After two consecutive years of the Covid-19 pandemic effectively canceling the U.S. Open Cup, the country’s oldest soccer tournament plans to return in 2022 with several significant changes that had previously been approved but so far gone unimplemented.
The most relevant of those changes is that the Seattle Sounders will be 1 of 8 MLS teams who receive a bye into the Round of 32. The other 17 eligible MLS teams will enter a round earlier. Combined, those changes are designed to increase the number of matches between MLS and lower-division opponents.
All Division II and III teams will enter in the second round, one round before any MLS teams enter.