City advanced against MLS opposition, while One Knoxville SC eliminated D.C. United.
None ultimately survived to the semifinals.
That shouldn’t diminish what happened.
An upset doesn’t prove a lower-division club is stronger than MLS opposition across an entire season. It proves something narrower, but important: given a competitive opportunity, the lower-division club won the match.
That opportunity is part of what separates the Open Cup from competitions contained within individual leagues.
Four MLS clubs remain
The tournament has now reached its final four, with two semifinals scheduled for September 16:
The winner of the competition will become U.S. Open Cup champion and qualify for the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
That creates another connection inside the soccer ecosystem. A tournament beginning with amateur and lower-division clubs ultimately provides its champion with a path into international competition.
All 27 U.S.-based MLS clubs return in 2027
The Open Cup’s reach will expand next year.
U.S. Soccer announced September 2 that all 27 U.S.-based MLS teams will participate in the 2027 tournament, joining a 96-team field that will also include professional clubs from other divisions and 32 Open Division teams.
That is significant after years of debate about MLS participation and the tournament’s place within an increasingly crowded American soccer calendar.
Those concerns are legitimate.
Professional teams have to manage league schedules, cup competitions, travel and player workloads. Lower-division clubs face financial and logistical pressures of their own.
The Open Cup should not be exempt from those questions because of its history.
The answer may be connection.
MLS can determine its champion. Lower divisions can determine theirs. Leagues Cup can measure MLS clubs against Liga MX.
The U.S. Open Cup performs another job.
It gives different levels of American soccer an opportunity to compete for the same national trophy.
It doesn’t tell us those levels are equal.
And perhaps that is the more useful way to understand why a competition more than a century old still has a role in American soccer.
