UPDATE (April 11, 2015): The match between Harpo’s FC and the Kansas City Athletics in the Preliminary Round will no longer be played at Prentup Field in Boulder, Colo. due to field maintenance that will be taking place. They are in the process of finding a new venue.
The draw for the First Round of the 2015 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup won’t take place until April 8, but fans and teams can start making travel plans for both Preliminary Round games.
Both games will take place on Saturday, April 25, starting in the Bay Area where US Club Soccer representative San Francisco City FC will host Cal FC at Kezar Stadium at 2 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Eastern). A little later, in Boulder, Colo., United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) team Harpo’s FC will host the Kansas City Athletics. However, TheCup.us has learned that their original venue of Prentup Field at the University of Colorado will not be available due to field maintenance. A new venue will be announced soon.
The winners of each game will advance to Round 1, which will take place the week of May 13, and their opponents will be determined on April 8 when the US Soccer Federation conducts the competition’s first draw.
Playing Open Cup games on a weekend is pretty rare since Major League Soccer joined the tournament in 1996. Last year, thanks to the FIFA World Cup break, three Fourth Round Open Cup games were played on a Saturday, but prior to that, the last time there was a Saturday gameday in the tournament was 2003 (USASA’s DS United vs. PDL’s Raleigh CASL Elite in Cary, NC).
Michael Friedman and former US international Eric Wynalda, the architects of Cal FC’s memorable run in 2012 that saw them upset two professional teams, including MLS’ Portland Timbers, are back with the club again this year. They will play another road game (they have never hosted a tournament game) and face an up-and-coming club with high aspirations. San Francisco confirmed recently on Twitter that the club, which doesn’t currently belong in any of the national amateur leagues (PDL, NPSL) is in talks about possibly making a big jump to the North American Soccer League. They will bring an experienced roster to Kezar Stadium, which has been hosting Open Cup games (among many other events) for several decades.
The battle in Colorado will be a rematch from the USSSA qualifying tournament as the home team, Harpo’s FC, will take on the KC Athletics for the third time this year. The two teams met in group play with Harpo’s winning 4-1, but KC avenged that early loss by defeating Harpo’s in the championship game 3-1. Normally, the Athletics would have been the USSSA representative in the US Open Cup, but they had already qualified through the USASA’s Region II and had only entered the tournament purely as a way to get some competitive games in before the tournament started. Since KC was ineligible, Harpo’s was awarded the USSSA’s Open Cup berth. However, interestingly enough, the format for the 2015 US Open Cup called for the USSSA representative to play against the nearest USASA team in the Preliminary Round, and without question, the Athletics were the closest team to Boulder, Colo. of the USASA clubs that qualified.