\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSacramento Republic FC will face another underdog favorite at this year\u2019s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.The Republic are set to take on San Francisco-based El Farolito at Sacramento\u2019s Heart Health Park in the knockout tournament\u2019s first round on Wednesday, March 18. The match is one of 32 contests between professional and amateur teams for the first round of the nation\u2019s oldest ongoing soccer competition.Sacramento Republic plays for USL Championship, the second division on the U.S. soccer pyramid below Major League Soccer. El Farolito is a fourth-tier team that plays for National Premier Soccer League. The U.S. Open Cup’s magic comes from \u201ccupsets\u201d where lower division teams defy their ranking to beat higher division teams. Both the Republic and El Farolito are known for them. In 2022, Sacramento Republic became the first second-division side to reach the final since 2008 after beating three MLS teams on its historic quest. The Republic lost to Orlando City SC in the final. The club says its 23 tournament wins are the most by any team in the competition since 2014. El Farolito are known as the \u201cBurrito Boys\u201d because the team was founded by a San Francisco taqueria chain. They were the top finisher from the open division in 2023 and 2024.El Farolito\u2019s bragging rights also include having won the entire U.S. Open Cup tournament back in 1993 under the name Club Deportivo Mexico before the introduction of MLS clubs. That trophy is featured at the original El Farolito bar on Mission Street in San Francisco, USSoccer.com reported.Last year, the Republic defeated El Farolito 1-0 when the teams met in the third round of the tournament. Tickets for this year\u2019s rematch go on sale Thursday, Feb. 5.The 2026 U.S. Open Cup will feature 80 teams in all that are drawn from MLS, USL Championship, USL League One, MLS NEXT Pro and amateur leagues. The winning team scores $1 million and a place in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.Meanwhile, Sacramento\u2019s regular season kicks off on March 7 against FC Tulsa at home. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Sacramento Republic FC will face another underdog favorite at this year\u2019s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.<\/p>\n
The Republic are set to take on San Francisco-based El Farolito at Sacramento\u2019s Heart Health Park in the knockout tournament\u2019s first round on Wednesday, March 18. <\/p>\n
The match is one of 32 contests between professional and amateur teams for the first round of the nation\u2019s oldest ongoing soccer competition.<\/p>\n
Sacramento Republic plays for USL Championship, the second division on the U.S. soccer pyramid below Major League Soccer. El Farolito is a fourth-tier team that plays for National Premier Soccer League. <\/p>\n
The U.S. Open Cup’s magic comes from \u201ccupsets\u201d where lower division teams defy their ranking to beat higher division teams. Both the Republic and El Farolito are known for them. <\/p>\n
In 2022, Sacramento Republic became the first second-division side to reach the final since 2008 after beating three MLS teams on its historic quest. The Republic lost to Orlando City SC in the final. <\/p>\n
The club says its 23 tournament wins are the most by any team in the competition since 2014. <\/p>\n
El Farolito are known as the \u201cBurrito Boys\u201d because the team was founded by a San Francisco taqueria chain<\/a>. <\/p>\n They were the top finisher from the open division in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n El Farolito\u2019s bragging rights also include having won the entire U.S. Open Cup tournament back in 1993 under the name Club Deportivo Mexico before the introduction of MLS clubs. <\/p>\n That trophy is featured at the original El Farolito bar on Mission Street in San Francisco, USSoccer.com reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year, the Republic defeated El Farolito 1-0 when the teams met in the third round of the tournament. <\/p>\n Tickets for this year\u2019s rematch go on sale Thursday, Feb. 5.<\/p>\n The 2026 U.S. Open Cup will feature 80 teams in all that are drawn from MLS, USL Championship, USL League One, MLS NEXT Pro and amateur leagues. The winning team scores $1 million and a place in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sacramento\u2019s regular season kicks off on March 7 against FC Tulsa at home. <\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento Republic FC will face another underdog favorite at this year\u2019s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.The Republic are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[75016,1883,75014,12411,75018,75021,2959,75020,121,123,122,14618,75019,1083,75017,75015,16179,75023,75022,72],"class_list":["post-152019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-amateur-team","tag-club","tag-el-farolito","tag-first-round","tag-knockout-tournament","tag-low-division-team","tag-march","tag-mls-team","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-republic-fc","tag-san-francisco-taqueria-chain","tag-soccer","tag-u-s-open-cup","tag-us-open-cup","tag-usl-championship","tag-usl-league-one","tag-ussoccer","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}