Open Cup third-round matches begin airing today on CBS Sports
The remaining matches of this year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — America’s national championship tournament — will be streamed on Paramount+.
Photo: CBS Sports
‘Big’ teams join the Open Cup fray
All but one amateur team — El Farolito from San Francisco — has been eliminated, but plenty of “cupset,” opportunities remain. The third round of the 2025 Lamar Hunt U. S. Open Cup plays out Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Cup — originally the National Challenge Cup — is the United States’ version of England’s FA Cup, Spain’s Copa Del Rey, or Germany’s DFB-Pokal. That is to say, it is America’s club championship, open to teams from any level of U.S. Soccer. It is the nation’s oldest soccer competition, and among its most prestigious and least appreciated.
Each year since 1914 (except 2020 and 2021, when the competition was cancelled because of COVID), hundreds of amateur, semi-pro and professional clubs have competed in a single-elimination tournament for the right to raise the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup trophy.
The Cup has enjoyed varying degrees of popularity through the years, never quite reaching the audience its prestige deserves. But with the growth of local and regional leagues, USL’s plans to introduce a system of promotion and relegation (pro/rel) when it launches its first-division Premier League in 2028, and the ever-improving access to teams, players and games via the Internet, the Cup is poised for the spotlight.
In the third round, 16 clubs from the USL Championship — the second-highest level of professional soccer in the country behind only Major League Soccer — will enter the tournament against second round winners. The latter group includes 15 professional teams spanning the USL Championship (4), USL League One (9), and MLS NEXT Pro (2), in addition to El Farolito, which for the second year in a row is the last club standing from the amateur Open Division.
All 16 games (eight on Tuesday and eight more Wednesday) will be broadcast live on Paramount+. Four of those third round games will be available additionally on the CBS Sports Golazo Network and two will also be available to on the CBS Sports Network.
All 16 winners from the third round will face off with teams from Major League Soccer in the Round of 32 on May 6 and 7.
2025 U.S. Open Cup
Third Round
All matches to be streamed on Paramount+
(All times Central)
Tuesday, April 15
Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Columbus Crew 2, 5 p.m.
Loudon United FC at Louisville City FC, 6 p.m.
North Carolina FC at Charlotte Independence, 6 p.m.
Rhodes Island at Portland Hearts of Pine, 6 p.m.
South Georgia Tormenta at Charleston Battery, 6:30 p.m.
San Antonio FC at Union Omaha, 7 p.m.
Orange County SC at AV Alta, 9 p.m.
Oakland Roots SC at Tacoma Defiance, 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 16
Tampa Bay Rowdies at FC Naples, 6 p.m.
Westchester SC at Detroit City FC, 6 p.m.
Miami FC at Indy Eleven, 6:30 p.m.
Phoenix Rising at FC Tulsa, 7 p.m.
One Knoxville at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, 8 p.m.
El Paso Locomotive at New Mexico United, 8:30 p.m.
El Farolito at Sacramento Republic FC, 9 p.m.
Chattanooga Red Wolves SC at Las Vegas Lights, 9 p.m.