Fire to play in 2025 U.S. Open Cup

The Chicago Fire’s first team is set to participate in the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup after a one-year hiatus, but the team will not participate in the Leagues Cup held between MLS and Liga MX teams under a revamped format for the competition.

The moves will likely be welcomed by diehard Fire fans, many of whom harbor fond memories of the team’s U.S. Open Cup winning campaigns, and who were initially skeptical of the Leagues Cup format.

Along with the CONCACAF Champions Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, to be held in the United States this summer, the rules ensure that every MLS team is in at least one national or continental cup competition, but not more than two.

New U.S. Open Cup format for 2025

This year’s format sees 24 of the 27 American-based MLS teams participating in the tournament in some capacity: 16 MLS first teams will participate as will eight teams from MLS Next Pro. Independent MLS Next Pro teams Carolina Core and Chattanooga FC will also see their teams participate, for a total of 10 Next Pro sides.

For the second year running, this format for the tournament is likely be a one-off, with changes likely both in the short term, given the Club World Cup happening in the United States this year and the men’s FIFA World Cup next summer, and in the long term as U.S. Soccer mulls deeper changes, including the possibility that collegiate teams may be invited in some capacity.

Sources have told MIR97 Media that the format is again a compromise, but on the face represents a more durable format than the one introduced last minute in 2024, when only eight American MLS first teams participated in the tournament, with the remainder, including the Fire, being asked to send their reserve teams from MLS Next Pro instead. The change was controversial, provoking widespread rebukes from a number of soccer commentators and journalists and protests from a number of organized Supporters Groups throughout the country.

Under revised rules, U.S.-based teams that have not qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup or Leagues Cup automatically qualify for the tournament, as do the highest-ranked teams who have qualified only for the Leagues Cup.

All participating MLS squads will enter the tournament in the Round of 32.

Leagues Cup format significantly reworked

In addition to the changes to the U.S. Open Cup participation, MLS released more details about the updated Leagues Cup format. While full tournament details were not released, the new criteria are for the top 18 MLS teams to face off against the 18 sides in Liga MX.

The criteria means that any team that makes the postseason qualify for the tournament. Under an 2025-specific exception, the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are participating in both the CONCACAF Champions Cup and the Canadian Championship, will not participate in the Leagues Cup. Instead, San Diego FC, who are set to begin their inaugural season in a few weeks, will take their spot. The move grants the team an opportunity to face a Mexican opponent in a real competition and will likely be appointment viewing on both sides of the border, particularly given that the team has made El Tri star Hirving “Chucky” Lozano the face of the franchise’s inaugural campaign.

In addition, under previously discussed moves, the monthlong pause of the regular season in late summer is no more, with games to be played midweek throughout the season instead, likely welcome news for the Fire whose hot streak in 2023 was paused by the Leagues Cup campaign and did not resume when the reason returned a month later. While the new format denies the team to face off against a Mexican club, the scheduling change does allow for the Fire to have more prime summertime matchdays played at Soldier Field.

Fire have a golden opportunity to be “first to five” clear

The new U.S. Open Cup format gives the Fire their most realistic chance at a major trophy in Gregg Berhalter’s first season as head coach and director of football.

The Fire have long cherished the Open Cup, having won the tournament four times – tied with the most of all MLS clubs – starting with 1998, when Frank Klopas’s 99th minute goal secured the domestic double for the team in their inaugural season. The team also won the tournament in 2000, 2003 and 2006, again completing a double alongside the Supporters Shield in 2003.

Since the Fire’s most recent U.S. Open Cup win, however, Sporting Kansas City and the Seattle Sounder have each also won the tournament four times.

Significantly, under the format announced today, the Seattle Sounders, who qualified for the Leagues Cup and CONCACAF Champions Cup alongside the Club World Cup, will be represented by Tacoma Defiance, their Next Pro affiliate, as will Sporting Kansas City, who qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup last year thanks, in a twist of irony, to their runner-up finish in last year’s Open Cup competition.

Additionally, in a change from last year’s format, LAFC will not be in the tournament to defend their title, sending their MLS Next Pro side in their place.

This means that the Fire are the only four-time winners in the tournament, and only seven of the participating MLS teams made the postseason last year, and league heavyweights like the Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati and Inter Miami are not participating in the tournament, giving the Fire a significantly easier path to a championship than they would have had in most years. (The only winner from outside the league in the MLS era is the 1999 Rochester Raging Rhinos, who defeated the Colorado Rapids to lift the trophy.)

While the to a championship will not be easy, and a number of teams from a significantly strengthened Austin FC to MLS cup finalists New York Red Bulls and others remain in the competition, the format announced today gives Berhalter’s squad a much clearer path to win a trophy in his first season in charge of the team.