If you don’t have a team to support in our 2025 U.S. Open Cup First Round we might gently suggest one of the following eight. Tulsa Athletic, West Chester United SC, NY Shockers, Naples United FC, Southern Indiana FC, Little Rock Rangers, Harpos FC and/or International San Francisco.
While all of the 32-game First Round contests will pit amateurs vs. pros, these eight Cinderellas in Waiting have the longest odds to success. This octet of intrepid Davids is up against the biggest, meanest and hairiest of Goliaths. While the 24 other amateur First Rounders will meet Div. III pros of USL League One and MLS NEXT Pro, the eight aforementioned strivers will be up against second-division sides from the USL Championship.
Most of the amateurs had to endure the grueling Qualifying Rounds last fall to book their place in this year’s Tournament Proper. Those who didn’t, reached U.S. soccer’s historic club championship via impressive league finishes last year.
On paper, they should be easy meat for teams made up of players who make their living full-time in the game. But, as the Open Cup shows us each year and without fail, soccer isn’t played on paper.
The marquee Mind-the-Gap contest comes to America's Heartland.
Athletic Community Stadium at Hicks Park is no Wembley, but it’s a lively place where Open Cup dreams are very much part of the legend and lore. It was here, watched by kindly local folks in folding chairs, that amateurs Tulsa Athletic shocked FC Tulsa of the USL Championship on April 5, 2023, in that year’s Second Round. The shock result set up a date for the Athletics against four-time Champions Sporting Kansas City (MLS) and stands out to this day as one of the great amateur-pro Cupsets of recent memory. It’s a meeting that, in our humble estimation, is in much need of replaying.
“It’s the Dream, the Open Cup Dream,” were the words of Tulsa Athletic co-owner, all-around fixer, famed gameday groundskeeper and general lifeblood supplier Sonny Dalesandro before that fateful day in the spring of 2023. “That a small club can do a great big thing.”
There’s three other Mind-the-Gap matches on opening day (Tuesday, March 18). One with real potential for a Cupset-outcome will take place in Wayne, Pennsylvania. There Blaise Santangello’s amateurs, West Chester United SC, long-time fixtures at the tip-top of national amateur scene, will host Div. II USL Championship outfit Loudoun United FC.
The Leesburg, Virginia-based side, led by ace striker Wesley Leggett, reached the Round of 16 of last year’s Open Cup before being bounced by eventual Champs LAFC of MLS – and they’ll be hoping for more this year in their sophomore turn in the tournament. But up against the motivated part-timers from West Chester, including veteran striker Chas Wilson, a school teacher by day and a former star at Temple University, the Loudoun County boys are sure to have their hands full.
“It’s never easy for the amateur teams,” said the 33-year-old Wilson, brimming with wisdom following West Chester’s rampage through the grinding amateur Qualifying Rounds (14 goals scored in three games with only two conceded) to reach a sixth Open Cup since debuting in 2016. “We have to make a lot of sacrifices, but we’re here and it’s the Open Cup, so we find a way.”
Two more Mind-the-Gap games round out the Opening Day menu. Hartford Athletic of the USL Championship host the NY Shockers of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and Miami FC, the USL Championship’s worst-performing team of 2024 (a scant 11 points from 34 games) welcome NPSL club Naples United FC. In both games it’s a case of the amateur teams lining up in the Open Cup for the first time as a club – and surely they’ll be aiming to carve out their own little slice of history by knocking off the on-paper heavy favorites.
The second day of the 110th edition of the Open Cup features four Mind-the-Gap contests between amateur hopefuls and full-time professionals from the country’s Division II USL Championship.
Of those, two games jump off the page straight-away: Monterey Bay (USLC) vs. International San Francisco of the famed amateur San Francisco Soccer Football League (SFSFL) and Harpos FC (Colorado Premier League) on the road against USL Championship men El Paso Locomotive.
International San Francisco, run by local physician and ambitious organizer Amir Darabi, burst onto the scene in 2021 when they climbed from the bottom to the top division in the SFSFL in the space of two years. It may not sound like much to those unfamiliar with the quality of this league, but it surely is. They reached the Open Cup in 2023, and their loss to fellow Bay Area amateurs El Farolito sparked a few years of rebuilding that led them to a hard-charge in the 2025 Qualifiers.
A heady mix of young, talented amateurs like Adrien Argast and wily old ex-pros like Matt Fondy, Inter San Francisco will be liking their chances against a Monterey Bay side that beat MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes in the Third Round of the 2023 Open Cup.
“We’ve doubled our training schedule for the game against Monterey Bay,” said new captain Javier Rivera, 26, and a Bay Area engineer who grew up in the Catalunya-based CE Europa youth system. “You always want to play against the strongest opponent and our aim is to make it far in the Open Cup.”
Approximately 1000 miles south to west, the Open Cup’s beloved Harpos FC will be in action and hoping to hand El Paso Locomotive their third straight Cupset loss in the Open Cup (2022 to present) and their first at the hands of an amateur outfit. Colorado’s part-timers highlight the bro-culture of their club, and sunday-league soccer, in the best possible light. They first burst onto the national scene in 2015 and gave USL pro side Colorado Springs Switchbacks all they could handle and more in two tough games (that year and again in 2016).
They launched their Open Cup identity in their debut year of 2015 under the irresistibly tongue-in-cheek hashtag banner of #Bullsh*tPubTeam.
Under the leadership of Johnny Freeston and with a never-ending cycle of talented youngsters to freshen up the squad, Harpos are among the best of the amateur teams in this country. That was evidenced by their impressive result against local rivals Azteca FC in the last game of the Qualifying Rounds this fall.
“The Open Cup is always a main priority for us at the start of every year,” said Dan Whittle, a survivor from the 2015 Harpos team that first reached the Open Cup – and a police officer by day. “We always try to bring everything we have and see how far we can go.”
Rounding out the USL Championship vs. Amateur contests of the First Round is a duo of games with amateur debutants taking on established powers of the Division II of the USA’s professional ranks.
Kentucky-based Championship side Lexington SC aim to avoid a second straight upset in the Cup after losing last year, as a USL League One (Div. III) team, to amateur first-timers Vermont Green (USL League Two) in the First Round. Debutants Southern Indiana FC of the UPSL will be no slouches as they put on quite a preview show in the Qualifying Rounds.
Last but not least, the Mind-the-Gap games wrap with Birmingham Legion (USL Championship), who reached the Quarterfinals of the Open Cup in 2023, traveling to meet amateur first-timers Little Rock Rangers at Wildcat Stadium in Arkansas.
Angelo Maduro is a senior reporter at large forwww.ussoccer.com/us-open-cup.