New York City FC now knows the identity of their Round of 32 opponent in the 2025 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.
Pascal Jansen's team will travel to western Pennsylvania to face USL Championship side Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Highmark Stadium on Wednesday, May 7 at 7:00 pm Eastern time.
Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs New York City FC
Wednesday, May 7, 7 pm ET, Highmark Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA
This will be the first-ever competitive meeting between these two teams, and whoever prevails in the Round of 32 will move on to face the winner of Philadelphia Union vs. Indy Eleven, as all four of these teams were drawn together into the Open Cup's "Landon Donovan Group" for the next two rounds.
The pairings were announced during a live draw held today on Morning Footy, the CBS Sports morning talk show all about soccer which airs daily on the CBS Sports Golazo Network.
CBS Sports struck a deal with US Soccer in late March to broadcast Open Cup matches from the Third Round through to the Final. That means to watch New York City play this Round of 32 fixture, you'll have to turn to the CBS family of streaming services and networks, so be prepared to familiarize yourself with Paramount+ if you aren't already. This NYCFC-Riverhounds match streams on Paramount+ but will also be airing on cable channel CBS Sports Network.
Hudson River Blue Staff
New York City is one of 16 teams from MLS entering the Open Cup here in the Round of 32. It's a reversal from 2024 when NYCFC was one of 21 MLS squads to not participate in the Open Cup at all, with the club instead entering NYCFC II of MLS Next Pro in America's longest-running soccer tournament.
NYCFC II made it further in the 2024 tournament than any other Division III team and earned $25,000 for their efforts, but now the First Team is back in.
Any run to the trophy will have to start on the road. That's due to a rule change for 2025 which stipulated Division I MLS teams were "predetermined as home/away based on seeding and venue availability."
Just a reminder of the brand new draw procedure as we get closer to the Round of 32 draw on Thursday morning. 8 MLS teams will be seeded as home teams and the other 8 MLS teams will be unseeded as away teams in the R32 draw. Any team can host from Round of 16 to the Final. (1/3)
— US Open Cup News (@thecup.us) April 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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New York City was one of the eight lowest-seeded MLS teams entering the tournament in this round, along with the seven other MLS clubs also participating in this summer's Leagues Cup, which guaranteed this Round of 32 away day even before the draw.
If they do advance past Pittsburgh into the Round of 16, NYCFC will again be playing on the road, as they have the lowest hosting priority of the four teams in their Landon Donovan Group, according to the official Open Cup Round of 32 schedule release.
In its seven years of participation, New York City has never advanced beyond the Quarterfinals of the Open Cup, and if that's to change in 2025, it will have to start with a win over the Riverhounds in a few weeks.
Oliver Strand
