2019 U.S. Open Cup

Please pardon my ignorance here--are the teams from the women's leagues allowed to participate in US Open cup--i mean if they wanted to participate?

 

Thank you much!

 

I don't know how many countries have cups for women, but England, France, Germany, and Italy do.

 

I smell a Disney script!

 

Most do, actually, particularly in Europe. I know of several countries outside of Europe with women's cups, and even a few countries that currently (or at least relatively recently) have a women's cup without having a women's league (because a cup is much cheaper to run).

 

And then the first round draw a week from today.

Because I love to waste time, here's what the first round draw might look like:

first round draw (open) first round draw (close)

some matchups may obviously change depending on who wins the qualifying games this weekend (especially that Safira/West Chester game)


I just grabbed all the teams, and started in the west, working my way east...



Santa Ana Winds/Cal FC vs Orange County
Academica/IPSMarathon Taverna vs FCM Portland
Golden State Force vs El Farolito
Southwest FC/FC Denver vs Midland-Odessa Sockers
Laredo Heat vs Brazos Valley
Little Rock vs NTX Rayados/Maritsa
Des Moines vs Duluth
Milwaukee Bavarians vs Forward Madison
Lansing Ignite vs AFC Ann Arbor
Dayton Dutch Lions vs Erie Commodores
Safira/West Chester Predators vs Black Rock FC
NY Cosmos B vs NYRB U23
FC Motown vs Reading United
Virginia United/World Class Premier Elite vs Philadelphia Lone Star
Richmond Kickers vs FC Baltimore
Greenville Triumph vs The Villages
Chattanooga Red Wolves vs South Georgia Tormenta 2
Lakeland Tropics vs South Georgia Tormenta
Florida Soccer Soldiers vs Miami FC



It got a little messy in the NY/NJ/PA/MD region just so I could keep teams from the same league from playing each other. And the same for the USL1 teams in the southeast too. We'll see if US Soccer prefers to just have 2 teams from the same league meet instead.

for further foolishness, the second round could look like this

completely imaginary second round (open) completely imaginary second round (close)

There's going to be 3 games between two USL-C teams, and I'm just going to guess that they'll involve all the extra teams out in the southwest. It seems easier to send all the extra teams in the southest to play other east coast first round winners.



Orange County SC vs Santa Ana/Cal/Orange CountyFC
Sacramento Republic vs Academica/IPSMarathon Taverna/Portland
Fresno vs Golden State/El Farolito
Las Vegas Lights vs Reno 1868
Phoenix Rising vs New Mexico United
Austin Bold vs Colorado Springs
El Paso Locomotive vs Southwest/Denver/Midland-Odessa
San Antonio vs Laredo/Brazos Valley
Tulsa Roughnecks vs Little Rock/NTX/Maritsa
OKC Energy vs Des Moines/Duluth
Saint Louis vs Bavarians/Madison
Indy Eleven vs Lansing/Ann Arbor
Louisville vs Dayton/Erie
Hartford Athletic vs Safira/WestChester/BlackRock
Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs Motown/Reading
Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Lakeland/South Georgia
Birmingham Legion vs Florida Soccer Soldiers/MiamiFC
Charleston vs Greenville/Villages
Nashville vs Chattanooga/South Georgia 2
Memphis vs NYCosmosB/NYRBU23
Charlotte Independence vs Virginia/WorldClassPremierElite/PhilLoneStar
North Carolina vs Richmond/Baltimore

boiling those down to the 3rd round matchups:

absolute guaranteed 3rd round pairings (open) absolute guaranteed 3rd round pairings (close)

OCSC/SantaAna/Cal/OCFC vs Sacramento/Academica/Marathon/Portland
Fresno/GoldenSt/ElFarolito vs Las Vegas/Reno
Phoenix/New Mexico vs Austin/Colorado Springs
ElPaso/Southwest/Denver/MidladnOdessa vs San Antonio/Laredo/Brazos
Tulsa/Little Rock/NTX/Maritsa vs OKC/Des Moines/Duluth
StLouis/Bavarians/Madison vs Memphis/NYCosmosB/NYU23
Indy/Lansing/AnnArbor vs Louisville/Dayton/Erie
Hartford/Safira/WestC/BlackRock vs Pittsburgh/Motown/Reading
Tampa/Lakeland/SGeorgia vs Birmingham/FLASS/Miami
Charleston/Greenville/Villages vs Nashville/Chattanooga/SGeorgia2
Charlotte/Virginia/WCPE/LoneStar vs NorthCarolina/Richmond/Baltimore

and if you believe all of that horse hockey, this is what the 4th round draw could look like, keeping in mind that the idea is to divide the 32 remaining teams into 8 groups of 4

MLS teams enter (open) MLS teams enter (close)

each group has to contain either 1 or 2 third round winners


The draw will not be made until the specific 3rd round winners are actually known, so that could obviously take away a lot of the uncertainty, and make some geographic matchups a lot more clear.


1. LAFC, LAG, San Jose, Fresno/GoldenSt/ElFarolito/Las Vegas/Reno

2. Seattle, Portland, RSL, OCSC/SaAna/Cal/OCFC/Sacto/Acad/Mara/Port

3. Colorado, SportingKC, Minnesota, Phx/New Mexico/Austin/Colorado Springs

4. Dallas, Houston, ElPaso/Southwest/Denver/MidladnOdessa/San Antonio/Laredo/Brazos, Tulsa/Little Rock/NTX/Maritsa/OKC/Des Moines/Duluth

5. Crew, Chicago, Cincy, Indy/Lansing/AnnArbor/Louisville/Dayton/Erie

6. NYC, NYRB, NE, Hartford/Safira/WestC/BlackRock/Pburgh/Motown/Reading

7. DC, Philly, StL/Bavarians/Madison/Memphis/NYCosmosB/NYU23,
Charlotte/Virginia/WCPE/LoneStar/NorthCarolina/Richmond/Baltimore

8. Orlando, Atlanta, Tampa/Lakeland/SGeorgia/B-ham/FlaSS/Miami,
Charleston/Greenville/Villages/Nashville/Chattanooga/SGeorgia2



Obviously if you look at those 3rd round pairings, it would make a huge difference if Duluth or NTX came out of one, and there's obviously a huge geographic difference between a team in St Louis or a team in NY.

So those 4-team groupings are definitely subject to change.

If anyone else wants to try, you're welcome to give it a shot.

The key thing to be aware of for the 4th round groups is that 5 of the groups will have 3 MLS teams, and only 3 of the groups will pair 2 MLS teams with 2 third round winners.

I think that Orlando and Atlanta are almost certain to be paired with 2 third round winners from the southeast. The identity of the other 4 MLS teams that will be guaranteed a lower division opponent is a bit more of a guessing game. Obviously heavily dependent on exactly who the 11 third round winners are.

 

Welp. Another competition I won’t be watching.

Thx,

Jay!

 

How can you be a soccer fan and not have ESPN+ yet?

 

I mean, I personally don't because I'm a cheap grad student and I don't have access to *any* streaming or cable services, but with how much US soccer ESPN+ is stockpiling, it might be my first.

 

Because the model will be eventually to move the Playoffs, Season Finales, Big One Off Games to an OTT streaming service. Imagine explaining to your kids why they can’t watch the big High School Musical movie on Friday night because Disney put it on Disney Channel+.

This is exactly what they did with The Championship last year.

Also, I can’t stream to my TV reliably. Netflix gives a spinning wheel of death often. I like to watch my soccer on TV. A booster won’t do it and you try telling my wife that we’re drilling holes in the walls to run an Ethernet cable to the tv.

Also at $8+ per sub, ESPN should let outlets like DirecTV offer up the service as included in the package instead of adding channels that I don’t watch like the Longhorn and SEC networks.

Also, this doesn’t bode well for packages like Direct Kick after 2022 when MLS pulls an EPL/NBC and moves all the games that are currently available on TV with your cable sub to the internet.

Thx,

Jay!

 

Even if that's true, it's not a reason not to pay for ESPN+ now. I would think MLS would always want to have games on national TV, and logging in through a TV provider doesn't give you access to games that aren't on TV. People complain on how fragmented it is with ESPN+, NBC Sports Gold (with separate packages for different sports), Fox Soccer Match Pass, and B/R for the UEFA Champions League. In this case, anybody who pays for ESPN+ and gets every MLS game now gets every USOC game at no additional charge without expecting to be able to watch the USOC when he or she paid for ESPN+.

 

The base of my argument is exactly the reason why not to pay for ESPN+. To each their own. If you enjoy being nickel and dimed to death, more power to ya.

It will come.

Thx,

Jay!

 

Ok grandpa. Welcome to the future. Listen to someone your age, Bob Dylan, and get out of the way if you can't lend a hand.

 

Mrs Stuart95 now has even more reason to hate my ESPN+ subscription! Seriously, I'm really enjoying ESPN+. USL, English Championship, Danish Superleague ... it is definitely worth it

 

Hmm... Is there any significance to dividing the first round pairings into four (uneven) regions, in a tournament-structure sense? I could understand if the regions are done so that they ultimately have the same number of teams once a specific round hits, i.e. maybe thanks to having the future additions of DII (and DI?) even the regions out, but it doesn't look like that's the case right now... So are these just travel pool consideration groupings for now?