U.S. Soccer made the draw for the first two rounds of the 2016 U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, and the lower division sides from Southern California learn
U.S. Soccer made the draw for the first two rounds of the 2016 U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, and the lower division sides from Southern California learned who they would be playing to kick off their tournaments.
Here’s the first round draw for the SoCal teams, based on U.S. Soccer’s livetweeting of the event from Wednesday morning (home team listed first, local teams in bold, league listed in parenthesis):
Ventura County Fusion (PDL) vs. LA Wolves FC (UPSL)
FC Tucson (PDL) vs. San Nicolas FC (UPSL)
Portland Timbers U23s (PDL) vs. La Maquina (UPSL)
Seattle Sounders U23s (PDL) vs. Outbreak FC (SoCal Premier League)
The first round of the 2016 USOC will take place Wednesday, May 11, according to U.S. Soccer.
Here’s the draw for the second round for the Southern California entrants, obviously dependent on which teams advance from the first round:
If San Nicolas FC wins first round game — Arizona United SC (USL) vs. San Nicolas FC (UPSL)
Winner of Ventura County Fusion/LA Wolves game vs. Orange County Blues FC (USL)
If La Maquina wins first round game — La Maquina (UPSL) vs. winner of Burlingame FC (PDL)/Sacramento Gold (NPSL)
If Outbreak FC wins first round game — Kitsap Pumas (PDL) vs. Outbreak FC (SoCal Premier League)
The second round is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18.
You’ll notice only one of the first round games is a purely SoCal match-up, with the other three teams needing to travel to Arizona or up the coast to Oregon or Washington. The same goes for the second round, if the Southern California sides advance — only one local match-up, although one would be a SoCal-NorCal showdown. Hopefully the travel expenses aren’t overly onerous for the clubs that need to take a road trip to compete.
And we’re guaranteed to see at least one local side make it through to the third round, although hopefully there will be a few sides that make a run in the tournament.
Teams jumping in the first round now have about a month to prepare for their games. We’ll be covering the tournament as it kicks off May 11.
