Louisville City FC will potentially open play in the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — the annual knockout tournament open to amateur and professional teams — against our area’s other soccer club.
Before the U.S. Open Cup introduces professional sides, the Derby City Rovers and Pennsylvania’s Tartan Devils Oak Avalon will face off on May 10 for the right to play LouCity, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday. The Rovers are a semi-professional club and will host their First Round game at the Woehrle Athletic Complex in Jeffersonville, Ind.
With a Rovers win, LouCity would play at Woehrle on May 17. Should Tartan Devils Oak Avalon move on, the boys in purple would travel to Pittsburgh to begin their U.S. Open Cup run.
From there, Second Round winners play again May 31 in the Third Round before Major League Soccer teams enter June 14 in the Fourth Round. Once the U.S. Open cup whittles down to 16, a fixed bracket will set up the rest of the tournament, which concludes with the Final on Sept. 20.
Teams are typically paired geographically in early round play. Last year, LouCity opened by topping Detroit City FC, from the National Premier Soccer League, in a penalty kick shootout before facing the NASL’s Indy Eleven. In 2015, LouCity advanced to play the Chicago Fire, taking the MLS side to extra time.
FC Dallas last fall extended a 17-year streak of MLS teams winning the U.S. Open Cup. But lower-division clubs often score upsets, and in 1999, the Rochester Rhinos became the most recent USL member to win the tournament.
This year, the winner will receive $250,000, a berth in the 2019 CONCACAF Champions’ League and have its name engraved on the historic Dewar Challenge Trophy, one of the oldest nationally contested trophies in U.S. team sports. The runner-up will earn $60,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division will take home a $15,000 cash prize.
An American champion has been crowned for 103 consecutive years dating back to 1914. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor United States soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.
