The Villages SC will host the 1st Round game against Kraze United on May 11th. Kraze United plays in the NPSL (National Premier Soccer League). The winner of this game will travel to South Carolina to play against the Charleston Battery- an USL team.
The 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
Entering its 103rd year of competition, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is set to kick off the 2016 tournament on May 11 and will feature a tiered-bracket and single-game knockout format, with a record number of teams participating.
As in 2015, teams will be paired geographically from the First Round through the Fourth Round. After the Fourth Round, a geographically-based random draw will take place to determine the Round of 16 matchups and set a fixed bracket to the Final, scheduled for Sept. 21.
This year’s U.S. Open Cup features 92 teams, a record in the tournament’s modern era (1995 to present). Berths for teams from the Open Division, which includes clubs from all leagues other than Division I, II and III outdoor professional leagues, have expanded from the 36 announced last September to a modern era-record 48 as a result of the number of First Round places available after slotting Division I, II and III teams into later rounds.
The Third Qualifying Round, which was set to take place April 2-3, is now eliminated due to the expansion of berths for Open Division sides. Teams from local qualifying have been awarded six new slots, allowing all 14 clubs still alive in this qualifying track to be placed directly into the First Round.
Additionally, four new berths have been awarded to the Premier Development League (PDL), a nationwide amateur league, giving it 19 total teams in the competition, while the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), another nationwide amateur league, has been awarded two additional slots to reach 15 participating teams.
Open Division teams will enter in the First Round, Division III (United Soccer League) sides will start in the Second Round, Division II (North American Soccer League) clubs will see their first action in the Third Round and Division I (Major League Soccer) teams will take the field starting in the Fourth Round. Teams playing in their first Open Cup match will not be paired against another club from the same qualifying pool (an exception will be made in the Fourth Round when two MLS teams will meet in their first tournament game).
This year’s winning team will receive $250,000, a berth in the 2017-18 CONCACAF Champions’ League and have its name engraved on the historic Dewar Challenge Trophy, one of the oldest nationally contested trophies in American 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.
Sporting Kansas City is the defending U.S. Open Cup champion, having won a second tournament title (following its triumph in 2012) after a penalty shootout road victory against the Philadelphia Union on Sept. 30, 2015 at PPL Park, in Chester, Pennsylvania.
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, recognized as U.S. Soccer’s National Club Championship, is an annual competition open to all amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. The tournament has crowned a champion for 102 consecutive years dating from 1914. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.