2026 U.S. Open Cup

Yep missed that line, so that basically leaves LA Galaxy and Toronto/Montreal; Toronto is technically above the Galaxy in the Supporter's Shield standings, but next best in the Western Conference is LA...

 

Parsing the announcement and the MLS rules from last year, teams in the Leagues Cup can also be in the USOC to get to a total of 16 MLS teams, but only after all non-LC teams have been placed into the USOC.

But yes, the lack of the Galaxy is notable.

 

The press release stated that CCC teams will not be in the US Open Cup, so that's the explicit reason that the Galaxy is not listed. All of the non-playoff teams now have one known tournament, so theoretically any of them could be chosen for the 18th slot in Leagues Cup, whether by merit or marketing or any other reason.

 

I'm not entirely sure what US Soccer meant by this - DC United already announced they're hosting their Round of 32 game, and there's zero point zero chance they would be a seeded team for a home game.

 

Yeah, that's fairly contradictory to what U.S. Soccer announced today...

 

Yep. DC copied a lot of the US Soccer press release, but this was in DC's opening paragraph:

"U.S. Soccer has confirmed the official format and schedule, with D.C. United set to be one of eight MLS teams seeded to host the Round of 32 in April 2026."

 

The teams not participating in Leagues Cup are the non-playoff teams, with the possible exception of one being chosen to replace Vancouver. There are four Eastern Conference non-playoff teams on the Open Cup list.

 

Orlando qualified from the playoffs even if they got bounced in the wild card round.

 

Actually, now that I think about it more, and with @newtex's post, I think I get why DC is hosting.

There's only 4 Eastern Conference teams in the US Open Cup who wouldn't make Leagues Cup based on 2025 formatting, and DC's one of them, so they host by default, even as Spoon winners.

 

I was going to point out that you had left someone out.

 

This tournament is turning into the loser tournament for MLS teams. Any team that didn't qualify for CCC or LC will end up here. It's easy to understand why as LC has a bigger payout and players are playing for prize money every game instead of just the final. Reading the tea leaves of the State of the League, the one comment that I picked up on was Don Garber mentioning how Champions League in Europe makes teams revenue when answering a question about Pro/Rel. With the new Club World Cup, if things stay the same, winning CCC has a 5 million dollar payout plus 9.5 million for punching your ticket to the CWC. I don't know if it's because people are distracted by the World Cup but I haven't heard anyone complain about USL teams dropping out of next years tournament. I know the purest want to live in the bubble of this tournament grows the game, oldest tournament and lower division teams yada yada yada but it needs real help from US Soccer.
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With MLS flipping the season in 2027-28 and USL starting D1 in 28(?), something will have to change just to get this tournament in. One of the rumors is USL might follow MLS in flipping the calendar. If this happens and they start D1, you should get interest from playing teams in completing leagues. My guess is in 2027 LC will start in July right before the MLS season starts for the two week period of group play. I wouldn't be surprised if this is when they also start pro teams entering into the tournament in US Open Cup. Since the off season will be June and part of July, this would be a good time to promote the amateur/lower division games of the tournament. This gives teams about a month for pre-season starting last week of June and playing some competitive matches right before the season starts. You'll probably miss players who were in that international window but I can't see how else they get this tournament in.

 

Plenty of teams that are in League Cup will be in the USOC, too.

 

2027 is the last year for Leagues Cup unless both leagues decide to renew it.

 

Both leagues bring in a boat load of money from sponsorship and now both leagues will be more in sync with their seasons. It might evolve more but i seriously doubt they'll stop playing it. Which league will be give up their chance of getting the extra CCC spots you think? If USL D1 starts the next year, maybe CONCACAF will give those spots to that league? I doubt it but come 2028 a few things will be different.

 

When they flip the season things will have to change. I'm just speculating but for all the stink people made about MLS dropping teams, it still happened. If there is another D1 league with 12-14 teams and the off season in the summer, something will have to give.

 

I don't know for sure, but I got the impression it was the USOC shrinking the field due to the World Cup, not USL deciding to send fewer teams.

The only plan that makes sense to me is to move the LC to winter break. Teams will need games to keep in shape during that break. They will have to play in the south, so the northern teams wouldn't be able to host, but if they are ok with the LMX teams not hosting, they should be ok with that as well. Maybe divide into six-team pods spread across 8 cities in the south.

 

You're not going to play in the winter break as teams will be playing in CCC Starting the first week of February. The idea is to get away from the NFL playoffs to maximize revenue, not to go head to head with it.