Major League Soccer returns all 27 US teams to the US Open Cup

All 27 United States-based MLS teams will compete in the 2027 edition of the U.S. Open Cup for the first time since 2023.

By MLSsoccer staffMajor League Soccer has announced that all 27 of its United States-based clubs will compete in the 2027 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the nation’s longest-running soccer competition.Foll...

After a two-year absence, every MLS team will compete in the cup competition, which has a history stretching back more than a century.

The tournament will feature a 96-team field, expanded 20-player matchday rosters, and a $1 million prize, with the final shifting to December to ease schedule congestion.

LOS ANGELES -- Major League Soccer is heading back into the U.

MLS had limited participation since 2024 Open Cup League decision to withdraw teams was controversial Major League Soccer will allow all of its 27 US-based teams to participate in the US Open Cup next year, according to a report from Backheeled. The move would bring to an end a three-year period in which MLS withheld teams from the United States’ oldest soccer competition, a single-elimination cup that has been running continuously since 1914, with only two editions skipped (2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Like England’s FA Cup and other similar competitions, the US Open Cup involves teams at all levels of the soccer system, including amateur and semi-pro teams. MLS teams traditionally enter at the later stages, with an MLS team winning all but one edition of the Open Cup since the league started play in 1996. Continue reading...

All 27 U.S.-based MLS teams will return to a revamped version of the country's longest-running soccer competition.