2025 U.S. Open Cup


The 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 110th edition of the U.S. Open Cup, the knockout domestic cup competition of American soccer, organized by the United States Soccer Federation. It involved 96 teams, including 64 teams from all three professional tiers of the United States soccer league system, and 32 amateur teams in the "Open Division". The competition began on March 18 and culminated in the final on October 1. The defending champions, Los Angeles FC, were represented by their reserve team, and were eliminated in the second round by extension side AV Alta of USL League One.
The full format was announced on January 28, 2025. U.S. Soccer adopted new rules for the competition that restricted the use of alternative venues, and had random draws for hosting beginning in the Round of 16.
Of the 27 American clubs in Major League Soccer, 24 participated, with teams that were playing in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup being represented by their reserve teams. The first teams entered in the round of 32, while the eight affiliated reserve teams and the two independent teams from MLS Next Pro participated beginning in the first round. Atlanta United FC, Colorado Rapids, and expansion San Diego FC did not have any representation from their clubs in the 2025 U.S. Open Cup. Half of the MLS first team entrants hosted their first matches, while the rest began with an away game. The MLS Next Pro teams were able to field players from their senior MLS team's supplemental roster via loans. The USL Championship sent all 24 of its teams, with the highest sixteen rated teams of the 2024 regular season entering in the Third Round, and the eight lower-seeded teams entering in the first round alongside all 14 teams from USL League One. The 32 Open Division teams entered in the first round.
The winner, Nashville SC, qualified for the 2026 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Schedule

RoundDraw dateMatch dayEntrantsTeams entered to date
First RoundFebruary 5, 2025March 18–2114 local qualifiers
1 National Amateur Cup champion
1 United Premier Soccer League Spring season champion
7 National Premier Soccer League teams
9 USL League Two teams
14 USL League One teams
10 MLS Next Pro teams
8 USL Championship teams
64 teams
Second RoundMarch 21, 2025April 1–232 winners from First Round64 teams
Third RoundApril 3, 2025April 15–1616 winners from Second Round
16 USL Championship teams
80 teams
Round of 32April 17, 2025May 6–716 winners from Third Round
16 Major League Soccer teams
96 teams
Round of 16April 17, 2025May 20–2116 winners from Round of 3296 teams
QuarterfinalsMay 22, 2025July 8–98 winners from Round of 1696 teams
SemifinalsMay 22, 2025September 16–174 winners from Quarterfinals96 teams
FinalOctober 12 winners from Semifinals96 teams

Teams

Table

  • $: Winner of $50,000 bonus for advancing the furthest in the competition from their respective divisions.
  • $$: Winner of $250,000 for being the runner-up in the competition.
  • $$$: Winner of $600,000 for winning the competition.

    Map

Number of teams by state

A total of 36 states and D.C. were represented by clubs in the U.S. Open Cup this year.
StatesNumberTeams
California

Open Cup debuts

26 teams made their Open Cup debuts in the 2025 tournament.

Bracket

The first three rounds of the tournament bracket are shown below, with bold denoting the winners of each match.
Host team listed first

Bold = winner

First round

The complete draw for the first round, including match dates and times, was announced on February 6, 2025.

Second round

Third round

The complete draw for the third round, including match dates and times, took place on April 3, 2025.

Round of 32 and 16

The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 took place live on CBS Sports Golazo Network on April 17, 2025, performed by CBS Sports Golazo Network presenter Aly Trost Martin and U.S. Open Cup commissioner David Applegate. The teams were divided into eight broadly geographical groups named for the eight most-capped United States men's national team players who had also won a U.S. Open Cup: Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Jeff Agoos, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, Paul Caligiuri and Kasey Keller. The winners of the four-team mini-bracket advanced to the quarterfinals. The order in which teams were drawn for the round of 32 determined the priority order for home field advantage in the round of 16.

Teams

  • Bold denotes teams that were automatically seeded as hosts in the Round of 32.

    Bracket

Bold denotes the winners of each match.
Host team listed first

Bold = winner

Round of 32

Cobi Jones Group
Landon Donovan Group
Clint Dempsey Group
Jeff Agoos Group
DaMarcus Beasley Group
Carlos Bocanegra Group
Paul Caligiuri Group
'''Kasey Keller Group'''

Round of 16

Quarterfinals and beyond

The draw for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final took place live on CBS Sports Golazo Network on May 22, 2025, performed by CBS Sports Golazo Network presenter Claudia Pagán and U.S. Open Cup commissioner David Applegate. The teams were divided into eastern and western brackets. Home field advantage in the semifinals was determined by a draw to place the four teams in each bracket in priority order, with the highest remaining team in the competition at the semifinal stage playing their match at home.

Quarterfinals

East Bracket
'''West Bracket'''

Semifinals

Final

The 2025 U.S. Open Cup final was held on October 1, with Nashville SC earning a place in the 2026 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Top goalscorers

Broadcasting

held the rights to broadcast the Open Cup from 2023 to 2030, as part of a larger media rights agreement with U.S. Soccer. The U.S. Soccer YouTube channel broadcast all games from the first two rounds. On March 26, 2025, CBS Sports announced an agreement to exclusively broadcast all games beginning with the third round. All games streamed on Paramount+, with select games on the CBS Sports Golazo Network and CBS Sports Network.