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Remember the 2013 US Open Cup? Sure you do. If you don't, let's go back in time for a moment, shall we? As Champions of America, it was only fair that we give as many teams as possible to enter and attempt to dethrone us, but if you're going to come at the Champions of America, you best not miss.
With the 2014 tournament, some changes have been made to this year's tournament. First, the number of teams in it has increased from 72 to 80, with the increase lying in the amateur teams. With this increase, there has been an additional round added to it that affects the MLS teams. Previous years had them in the third round, now MLS teams enter Round 4.
For the fun part: the MLS teams in "that round has the potential to hold a weekend date (June 10-18) for the first time in the Modern Professional Era due to the league’s break for the 2014 FIFA World Cup." The windows for the games from the MLS round forward are as follows:
Round 4 (June 10-18): 16 Third Round winners + 16 MLS clubs (16 games)
Round 5 (June 24-25): 16 Fourth Round winners (8 games)
Quarterfinals (July 8-9): 8 Fifth Round winners (4 games)
Semifinals (Aug. 12-13): 4 Quarterfinal winners (2 games)
Final (Sep. 30-Oct. 1): 2 Semifinals winners (1 game)
So, what it all mean for D.C.? Two things off the top of our head. First, round 4 will possibly find D.C. on the short foot when it comes to possibly missing Eddie Johnson (assuming Johnson even approaches consideration for starts in early USOC matches) for Round 4.
Second and more importantly, when D.C. reaches the semifinals as part of their inevitable quadruple, the August 12-13 date will not only make 7 matches in 28 days (from August 3-31), but there is still the matter of the 2014-15 CONCACAF Champions League group play to consider as well. One would hope those games start in late July as 2012-13 did, rather than this past year's, where three CCL group matches were played from August 6-29, depending on how a team's schedule played out.
Oh, and so everyone knows, GolTV has the TV rights to the Finals again (this is the last year of their contract), so when D.C. does reach the final again and on the off chance they are on the road for it, start planning on places to see it accordingly.