U.S. Soccer revealed the draw for the first two rounds of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday. The first round kicks off on May 10 and will feature 10
U.S. Soccer revealed the draw for the first two rounds of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday. The first round kicks off on May 10 and will feature 10 Southern California teams. Those that emerge from that round will advance, with one local team facing the only SoCal team to enter the round, USL side Orange County SC. The final local team, the LA Galaxy, won’t jump in until the fourth round.
Here are the match-ups for the first round:
Albion SC Pros vs. Chula Vista FC (Mission Bay High School, San Diego, 7 pm PT)
FC Golden State Force vs. Outbreak FC (Citrus College, Glendora, 7 pm PT)
Fresno Fuego vs. La Maquina (Chukchansi Park, Fresno, 7 pm PT)
Ventura County Fusion vs. Moreno Valley Futbol Club (Ventura College Sportsplex, Ventura, 7 pm PT)
LA Wolves FC vs. San Diego Zest (Bell Gardens John Anson Ford Park, Bell Gardens, 7:30 pm PT)
Without knowing the winners from the opening round, it gets rather confusing to go through the full rundown for the second round, but the winner of the FC Golden State Force-Outbreak FC game will host Orange County SC in the second round.
Meanwhile, if Moreno Valley FC win their game, they’ve got quite possibly the worst road trip of all in the second round, as they would have to go all the way to Oklahoma City to face OKC Energy FC. Might be a fun experience, but hopefully they would have enough funding to cover the trip. That all depends on if they beat the Ventura County Fusion, who have quite a bit of Open Cup experience over the years.
Southern California may have a fair number of teams involved in the Open Cup, but they’ve more than pulled their weight in the tournament over the years. It will be interesting to see which teams embark on a Cinderella run this year, beginning with the first round on May 10.
