Real San Jose will host UPSL rival California Victory FC on September 23 in a US Open Qualifying match. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM at PAL Stadium. RSJ was granted the home match by virtue of a coin flip help by the US Open Cup officials in Chicago.

It will take more than a coin flip for RSJ to advance to the next round as Victory FC is a quality opponent. The Victory earned the top seed in the UPSL Northwest Conference for the spring 2017 season and we narrowly defeated in the league Final. RSJ has played the Victory three times and lost them all. The last on was in the 2017 Spring playoffs in Santa Rosa.

“This match has all the elements needed to be very exciting. It is a rematch of a playoff game against a Conference rival, in a national tournament,” said RSJ manager Nick Arellano.

Notes:

Open Division Local Qualifying – as this portion of the competition is called – will be conducted on a single-game, knockout basis. Match-ups are determined geographically to minimize travel time and expense, with random selection used when practicable to determine exact pairings. Home teams are determined by coin flip. The pairings for the second (Oct. 21-22) and third (Nov. 18-19) qualifying rounds will be determined and announced after each preceding round of games has taken place. The survivors after three qualifying rounds will advance to the first round of the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup next spring.