Because USL League One (tier 3) and USL Championship (tier 2) teams enter the US Open Cup in the second round, it's the first one where we can look at a result and reasonably call it an upset without too much information about the teams.
Keep in mind the cup is called the "open cup" because any team can qualify to compete in it, as long as they have enough players. This includes the Club de Lyon team from Florida, who were only able to bring 12 players to their match against reigning USLC champions San Antonio and still held out well into stoppage time before conceding a second goal, knocking them out. A similarly shockingly close match just finished between last year's Open Cup finalists Sacramento Republic and Crossfire Redmond, with Redmond conceding two goals and scoring one in stoppage time. Given the strength of the established, professional teams here, though neither is an upset, both of them should walk away proud at being able to manage a result that even some USLC teams might struggle to achieve.
There were no real upsets yesterday. Any USL team against a round one team won their match, and any USLC team against a USL1 team won theirs as well. The one game not matching either criteria was Flower City Union vs. Manhattan SC; Flower City Union was granted a bye into the second round, and were favored to win, and did so 3-1.
Today was a different story.
Sure, once again there were non-USL bye teams that one against a first round team -- Maryland Bobcats vs. Ocean City Nor'easters gave us a Bobcats win and Des Moines Menace suffered a loss against Chattanooga FC -- but throughout the games played there were several upsets. South Georgia Tormenta FC from USL1 beat USLC's Rio Grande Valley Toros, holding a consistent lead the entire game and only allowing the Toros to score once in second-half stoppage time. Union Omaha, again USL1, beat El Paso Locomotive, again USLC, 2-0, with both goals happening in the second half. More surprisingly, Tulsa Athletic, an NPSL team, beat USLC's FC Tulsa 1-0, and USL1's Northern Colorado Hailstorm won against the USLC's Colorado Spring Switchbacks with a confident 3-1 score.
The remaining games are tomorrow's match between Richmond Kickers (favored) and Cleveland SC, and next Tuesday's Forward Madison (favored) against Chicago House.
Tomorrow will also be the round 3 draw, which will be the first one to include MLS teams -- so even more exciting avenues for upsets! Look forward to seeing more of these lower league teams moving on, as I'm sure at least a few of them will manage to do so.