| USL Cup | |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Other Titles: | USL Jägermeister Cup |
| Country: | United States |
| Dates: | – |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Winners: | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second: | Forward Madison FC |
| Semifinal1: | Charlotte Independence |
| Semifinal2: | Union Omaha |
| Matches: | 51 |
| Goals: | 140 |
| Attendance: | 113,834 |
| Top Goal Scorer: |  Bruno Rendón(9 goals) |
| Next Season: | 2025 |
The 2024 USL Cup was the first edition of the USL Cup (known as the USL Jägermeister Cup for sponsorship reasons). The competition is open to all clubs in USL League One.
The 2024 edition of the USL Cup was a professional soccer tournament held between teams in USL League One.[1] Richmond Kickers chairman Rob Ukrop stated after the announcement of the USL Cup that another league had been invited to participate, but declined the opportunity.[2]
The 2024 USL Cup ran concurrently with the 2024 USL League One season. The tournament began roughly two months into the league season and ended one month before the end of the league season and start of the league playoffs.
The schedule for 2024 USL Cup group stage games was announced simultaneously with the USL League One league schedule on December 14, 2023.[3]
The announcement of the USL Cup stated that the winning club would receive prize money, but did not specify the amount. In a November 2024 court case, Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC ownership claimed that the winners of the competition would receive $100,000 and the runners-up would receive $25,000, but that USL did not pay Northern Colorado the winners' prize money.[4]
All 12 clubs in USL League One entered the season's USL Cup into the group stage.
| Round | Entrants | Number of games | Date(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage (12 clubs) | 12 clubs from USL League One | 48 | – | |
| Semifinals (4 clubs) | Three group stage winners One wild card winner | 2 | ||
| Final (2 clubs) | 2 winners from semifinals | 1 |
The group stage was played from April 27 to September 1. Teams were divided into three regional groups of four teams: the West Group, the Central Group, and the East Group. Teams in each group played each other twice, once at home and once away. Each team also played two teams from other groups; one team at home and the other away.
If a team won in regulation, they received three points in the standings, while the loser received zero. If the game was tied at the end of regulation, a penalty kick shootout occurred; the winner received two points and the loser received one.
The top team in each group reached the knockout stage. Of the other nine teams, the team that scored the most goals also reached the knockout stage.
The ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows:[5]
| Color key: Home Away Win Shootout win Shootout loss Loss< | -- Postponed--> | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Matches | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8< | --Win : bgcolor=#DDFCDD | scoreSO win: bgcolor=#DDFCFF | scoreSO loss: bgcolor=#FFFFDD | scoreLoss: bgcolor=#FFDDDD | score--> |
| Central Valley Fuego FC (CV) | SPK | LEX | OMA | NCO | TRM | SPK | OMA | NCO | ||||
| 1–1 (4–2) | 2–2 (1–4) | 0–0 (1–4) | 3–4 | 1–1 (4–5) | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | |||||
| Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC (NCO) | OMA | KNX | CLT | CV | SPK | OMA | SPK | CV | ||||
| 2–2 (2–3) | 5–1 | 2–2 (4–2) | 4–3 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | |||||
| Spokane Velocity FC (SPK) | CV | OMA | GVL | OMA | NCO | CV | NCO | RIC | ||||
| 1–1 (2–4) | 3–2 | 0–0 (4–5) | 1–4 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 2–3 | |||||
| Union Omaha (OMA) | NCO | SPK | CV | SPK | CHA | NCO | CV | MAD | ||||
| 2–2 (3–2) | 2–3 | 0–0 (4–1) | 4–1 | 4–2 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 3–3 (4–5) | |||||
| Color key: Home Away Win Shootout win Shootout loss Loss< | -- Postponed--> | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Matches | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8< | --Win : bgcolor=#DDFCDD | scoreSO win: bgcolor=#DDFCFF | scoreSO loss: bgcolor=#FFFFDD | scoreLoss: bgcolor=#FFDDDD | score--> |
| Chattanooga Red Wolves SC (CHA) | KNX | RIC | LEX | MAD | OMA | KNX | MAD | LEX | ||||
| 0–1 | 1–0 | 3–4 | 0–1 | 2–4 | 1–1 (3–4) | 1–2 | 2–2 (10–9) | |||||
| Forward Madison FC (MAD) | LEX | CLT | KNX | CHT | KNX | LEX | CHT | OMA | ||||
| 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–3 (5–4) | |||||
| Lexington SC (LEX) | MAD | CV | CHA | KNX | GVL | MAD | KNX | CHA | ||||
| 1–0 | 2–2 (4–1) | 4–3 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 (5–3) | 2–2 (9–10) | |||||
| One Knoxville SC (KNX) | CHA | NCO | MAD | LEX | MAD | CHA | LEX | TRM | ||||
| 1–0 | 1–5 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 (4–3) | 0–0 (3–5) | 1–0 | |||||
| Color key: Home Away Win Shootout win Shootout loss Loss< | -- Postponed--> | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Matches | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8< | --Win : bgcolor=#DDFCDD | scoreSO win: bgcolor=#DDFCFF | scoreSO loss: bgcolor=#FFFFDD | scoreLoss: bgcolor=#FFDDDD | score--> |
| Charlotte Independence (CLT) | TRM | MAD | NCO | RIC | RIC | TRM | GVL | GVL | ||||
| 1–1 (5–4) | 1–2 | 2–2 (2–4) | 1–0 | 2–2 (4–5) | 1–1 (2–3) | 2–1 | 1–0 | |||||
| Greenville Triumph SC (GVL) | RIC | TRM | SPK | TRM | LEX | RIC | CLT | CLT | ||||
| 1–1 (3–5) | 3–2 | 0–0 (5–4) | 3–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | |||||
| Richmond Kickers (RIC) | GVL | CHA | TRM | CLT | CLT | GVL | TRM | SPK | ||||
| 1–1 (5–3) | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 (5–4) | 0–2 | 1–1 (6–5) | 3–2 | |||||
| South Georgia Tormenta FC (TRM) | CLT | GVL | RIC | GVL | CV | CLT | RIC | KNX | ||||
| 1–1 (4–5) | 2–3 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 1–1 (5–4) | 1–1 (3–2) | 1–1 (5–6) | 0–1 | |||||
The ranking of teams for the knockout stage wild card is determined as follows:
The winner of each group, as well as the team who scored the most goals in the competition that did not win their group, progressed to the knockout stage.
----
All statistics include both the group stage and knockout stage.[6] [7]
Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not counted towards players' goal counts or to match goal counts.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | By round | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|    | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Bruno Rendón | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2 |  Ethan Hoard | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 3 |  Steevan Dos Santos | Union Omaha | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 4 | Luis Álvarez | Charlotte Independence | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Christian Chaney | Forward Madison FC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 Pedro Dolabella | Union Omaha | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Luis Gil | Spokane Velocity FC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Lyam MacKinnon | Greenville Triumph SC | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Missael Rodríguez | Union Omaha | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| 10 |  Ates Diouf | Lexington SC | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Cameron Lancaster | Lexington SC | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Juan Carlos Obregón | Charlotte Independence | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
Goals allowed in penalty shoot-outs are not counted towards players' clean sheet totals.
| Rank | Player | Team | Shutouts | By stage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Garibay | One Knoxville SC | 4 | 4 | |
| 2 |  Amal Knight | Lexington SC | 3 | 3 | |
| Bernd Schipmann | Forward Madison FC | 3 | 0 | ||
| 4 |  Carlos Avilez | Central Valley Fuego FC | 2 | 2 | |
| Edward Delgado | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | 1 | 1 | ||
| Wallis Lapsley | Union Omaha | 2 | 0 | ||
| Austin Pack | Charlotte Independence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Player of the Round | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round | Position | Player | Club | Reason | ||
| 1 | FW | Missael Rodríguez | Union Omaha | 2 goals vs. Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | [8] | |
| 2 | MF | Bruno Rendón | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | 2 goals, 1 assist vs. One Knoxville SC | [9] | |
| 3 | FW |  Mayele Malango | Chattanooga Red Wolves SC | 2 goals, 1 assist vs. Lexington SC | [10] | |
| 4 | FW | Lyam MacKinnon | Greenville Triumph SC | 2 goals vs. South Georgia Tormenta FC | [11] | |
| 5 | FW |  Nil Vinyals | Richmond Kickers | 2 goals vs. Charlotte Independence | [12] | |
| 6 | FW | Shavon John-Brown | Central Valley Fuego FC | Game-winning goal vs. Spokane Velocity FC | [13] | |
| 7 | FW | Steevan Dos Santos | Union Omaha | Game-winning goal vs. Central Valley Fuego FC | [14] | |
| 8 | FW | Chandler O'Dwyer | Richmond Kickers | 2 goals vs. Spokane Velocity FC | [15] | |
| Goal of the Round | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round | Player | Club | Opponent | ||
| 1 | Pierre Reedy | Spokane Velocity FC | Central Valley Fuego FC | [16] | |
| 2 |  Haruki Yamazaki | Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC | One Knoxville SC | [17] | |
| 3 | Adrian Billhardt | Richmond Kickers | South Georgia Tormenta FC | [18] | |
| 4 |  Juan Galindrez | Forward Madison FC | Chattanooga Red Wolves SC | [19] | |
| 5 | Nil Vinyals | Richmond Kickers | Charlotte Independence | [20] | |
| 6 |  Pascal Corvino | Greenville Triumph SC | Richmond Kickers | [21] | |
| 7 | Devin Boyce | Forward Madison FC | Chattanooga Red Wolves SC | [22] | |
| 8 | Steevan Dos Santos | Union Omaha | Forward Madison FC | [23] | |
