CHICAGO.- Lionel Messi and the Inter Miami They will not participate in the US Open Cup so only eight of the 26 American teams in Major League Soccer will participate in the tournament.
AtlantaDallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles FC, Salt Lake, San Jose and Seattle will participate in the 96-team competition, the US Soccer Federation said Friday.
Houston is the defending champion of the tournament and the rest of the teams that will participate are the top seven teams in last year’s Supporters’ Shield standings, but that did not advance to the CONCACAF Champions League.
MLS teams will enter the fourth round and face teams from lower divisions until they cannot avoid a duel between MLS teams. Last year, 18 MLS teams participated from the third round and eight in the fourth.
Houston beat Miami 2-1 in last year’s final. Messi missed that game due to injury.
Since MLS began in 1996, the only team outside the first division to win the competition was the Rochester Raging Rhinos in 1999 of the second division of the USL A-League, which beat the Colorado Rapids 2-0 in the final.
MLS Announcement:
MLS announced Dec. 15 that it would withdraw its teams from the country’s oldest tournament, which began in 1914, and replaced them with development teams from the third division of MLS Next Pro.
Five days later the Federation indicated that it would consider the MLS decision as a request that it would reject.
MLS said it will field 11 third division teams: Austin, Carolina, Chattanooga, Chicago, Colorado, Crown Legacy, Minnesota, LA Galaxy, New York City, New York Red Bulls and Portland.
The second division known as the United Soccer League Championship entered with its 24 teams.
Source: AFP
