2009 U.S. Open Cup


The 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 96th edition of the USSF's annual national soccer championship, running from June through early September.
The tournament proper features teams from the top five levels of the American Soccer Pyramid. These five levels, namely Major League Soccer, the United Soccer Leagues, and the United States Adult Soccer Association, each have their own separate qualification process to trim their ranks down to their final eight team delegations in the months leading up to the start of the tournament proper. The eight MLS clubs receive byes into the third round, while the remaining 32 teams play in the first two round with brackets influenced by geography.
Seattle Sounders FC defeated defending-champion D.C. United 2–1 in the final at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Both clubs had started in the MLS qualification tourney, and ended up playing 6 matches each.

Matchdays

Match pairings were announced on May 27.
DateRoundNotes
June 9First Round32 USL and USASA clubs enter
June 16[|Second Round]
June 30/July 1[|Third Round]8 MLS clubs enter
July 7Quarterfinals
July 21Semifinals
September 2Final

Teams

As in the previous tournament, forty teams qualified to the tournament. The qualifying process for MLS took the form of an eight-team play-off tournament. The top six finishers, regardless of conference, in 2008 were given six of the berths into the Third Round. The eight remaining U.S.-based clubs competed for the final two berths via a playoff.
Continuing the format of recent seasons, no qualification process was needed for USL-1 and USL-2 as each level has exactly eight U.S.-based clubs for the 2009 season. The PDL announced that four selected early season games will again double as qualifying matches, as they had in recent years. Each division received a berth, since there are eight divisions instead of the ten that existed in 2008. The qualifying process for the USASA took the form of four regional tournaments, with the two finalists in each region being awarded berths.
;Major League Soccer
;USL First Division
;USL Second Division
;USL PDL
;USASA
Second Round winners advance to play one of 8 clubs in 16-team knockout tournament

Home teams listed on top of bracket

Schedule

Note: Scorelines use the standard U.S. convention of placing the home team on the right-hand side of box scores.

First round

Second round

Third round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Goal scorers

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;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 goal '
;1 goal '