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2023 US Open Cup: Which NPSL teams could qualify?

July 26, 2022 by Jake Sillick

FC Motown 2022 US Open Cup AC Syracuse Pulse
Federico De Olivera of FC Motown celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against AC Syracuse Pulse in the Second Round of the 2022 US Open Cup. Photo: Peter Bonilla

The 2022 National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) season has reached the Final Four. With the vast majority of the season completed, we can take a look at which teams will have the highest priority of qualifying for the 2022 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

How this list is made is determined by using the format outlined in the 2023 US Open Cup Open Division Handbook.

After years of either steady or increasing berth totals for teams between 2011 and 2018, the NPSL experienced its first decrease in tournament slots in 2019 going from 18 (22 after including last minute Play-in teams) to 14. This stayed steady for the 2020 tournament with 14 entrants before COVID-19 would cancel both the 2020 and 2021 tournaments.  It then decreased again with only 10 entrants in the 2022 tournament. With expansion coming across the board from all professional leagues, it would seem likely that the number of berths for both NPSL and USL League Two could go down again or at best remain level. The final allocation will not be determined until the professional leagues have finalized their entrants in early January 2023.

NPSL’s CLASSIFICATION RULES

Heading into the 2023 US Open Cup, the NPSL has 92 teams that are eligible for the competition divided into four regions: South (30), East (29), Midwest (18), and West (15).

The first eight possible berths are awarded to teams that advanced deep into the 2022 NPSL playoffs. Slots one and two are reserved for the champion and runner-up, respectively. Slots three and four are given to the teams that reached the semifinals and teams five through eight are held by the remaining quarterfinalists. Teams finishing at the same round will be ordered by regular season points per game. The Top 8 teams are:

  1. FC Motown (national champion)
  2. Crossfire Redmond (national runner-up)
  3. Muskegon Risers (national semifinalist, 2.6 PPG)
  4. Tulsa Athletic (national semifinalist, 2.42 PPG)
  5. Jacksonville Armada FC U-23 (regional finalist, 2.83 PPG)
  6. El Farolito (regional finalist, 2.4 PPG)
  7. Appalachian FC (regional finalist, 2.1 PPG)
  8. Cleveland SC (regional finalist, 2.08 PPG)

After that, the next spots are purely given out on a regular season points per game basis to the next team in the next region that gets a spot. This is ordered by the the number of teams in each region. For the 2023 Open Cup, it would go South, East, Midwest, West, South, East, Midwest, West, and so forth until every spot has been filled. If a team declines the spot or is ineligible to take any spot, the next team in the region ranking gets the spot. What this means is if, for example, 11 NPSL teams qualify for the 2023 Open Cup, it will be guaranteed to be 3 teams each from the South, East, and Midwest regions, and 2 teams from the West region, even if it’s a team much further down a regional ranking compared to a team from another region.

It’s near certain that teams listed in the top eight are all but guaranteed a spot in the 108th edition of the US Open Cup. But if there’s more, there could be a third team from each region. More than 12 teams is unlikely given the number of Open Division slots overall.

With all that out of the way, here are the 2022 NPSL US Open Cup berth rankings. This year we will give the rankings for each region, with 1st place being the regional champion, and 2nd place being the region runner up. The teams are then ordered by PPG, with the tiebreakers being average goal difference and then average goals scored.

x- Regional Champion, y- Regional runner-up

EAST REGION

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts Pts/GP GD/GP GF/GP
1 x-FC Motown 10 7 1 2 32 13 19 23 2.3 1.9 3.2
2 y-Appalachian FC 10 6 1 3 25 12 13 21 2.1 1.3 2.5
3 Hartford City FC 10 8 0 2 21 8 13 26 2.6 1.3 2.1
4 Electric City Shock 10 7 1 2 29 10 19 23 2.3 1.9 2.9
5 Alexandria Reds 10 7 2 1 20 10 10 22 2.2 1 2
6 West Chester United SC 10 6 1 3 26 13 13 21 2.1 1.3 2.6
7 Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals 10 6 1 3 22 14 8 21 2.1 0.8 2.2
8 Northern Virginia United 10 6 2 2 20 13 7 20 2 0.7 2
9 Virginia Beach City FC 10 5 1 4 18 11 7 19 1.9 0.7 1.8
10 Valeo FC 10 5 2 3 19 13 6 18 1.8 0.6 1.9
11 Georgia Revolution FC 10 4 2 4 26 12 14 16 1.6 1.4 2.6
12 Jackson Lions FC 10 5 4 1 32 23 9 16 1.6 0.9 3.2
13 North Alabama SC 10 4 3 3 16 15 1 15 1.5 0.1 1.6
14 Apotheos FC 10 3 2 5 13 10 3 14 1.4 0.3 1.3
15 FC Frederick 10 4 5 1 18 18 0 13 1.3 0 1.8
16 Cedar Stars 10 2 3 5 12 18 -6 11 1.1 -0.6 1.2
17 New York Shockers 10 2 4 4 16 16 0 10 1 0 1.6
18 Philadelphia Lone Star FC 10 3 6 1 23 29 -6 10 1 -0.6 2.3
19 Torch FC 10 3 6 1 14 24 -10 10 1 -1 1.4
20 Kingston Stockade FC 10 2 5 3 11 15 -4 9 0.9 -0.4 1.1
21 FC Monmouth 10 1 4 5 10 19 -9 8 0.8 -0.9 1
22 Atlantic City FC 10 2 6 2 11 24 -13 8 0.8 -1.3 1.1
23 LSA Athletico Lanier 10 2 6 2 7 27 -20 8 0.8 -2 0.7
24 Georgia Storm SA 10 2 7 1 14 25 -11 7 0.7 -1.1 1.4
25 Pennsylvania Classics 10 2 7 1 15 27 -12 7 0.7 -1.2 1.5
26 Grove Soccer United 10 2 8 0 5 20 -15 6 0.6 -1.5 0.5
27 Hershey FC 10 1 6 3 9 27 -18 6 0.6 -1.8 0.9
28 First State FC 10 1 7 2 16 25 -9 5 0.5 -0.9 1.6
29 Syracuse FC 10 0 5 5 8 17 -9 5 0.5 -0.9 0.8

SOUTH REGION

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts Pts/GP GD/GP GF/GP
1 x-Tulsa Athletic 12 9 1 2 36 10 26 29 2.416667 2.166667 3
2 y-Jacksonville Armada FC U-23 12 11 0 1 36 11 25 34 2.833333 2.083333 3
3 Miami Beach Club de Futbol 10 8 2 0 25 8 17 24 2.4 1.7 2.5
4 Laredo Heat SC 12 8 1 3 30 8 22 27 2.25 1.833333 2.5
5 Southern States Soccer Club 12 9 3 0 35 14 21 27 2.25 1.75 2.916667
6 OKC 1889 FC 12 8 2 2 20 14 6 26 2.166667 0.5 1.666667
7 Miami United FC 10 7 3 0 26 10 16 21 2.1 1.6 2.6
8 Central Florida Panthers SC 10 7 3 0 25 12 13 21 2.1 1.3 2.5
9 FC Brownsville 12 8 3 1 38 15 23 25 2.083333 1.916667 3.166667
10 Corinthians FC of San Antonio 12 7 2 3 29 20 9 24 2 0.75 2.416667
11 Irving FC 12 6 1 5 31 11 20 23 1.916667 1.666667 2.583333
12 Denton Diablos FC 12 7 4 1 31 15 16 22 1.833333 1.333333 2.583333
13 Lubbock Matadors SC 12 6 4 2 25 15 10 20 1.666667 0.833333 2.083333
14 New Orleans Jesters 12 6 5 1 28 24 4 19 1.583333 0.333333 2.333333
15 Pensacola FC 12 6 5 1 21 23 -2 19 1.583333 -0.16667 1.75
16 Sunflower State FC 12 5 4 3 19 20 -1 18 1.5 -0.08333 1.583333
17 Naples United FC 10 4 4 2 22 11 11 14 1.4 1.1 2.2
18 Demize NPSL 12 4 4 4 18 20 -2 16 1.333333 -0.16667 1.5
19 AFC Mobile 12 4 7 1 19 20 -1 13 1.083333 -0.08333 1.583333
20 Arkansas Wolves FC 12 4 7 1 18 21 -3 13 1.083333 -0.25 1.5
21 Club Atletico Saint Louis 12 4 8 0 18 29 -11 12 1 -0.91667 1.5
22 CF10 Houston FC 12 3 7 2 15 38 -23 11 0.916667 -1.91667 1.25
23 Forth Worth Vaqueros FC 12 3 8 1 17 25 -8 10 0.833333 -0.66667 1.416667
24 Florida Roots 12 3 9 0 18 39 -21 9 0.75 -1.75 1.5
25 Miami Dutch Lions FC 10 1 7 2 8 23 -15 5 0.5 -1.5 0.8
26 Reign FK 12 1 9 2 12 27 -15 5 0.416667 -1.25 1
27 Austin United FC 12 1 10 1 16 44 -28 4 0.333333 -2.33333 1.333333
28 Coyotes FC 12 1 10 1 9 50 -41 4 0.333333 -3.41667 0.75
29 Magia FC 10 1 9 0 7 49 -42 3 0.3 -4.2 0.7
30 Tallahassee SC 12 0 10 2 12 38 -26 2 0.166667 -2.16667 1

MIDWEST REGION

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts Pts/GP GD/GP GF/GP
1 x-Muskegon Risers 10 8 0 2 33 10 23 26 2.6 2.3 3.3
2 y-Cleveland SC 12 8 3 1 33 14 19 25 2.083333 1.583333 2.75
3 Med City FC 14 11 1 2 35 11 24 35 2.5 1.714286 2.5
4 Duluth FC 14 11 2 1 43 12 31 34 2.428571 2.214286 3.071429
5 FC Columbus 10 6 2 2 31 18 13 20 2 1.3 3.1
6 Pittsburgh Hotspurs 12 8 4 0 24 15 9 24 2 0.75 2
7 Dakota Fusion FC 14 7 4 3 36 28 8 24 1.714286 0.571429 2.571429
8 Minneapolis City SC 14 7 6 1 29 27 2 22 1.571429 0.142857 2.071429
9 FC Buffalo 12 5 6 1 15 20 -5 16 1.333333 -0.41667 1.25
10 Carpathia FC 10 3 4 3 15 20 -5 12 1.2 -0.5 1.5
11 Sioux Falls Thunder FC 14 3 6 5 27 28 -1 14 1 -0.07143 1.928571
12 Minnesota TwinStars FC 14 4 9 1 22 42 -20 13 0.928571 -1.42857 1.571429
13 Erie Commodores 12 3 7 2 13 23 -10 11 0.916667 -0.83333 1.083333
14 Akron City FC 12 2 6 4 10 23 -13 10 0.833333 -1.08333 0.833333
15 FC Milwaukee Torrent 10 2 6 2 20 22 -2 8 0.8 -0.2 2
16 Joy St. Louis Park 14 3 10 1 15 36 -21 10 0.714286 -1.5 1.071429
17 LC Aris FC 14 3 11 0 21 44 -23 9 0.642857 -1.64286 1.5
18 Panathinaikos Chicago 10 1 8 1 8 37 -29 4 0.4 -2.9 0.8

WEST REGION

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts Pts/GP GD/GP GF/GP
1 x-Crossfire Redmond 10 4 1 5 16 10 6 17 1.7 0.6 1.6
2 y-El Farolito FC 10 8 2 0 38 11 27 24 2.4 2.7 3.8
3 Sacramento Gold FC 10 8 1 1 29 12 17 25 2.5 1.7 2.9
4 Napa Valley 1839 FC 10 8 2 0 32 11 21 24 2.4 2.1 3.2
5 International Portland Select FC 10 6 1 3 24 6 18 21 2.1 1.8 2.4
6 SC Brave Lions 10 7 3 0 24 14 10 21 2.1 1 2.4
7 Contra Costa FC 10 4 5 1 28 25 3 13 1.3 0.3 2.8
8 Academica SC 10 4 5 1 19 18 1 13 1.3 0.1 1.9
9 FC Davis 10 4 5 1 16 27 -11 13 1.3 -1.1 1.6
10 Oakland SC 10 3 5 2 19 28 -9 11 1.1 -0.9 1.9
11 FC Arizona 10 2 4 4 13 21 -8 10 1 -0.8 1.3
12 Las Vegas Legends FC 10 2 5 3 20 24 -4 9 0.9 -0.4 2
13 Sonoma County Sol FC 10 2 8 0 14 37 -23 6 0.6 -2.3 1.4
14 OSA Seattle FC 10 1 8 1 7 29 -22 4 0.4 -2.2 0.7
15 Oakland Stompers 10 0 8 2 10 36 -26 2 0.2 -2.6 1

Filed Under: Feature - Main, Feature - Qualifying, Featured Post - Main, Featured Post - US Open Cup Qualifying, US Open Cup, US Open Cup Central, US Open Cup Qualifying Tagged With: 2023 US Open Cup, National Premier Soccer League, NPSL, Open Division National League

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