Monterey Bay FC to Host International San Francisco in First Round of 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup

SEASIDE, California (Wednesday, February 5, 2025) – Monterey Bay Football Club (Monterey Bay FC) has announced today that the club will enter the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the first round as hosts to UPSL side International San Francisco. The match will take place on Wednesday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m. PT at Cardinale Stadium in Seaside. Tickets for the match are available now HERE.

The 32-game First Round is made up exclusively of Pro vs. Amateur contests. The winners of the First Round will play each other in a Second Round consisting of 16 games. The 16 Second Round winners will then be matched up against the 16 highest-ranked professional teams from the USL Championship in the Third Round. USL Championship Teams were seeded by conference, with the top eight clubs in each conference entering in the Third Round. Third Round-winners will square off against the teams of Major League Soccer (MLS). There will be 16 MLS teams competing in the 2025 Open Cup – up from eight in 2024 – and they will all enter the competition in the Round of 32.

Similar to England’s famous FA Cup, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is U.S. Soccer’s National Club Championship. Now in its 110th edition, it is a single-elimination tournament that has crowned a champion every year since 1914. The history-filled tournament is open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. In 1999, the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States was renamed to honor American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.