March 2, 2024 – United Soccer League One (USL1) – Central Valley Fuego FC News Release
FRESNO, CA – Central Valley Fuego FC is set to kick off their journey in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a first-round match against FC Folsom. The highly anticipated encounter is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 7 p.m. PT.
“Fuego was founded in 2002 and has competed in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup since our inception as an amateur team. We are proud of that history and embrace what the Cup represents for American Soccer. As we have recently advanced to the professional realm, we are excited to once again take the pitch against amateur teams in the 1st round who have earned the right to face us off in our country’s national cup competition.”
The First Round of the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – U.S. Soccer’s annual club championship – kicks off with 64 teams and 32 First Round games across the country between March 19 and 21.
The 32 contests of the First Round will pit amateurs from the Open Division and Third Division Professional clubs in direct competition – with massive potential for dramatic outcomes and underdog storylines. The upcoming First Round will mark the first time since 2008 that all matchups will be exclusively contested between amateur and professional teams. Overall, this year’s edition of the tournament will feature the most First Round matchups between amateur and professional teams in the tournament’s 109-year history, more than doubling the previous amount of 16.
The Open Division sides will consist of the 11 winners from the four Qualifying Rounds held between September and November of last year. They will be joined in the amateur ranks by SC MesoAmerica – last year’s USASA National Amateur Cup winner and the 2023 Spring’s UPSL National Champion AS Frenzi of Florida. Eight more teams will come from the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and 11 more from USL’s League Two.
The Division III Pro sides taking part in the First Round will come from MLS Next Pro (11) – debuting as a league in the historic Open Cup – the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) (9) and USL League One (12).
Pairings between the amateur and professional teams in the First Round were drawn geographically while accounting for available venues. When there was no logical geographic pairing or three or more one teams in the same proximity, pairings were determined by random selection. Hosts were selected by random selection.
The first of…