With its 3-2 win over El Paso Locomotive on Sunday afternoon at Torero Stadium, San Diego Loyal has started out the 2022 USL Championship season with four wins in its first five games and is tied for first place overall with 12 points alongside Colorado Springs.

The team, led by head coach and former USMNT star Landon Donovan, has the highest-scoring offense in the league with 10 goals and is coming off a season where it reached the playoffs for the first time in its three-year history.

On Wednesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m., they will travel to Canyon Crest Academy Stadium to take on Albion San Diego, which just played its first regular-season match as a member of the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) last Friday – falling in a close one on the road to Valley United FC 2-1. Both teams have high-caliber players who have not only competed in their current leagues but also have Major League Soccer (MLS) and international experience such as playing professionally in Europe.

“Albion has deep roots here in San Diego since 1981,” said Albion San Diego CEO and executive director Noah Gins. “We are proud and excited to be climbing the ladder and intend to build our professional team into one of the country’s greatest stories.”

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout competition in men’s American soccer. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States. The competition was first held during the 1913–1914 season as the National Challenge Cup, with Brooklyn Field Club winning a trophy donated by Thomas Dewar for the promotion of American soccer.

It was renamed and dedicated to North American Soccer League (NASL) and MLS executive Lamar Hunt by the United States Soccer Federation in 1999. The 107th and 108th editions planned to be held in 2020 and 2021 were to be contested by 100 clubs from the four professional leagues sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which are MLS, the United Soccer League’s Championship and League One divisions, and NISA, as well as amateur clubs in the earlier rounds of the tournament that qualify through their respective leagues.

“Should be a fun game for San Diego fans,” said San Diego Loyal president Ricardo Campos. “We are excited to play in the U.S. Open Cup as it’s a great competition that unfortunately we didn’t get to see the past two seasons.”

“This U.S. Open Cup game is early in our journey as a professional club and we know we will be tested very early with this matchup but are excited and will be ready,” Gins added.