After cancelling in 2020, the 2021 tournament will be limited to a field of 24 clubs, including 8 from MLS. 2021 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup to feature shortened field as pandemic lingers February 9, 2021 11:46AM EST Jonathan Sigal
Absolutely hate the format change. Would rather it was canceled again than see this. Its either open or it shouldn't be played
The change in format sucks, it is awful. But they can't afford to cancel it two years in a row. It might never come back, and that would be a worse tragedy than a one-year anomaly.
Apparently this is not the first time it was invite only. It happened once before: 1938-1939 National Challenge Cup: The first time the US Open Cup was invite-only Posted by Chuck Nolan Jr. thecup.us Hopefully (like last time) this is a one-year thing.
OPEN CUP COMMITTEE DECIDES NOT TO PLAY OPENING ROUND OF U.S. OPEN CUP DUE TO CHALLENGES SURROUNDING COVID PANDEMIC; TEAMS WILL ENTER TOURNAMENT AT ROUND OF 16 TOURNAMENT NOW SCHEDULED TO START ON MAY 18-19 AND WILL CONSIST OF FOUR ROUNDS; METHOD FOR DETERMINING PARTICIPATING CLUBS SET MARCH 29 2021 ussoccer.com MLS qualification procedure for 2021 US Open Cup revealed March 29, 2021 12:03PM EDT MLSsoccer staff
I didn't see any mention of this elsewhere on the board, but US Soccer has quietly officially cancelled the 2021 Open Cup after the earlier decision not to hold the truncated version in the spring. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/us-open-cup-2022-format-how-the-tournament-will-work https://www.si.com/soccer/2021/07/20/us-open-cup-canceled-2021-format-2022-us-soccer https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ext-edition-of-lamar-hunt-us-open-cup-in-2022