C.D. Faialense Qualifies for 2nd Straight U.S. Open Cup

With this win, they become the only amateur team from New England to qualify and make their 2nd appearance in a row in the tournament proper.

Photo Courtesy of C.D. Faialense

C.D. Faialense closed out New England qualification for the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a dominant 5-2 win over Lowell, Massachusetts’ FC Lonestar GPSE in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the 2026 tournament. With this win, Faialense became the only amateur team from New England to qualify and will make its 2nd appearance in a row in the tournament proper.

Before we take a look at the match, lets take a look at how each of these two top amateur sides made it to the Fourth and final “Win and You’re In” Round of the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

In their inaugural qualification campaign, FC Lonestar GPSE were greeted with a friendly bye into the Second Qualification Round, where they met the Bay State Soccer League’s FC Omens. In a hotly contested match, Lonestar showed resilience after going down early on, scoring in the 20th minute through Joshua Fichers. The deadlock would stand until the 104th minute where Luke Stavros Campbell would pounce on a goalkeeper/defender miscue to secure a 2-1 win after extra time.

Their Third Round match would be against another BSSL squad in Atletico Boston, formerly Southie FC. In another hotly contested match, the action would be left late.

Jonathan Oliveira would level the score at 1-1 in the 73rd, with Hassan Alamu finding a last-gasp equalizer in the 91st minute immediately off kickoff after going down a goal. After a scoreless extra time, Lonestar would triumph, winning 5-4 after going perfect on penalties and Atletico Boston failing to capitalize on their fifth. This result would send them into the final qualification round where they would host yet another BSSL foe in C.D. Faialense.

The away team faced a qualification process a bit less contentious meeting UPSL’s Project Football in the Second Qualification Round. After a dominant and showy performance demonstrating quality ball control and aggressive wing attacks through fullback Damian Attidore, C.D. Faialense strolled through with a 5-0 win with a hattrick from talisman target Martin Vician sandwiched between goals from Graham Brenner and Jonathan Klein.

Brockton United FC — a fellow team from Boston’s South Shore with deep roots from Cape Verde — would prove a much stronger foe in the Third Qualification Round. Fresh from two straight byes, Brockton United would prove tough to beat, showing a superior and aesthetically pleasing technical ability; quickly moving the ball side to side and overrunning the midfield.

C.D. Faialense persevered but frustration bubbled over from the physical nature of the game as both teams got into scuffles and arguments with the referees.

In the 116th minute of extra time after repeated dangerous attacks resulting in shots just inside their own six-yard box, Jonathan Klein proved triumphant over tired legs, sprinting the full length of the field to celebrate with his bench after scoring the game’s lone goal off a corner and sealing advancement for his side where they would face FC Lonestar GPSE.

The match started out slow at Lawrence High School on a cold Saturday evening in Lawrence, Massachusetts. C.D. Faialense’s target man Martin Vician began the first major action of the match, winning a 1v2 on the right sideline before passing it off to Nicholas Awada, who spun into space and fired a shot to the near post from 12 yards out. FC Lonestar’s goalkeeper Jacob Heihsel was alert and parried the ball away for a corner.

Faialense began to settle into the match, finding more of the possession and using a very high press with five or six men to regain the ball quickly. This ratcheded intensity was finally rewarded in the 16th minute with service from Damian Attidore, who slides in a cross that’s deflected to the penalty spot where Alessandro Negri slotted home to the bottom right corner to put C.D. Faialense in the driver’s seat.

Very shortly after, Vician ran onto a booted ball from his own defense, dribbled past one player and passed it through traffic, somehow finding its way into the net to add to the lead just 19 minutes in. This goal was his fourth of the tournament; a team high.

After a period where Lonestar got a bit more of a grip on the game, Faialense managed to wrestle control back, pouring more numbers into central midfield and generating turnovers once again. In the 36th minute, Gianluca Arlotti stepped aggressively to win a progressive pass around midfield, showing skill while sidestepping two players and threading a ball to his left wing where Yanis Lakhlifi was waiting in yards of space. Pinned back, he recycled possession to the top of the box to Max Krause and after two settling touches, he sent a grounder into the far corner to make it 3-0.

The lead didn’t last long, though, as Lonestar’s Dominique Panmo tried a similar deep kick from inside his own half, after an attempted clearance, Luke Stavros Campbell came to the rescue deflecting the ball into the net to bring FC Lonestar back within touching distance. This breathed life into Lonestar; where for a few short minutes they shone with confidence but it was short lived as after a speculative kick forward, Max Krause picked up the cleared ball, dribbled uncontested and sent a rocket into the top left corner from 25 yards out to restore his team’s three-goal lead.

After halftime, Jacob Heihsel was quickly called to service to stop a shot off a long ball over the top. He strongly grabbed it out of the air, preventing what looked to be a certain goal. More pressure from Lonestar saw Cody Granville fizz a dangerous bending trivela across the box, though it was cleared to safety.

Just a couple minutes later, though, Granville found himself taken out from behind by a sloppy slide tackle. Eddie Yepes was as cold as ice and slotted home a perfect penalty into the bottom left corner.

For a long while, C.D. Faialense regained control of the match, showing off superior positioning and technical ability. In between the occasional possession interruption, they worked the ball from side to side, looking for central runs — a strategy not often utilized in their previous qualifying games — as they’d shown a greater ability to work the ball up the wings. Consistent pressure is awarded in the 83rd with a fifth and final goal as Krause was again active, dribbling and slipping a ball across for a wide open Jonathan Klein, who put the ball far post just past Lonestar keeper Jacob Heihsel’s outstretched leg for his third goal in three games, and second game winner.

Eddie Yepes was taken down a couple minutes before the final whistle and was helped off the field by two players. C.D. Faialense’s Yanis Lakhlifi was shown yellow for his actions that caused Lonestar to play finish out the match with 10 men. After two final Lonestar corners back to back that couldn’t clear the first line of defense, the referee blew for full time, capping off an action-packed evening filled with goals.

C.D. Faialense will join five other New England based sides in the competition. Other first-round entries are Vermont Green (USL League Two), who qualified after winning the USL League Two Championship this past August and Portland Hearts of Pine (USL League One), who receive a bye to the first round as a professional team. Rhode Island FC (USL Championship), Hartford Athletic (USL Championship) and the New England Revolution (MLS) will join in later rounds.

C.D. Faialense and Head Coach Paul Correia will hope to upset whoever their matchup may be next March after a hard fought loss vs newcomers Portland Hearts of Pine in 2025. In the meanwhile, they’ll head back to their clubhouse in Cambridge to share a well deserved meal and pints of Sagres, as is tradition since their club’s 1971 founding.