Groups and schedule set for inaugural Girls DA Cup

CHICAGO (Aug. 9, 2019) – The U.S. Soccer Development Academy has announced the schedule and groups for the Fall Regional Group Stage of the 2019-20 Girls DA Cup.

Every club that participates in the U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-18/19 age groups, 58 in total, will take part in the competition. Announced in April, the Girls DA Cup was created to provide additional meaningful competition, to drive player development. Adding this supplemental competition provides players and clubs the opportunity to play in an additional knockout competition during the season and increases the value of Academy participation.

Clubs have been placed into two flights based on past results and performance. Six groups of four teams each will compete in the red flight for seeding priority in the draw for the next stage of the tournament. All teams in the red flight are guaranteed advancement to that second stage – the 32-team Winter Cup. Seven groups of four teams and two groups of three teams will compete in the blue flight. The winners of each four-team blue flight group will advance to the Winter Cup, while the two three-team group winners will play a knockout playoff game for the final Winter Cup berth.

Clubs will contest their Fall groups at the U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18/19 ages over two weekends – a single fixture over Sept. 28-29 and a double fixture over Oct. 12-13. The full Fall Regional Stage schedule can be found on ussoccerda.com in the coming days.

Following the Fall Group Stage, the 32 advancing teams at each competing age group will be drawn into eight groups of four teams at the Winter Cup from Dec. 9-14. Teams that did not advance to the Winter Cup will play in three Showcase games that will impact the final DA Cup rankings, used to determine wild card berths for Girls’ DA Playoffs and DA Cup flights for next season.

The eight group winners from Winter Cup will advance to the Spring Cup from April 29 – May 4. There, they will contest a knockout-style bracket for the DA Cup championship. All other teams will play in brackets to determine the final DA Cup rankings. At the U-15, U-16 and U-17 age groups, the top 16 teams in the rankings not already qualified to the Playoffs will earn wild card berths. At the U-18/19 age group, the top eight teams not already qualified will earn wild card berths.