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The Third Qualifying Round of the 2026 US Open Cup continues this weekend, with eight regional amateur teams – including Maspeth’s Metropolitan Oval Academy, whose youth alumni list includes current NYCFC defender Justin Haak – two wins from a spot in next spring’s tournament, according to Hudson River Blue.
Games run Saturday and Sunday across New York and New Jersey. On Long Island, NY Renegades FC host Lansdowne Yonkers FC Saturday at 7:45 p.m. ET at the SUSA Orlin & Cohen Sports Complex in Central Islip – a rematch of last year’s Fourth Qualifying Round shootout that sent the Renegades to their first Open Cup, where they fell to Columbus Crew 2 in the First Round.
Sunday’s slate features three games: Oaklyn United FC hosts Vereinigung Erzgebirge in Glassboro, NJ; Bulldogs SC face SC Vistula Garfield in Tinton Falls; and, on Roosevelt Island, Zum Schneider FC 03 meets Metropolitan Oval Academy at Jack McManus Field.
The Met Oval Connection
Metropolitan Oval Academy is set for its first-ever Open Cup qualifying match after a bye and a forfeit victory carried it this far. The academy, formed in 1999, counts Haak among its alumni, tying a current NYCFC defender to this weekend’s amateur bracket. The historic Metropolitan Oval, a Queens venue, has hosted four Open Cup finals.
Met Oval’s senior team is fresh off winning The League for Clubs’ inaugural national championship this past summer, with Brooklyn native and UConn product Balthazar Saunders leading the club with six goals this season.
Familiar Faces, Familiar Drama
Lansdowne Yonkers arrives having already survived one controversy this qualifying cycle – a disputed goal against Doxa FCW that appeared to go in through a hole in the side netting. Doxa filed a protest that US Soccer ultimately denied. A separate officiating dispute also engulfed Seattle’s Sharktopus FC, whose match against Bellevue Athletic FC was ordered replayed after a conflict-of-interest concern involving the referee. Sharktopus won the replay 5-0 and now faces Ballard FC.
One team from the New York bracket and one from the New Jersey–Pennsylvania bracket will emerge with a First Round berth for next March, as detailed in Hudson River Blue’s coverage of the last Open Cup’s local First Round matches.
The post Met Oval Academy Begins Its First US Open Cup Qualifying Run appeared first on Hudson River Blue.
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