Wizards in US Open Cup Proper

For the past two years, the Wizards have had to go through qualifying to get into the US Open Cup proper. In 2007 they lost out to Real Salt Lake in their qualifier, last year they defeated Colorado to move into the tournament. This year, the Wizards get an automatic pass into the US Open Cup proper since they were one of the top 6 teams in the league points standings last season. That's at least the way it's currently looking according to USOpenCup.com. Steven Goff broke the news yesterday that DC would be hosting FC Dallas in a qualifier. He also mentioned that they would play the winner of New York and San Jose if they won.

The qualifying is a bit off from what the assumption was back when Commissioner Garber gave his state of the league address. When he said that "All U.S.-based MLS teams will participate in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup," the assumption was that all the teams would be in the US Open Cup proper instead of doing qualifiers. So was that a cleaver misspeak by Garber or did MLS change their minds?