The Third Qualifying Round of the 2027 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup wrapped up over Halloween weekend, with 64 amateur clubs cut down to 32 across Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. Thirty of the 32 ties were played on the field and two were settled by forfeit, with Inter City FC awarded a win over Charlotte County FC and Tennessee Tempo FC awarded a win over Columbus Astray. The 30 matches that were played produced 143 goals, or just under five per game, and four of them needed extra time, three of which went all the way to penalties.

The 32 survivors now move on to the Final Qualifying Round on November 21 and 22, where the 16 winners will earn a place in the Tournament Proper next spring and, with it, a likely shot at a professional opponent. With that being said, the more interesting story from this weekend may be less about any one result and more about who is left, and the shape of the remaining field appears to be tilting fairly clearly toward the fourth tier and, within that, toward one league in particular.

Tier 4 Tightens Its Grip

Each round leaves the field more tier 4

Each round of qualifying has left the field a little more top heavy. Tier 4 clubs made up 70% of the 128 teams in the Second Qualifying Round and 73% of the 64 in the Third, and after this weekend they account for 26 of the 32 teams still alive, or 81%. Tier 4 sides won 26 of their 47 matches this weekend, while clubs from tiers 5 through 7 won 6 of 17, which is roughly what you would expect as the gap in quality starts to show in the later rounds.

Interestingly, the lower tier sides that did advance mostly got there by drawing opponents from their own level. CD Faialense beat a fellow Bay State Soccer League side, Harpos FC beat a fellow Colorado Premier League side, and DC Monsters FC and JSC JASA both drew tier 5 or tier 6 opposition. Only two clubs actually beat a team from a higher tier, and both are covered in the upsets section below. In the nine matches between tiers, the higher tier side won seven, although three of those needed extra time or penalties, so the margin between levels may be thinner than the final tally suggests.

It is worth noting that a club's tier here is the highest league it played in during 2026, so a club that fields sides in both a tier 4 and a regional league is counted at tier 4.

UPSL Premier Leads the Way

UPSL Premier sides make up half of the 32 still alive

UPSL Premier had by far the biggest presence in the round and it showed in the results, with 16 of its 24 clubs moving on to make up exactly half of the remaining field. Admittedly, four of those ties were all-UPSL matchups that guaranteed the league a winner, but even outside of those the league went 12 and 4 against everyone else, including a forfeit win. Its two meetings with USL League Two ended in a split, with Harbor City FC winning at Shark Coast FC and Swarm FC beating Potros FC 3-1.

The rest of the national amateur leagues had a more mixed weekend. A few results by league stand out:

  • The League for Clubs went 5 of 8, including FORO SC's win at USL League Two's Denton Diablos and San Ramon FC's 6-0 win over the NPSL's Oakland Stompers.
  • The APSL went 3 of 8, but two of those wins came in all-APSL ties, leaving SC Vistula Garfield as its only winner against another league, while WC Predators went out on penalties to Philadelphia Lone Star FC.
  • USL League Two went 2 of 5, and one of those wins was guaranteed by Akron City FC and Steel City FC being drawn together.
  • The NPSL went 0 for 2 and was outscored 14-2, with Mint Hill FC losing 8-2 at SCU Heat and Oakland Stompers falling 6-0 at San Ramon FC.

It is also worth noting that a number of these clubs play in more than one league, so the counts above follow the league U.S. Soccer listed each club under for this round. Philadelphia Lone Star FC, for example, plays in USL League Two but entered through the UPSL, while FORO SC entered through The League for Clubs despite also playing in the UPSL and the APSL.

The Weekend's Upsets

DC Hyper pulled off the round's biggest upset

To rank the upsets, we used each club's US Soccer Directory Elo rating going into the match, with a small bump for the home side, to estimate how likely the eventual winner was to come out on top. By that measure the biggest surprise of the weekend was DC Hyper's 2-1 win at Virginia Dream FC. Virginia Dream came in as one of the four highest rated clubs in the entire round, and our ratings gave DC Hyper only about a 16% chance, which makes it a pretty notable result for a matchup between two UPSL Premier sides.

SC Vistula Garfield of the APSL was not far behind, winning 2-1 at New Jersey Alliance FC with roughly a 20% chance going in. Akron City FC's 3-1 win at Steel City FC was the biggest surprise among the League Two clubs, while ASC New Stars won 4-2 at Houston Lions to become the lowest tier club still alive in qualifying, coming out of the seventh tier Houston Football Association. Yinz United of the Maryland Super Soccer League also took down UPSL Premier side Bowleys Athletic 2-0, which on paper is the biggest jump in tiers of the weekend, although the ratings had it closer to a coin flip, likely in part because Bowleys also plays in the MSSL.

There were also a few near misses worth mentioning. Dreamers AFC, a seventh tier side, pushed Florida Badgers FC to extra time before falling 5-4, ATX United went out 7-6 on penalties at RGV Red Crowns SC, and Bavarian United FC came in as the slight favorite at Omaha Street FC before losing in a shootout of their own.

Looking Ahead to the Final Round

With 32 clubs left and 16 spots on the line, the Final Qualifying Round on November 21 and 22 should be the most competitive weekend of the qualifying campaign so far. UPSL Premier will likely be favored to send the most clubs through given how many it has left, but this weekend was a good reminder that ratings and tiers only go so far in a one-off cup tie. Whether it is ASC New Stars trying to carry the seventh tier into the spring or one of the bigger names trying to avoid a DC Hyper style surprise, there should be plenty worth watching, and we will be tracking every result as the field gets set for the Tournament Proper.

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