Houston Dynamo FC will host Rio Grande Valley FC from the USL Championship in the third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at PNC Stadium on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. CT. The matchup was determined in a draw in South Florida this morning, with results posted live on Twitter through the official Open Cup account, @opencup.
Houston Dynamo 365 Members will receive their seats for this match at no cost as a benefit of their Membership. Information regarding single-game ticket pricing and on-sale date, along with broadcast and/or streaming information, will also be announced in the near future as well.
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is a single-elimination tournament to determine the champion of American soccer. Teams from every level of soccer are included, from local amateur and semi-pro sides up to Major League Soccer. Founded in 1914, the Open Cup is the oldest national soccer competition in the United States and the second-oldest team championship in American sports. The 2022 tournament is the 107th edition of the competition.
The Dynamo captured the 2018 U.S. Open Cup, the club’s first title in the tournament, with a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Union on September 26, 2018, at BBVA Compass Stadium (now PNC Stadium). The Open Cup title was the third domestic championship in Dynamo history and first since the club’s back-to-back MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007.
Current Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura won the Open Cup three times as a player with Sporting Kansas City and the Los Angeles Galaxy, and goalkeeper coach Zach Thornton was a member of four Open Cup-winning sides with the Chicago Fire from 1998-2006. Assistant coach Jimmy Nielsen was a teammate of Nagamura’s on Sporting’s 2012 Open Cup champion squad. Darwin Cerén, Adam Lundkvist, Michael Nelson and Memo Rodriguez are four players from the team that won the title in 2018 on the current roster.
The head coach of the Dynamo during that 2018 championship run, Wilmer Cabrera, now serves as the head coach of RGV FC, and goalkeeper Tyler Deric and midfielder Juan David Cabezas were key players for the Dynamo that season.
The South Texas side earned a spot in the third round with a 2-1 victory on the road against North Carolina FC on April 6. The Toros finished fourth in the Mountain Division of the USL Championship last season and reached the conference semifinals.
