US Open Cup Preview: Republic to host El Farolito in the 3rd Round
Republic enters the US Open Cup as host against an amateur side
The Republic will officially host El Farolito in the third Round of the Open Cup, taking place April 15-16. Which of those two days the match will fall on has not yet been announced.
UPDATE: The match has now been scheduled for April 16th at 7PM.
How They Got Here:
Sacramento Republic
The Quails enter the Open Cup in Round 3, by virtue of not being one of the lowest eight teams in the USL Championship last season. Those teams had to enter in the first round and a few them have already been eliminated—Birmingham lost in the first round, while Monterey and Hartford lost in the second round. All three lost to lower division sides.
Republic also has the added advantage of automatically hosting this round; the top eight teams from the USL Championship last season automatically host the Third Round, while the final eight USL Championship clubs joining this round are automatically the visitor in their matchup.
El Farolito
The Burrito Boys come into the Round 3 as a bit of a Cinderella story. An amateur team owned and operated by a popular burrito chain in San Fransisco of the same name, El Farolito have a long history of US Open Cup success. Most famously, they won the US Open Cup in 1993—though this is before the inclusion of most professional sides in the Cup. More recently, the team advanced to the second round in 2023 before losing to the Oakland Roots of USL-C, and made it to the third round in 2024 by beating Timbers II and Central Valley Fuego before falling to the Roots again.
This year, El Farolito qualified for the tournament through the Open Division as an NPSL team. In the First Round, they beat Real Monarchs of MLS Next Pro 3-1 on the road, with the two winning goals coming very late in extra time to avoid PK’s. Then, in the second round, they traveled away to Monterey of USL-C where they staged a come-from-behind victory, scoring the winner in the 83rd minute. This marks the club’s first victory over a second division side.
The Match Up
This is a match that Republic will be the heavy favorite to win, even with some tired legs—Republic will play away in Orange County on the Saturday before this match and travel to Phoenix the following Saturday. El Farolito is a fantastic amateur side, but the gap between an amateur side and a USL-C squad in terms of talent should be massive.
However, this El Farolito squad did just beat a Monterey team that is second in the West in the Championship and has a record of 3-0-1. And, in both matches the Burrito Boys played in, they looked really good. They’re clearly a dangerous team as well, scoring five goals in the first two rounds of the tournament against professional sides.
To be fair to Monterey, they rested several key players after hosting Phoenix three days prior. But underestimating an amateur side is a a mistake the Quails simply cannot make if they want to advance deep in this tournament. We wrote more about Republic’s Open Cup chances earlier this year, and hosting an amatuer side in the third round certainly gives the Republic an easier route to the latter stages of the tournament.
What Comes Next?
The winner of this match will advance to the Round of 32, when the 16 MLS squads join the tournament. Any hosting priority from this round does not carry over, and the Open Cup will draw both the Round of 32 and the Round of 16 at the same time, to make a tournament bracket. The Round of 32 will be on May 6-7, and the Round of 16 is on May 20-21.