Louisville City FC’s run at the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup starts Tuesday when the boys in purple host fellow USL Championship club Loudoun United FC in a Third Round game at Lynn Family Stadium.
Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for a $2 happy hour featuring beer and Pepsi products at bars around the concourse before kickoff at 7 p.m.
Tickets and parking are available at LouCity.com/OpenCup or by calling (502) LOU-CITY.
America’s oldest ongoing national soccer competition, the Open Cup is an annual knockout tournament that dates back to 1914. Its lore stems from the ability of amateur and lower-division clubs to face off with — and potentially upset — higher-division counterparts.
Advancing Third Round teams will qualify for the Round of 32 to be played from May 6-7, when 16 Major League Soccer clubs enter the Open Cup. The tournament continues to whittle down to an October 1 final.
The 2025 Open Cup winner will receive $600,000 in prize money and a berth in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup. The runner-up will earn $250,000, while the team that advances the furthest from each lower division will claim a $50,000 cash prize.
Follow Along
• All Third Round games will stream on Paramount+. LouCity-Loudoun was also selected to air on CBS Sports Network.
• For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter. Also, find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram and Louisville City FC on Facebook.
Storylines…
How they got here: Thanks to LouCity’s 2024 Players’ Shield-winning regular season, the boys in purple skipped straight to the Open Cup’s Third Round and as a seeded team were guaranteed to host. Loudoun United advanced out of the Second Round by beating the National Premier Soccer League’s Virginia Dream by a 4-2 score.
Frequent foes: Tuesday will mark the second of four scheduled meetings this season between LouCity and Eastern Conference rival Loudoun United. Already this year, LouCity knocked off Loudoun, 2-0, in last month’s home opener. City will also travel to play United on May 31 in the league cup and June 25 in a regular season game.
A hot start: Loudoun, which hasn’t qualified for the USL Championship Playoffs since launching in 2019, finds itself in unfamiliar territory — atop the league standings. Coach Ryan Martin’s side has won five of six games, most recently defeating the Tampa Bay Rowdies last Saturday by a 2-1 score to move two points clear of the next-closest club.
Refreshed squad: LouCity will enter Tuesday’s game having not played since Saturday, April 5. City is unbeaten through five USL Championship games — but just so. Amadou Dia scored the latest goal in regular season club history at 97 minutes and 59 seconds to salvage a 1-1 draw last time out at Sacramento Republic FC.
Open Cup history: LouCity has won all seven of its opening-round U.S. Open Cup games. Going back to 2018, the club advanced as far as the Quarterfinal Round, in the process upsetting MLS’s New England Revolution. Last year, City defeated USL League One’s Greenville Triumph FC before exiting with a Round of 32 defeat at Seattle Sounders FC.
