While the Hudson River Derby returns next week in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, Saturday will see two more New York-area teams battle in a cup competition.
Brooklyn FC visits the New York Cosmos at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, for the first-ever meeting between the USL sides, kicking off at 2:00 pm ET on Saturday in the 2026 Prinx Tires USL Cup, with the match streaming on ESPN+ (or YouTube, internationally).
The game marks the start of the group stage of the tournament while also giving both struggling expansion teams a chance to play a highly meaningful game. Both teams are coming off rocky starts to 2026 and are only just beginning to right their ships.
For Brooklyn, they'll be playing against a big brother of sorts. The team that used to call their stadium in Coney Island home, where murals of the 2010s SoccerWarz still remain. For the Cosmos, they'll be trying to continue establishing what exactly they are. Are they a legendary American soccer brand trying to return to glory, or a shell of a brand that isn’t consistent and is mid-table in Division III of the US Soccer pyramid?
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Explaining the Prinx Tires USL Cup
The first question you might be asking: What is a Prinx Tire? The second question is probably: What is the USL Cup?
Well, let's start with that second one.
The USL Cup is the annual in-season soccer competition featuring only professional teams from within the United Soccer League system. That means no Major League Soccer or MLS Next Pro, just second-division USL Championship and third-division USL League One. Starting in April, teams from the two USL men’s leagues are split into geographical groups. The teams play two teams in their group at home, and two others away, meaning not every team in a group plays one another.
The seven group winners, along with the second-place team with the highest point total, will move to a single-elimination knockout tournament to crown a Cup winner. The Quarterfinals will be held on Wednesday, August 13, followed by the Semifinals on Wednesday, September 9, before the final on the weekend of October 2-4.
This year marks the third edition of the tournament. The inaugural competition only featured USL League One teams and was won by Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC in 2024. The following year, the Championship joined, and the tournament ended with Hartford Athletic beating Sacramento Republic FC, 1-0, to win their first title as a team.
Unlike with the US Open Cup, the USL found a title sponsor for their tournament. The first two editions were officially known as the USL Jägermeister Cup. Now in 2026, Chinese company Prinx Tires has paid the bill for the first edition of the Prinx Tires USL Cup.
Cosmos and Brooklyn, so far
As expansion teams in their respective leagues, 2026 is the first appearance for both Brooklyn and the Cosmos in the USL Cup. Saturday also marks the first time the two teams will play one another.
The two teams are part of the Northeast Group 5 alongside four other teams:
USL Cup — Group 5
- Brooklyn FC
- Hartford Athletic
- New York Cosmos
- Portland Hearts of Pine
- Rhode Island FC
- Westchester SC
Brooklyn has been rocky at best in its first season of professional men’s soccer in the second division USL Championship. After winning its first match on March 8 against Indy Eleven at Maimonides Park in Coney Island, the squad finished the month by losing its next four games. Three of those were shutout losses to Detroit City FC, Lexington SC, and Louisville City FC.
Head coach Marlon LeBlanc has seen a turnaround in April with one win, 3-0 over Charleston Battery, then a 1-1 draw last weekend against Sacramento Republic. That puts the team in 11th place in the 13-team USL Championship Eastern Conference with a 2W-1D-4L record and 7 points gained.
Brooklyn plays well when the field is small and when they can play former Philadelphia Union forward Markus Anderson. The Philadelphia native has scored in the team’s last two games. Of the four games where Brooklyn has a goal this season, Anderson is on the scoresheet in three of them.
John Morrissey said it best in his most recent USL Championship power rankings on Backheeled: When Markus Anderson has been on the pitch, Brooklyn has scored 1.2 goals per 90 minutes. Without him, that number craters to 0.4 goals per 90.
Whether it’s Jackson Lee or Kayne Rizvanovich (who has now left the club after being recalled from his loan by Minnesota United FC of MLS) in goal for Brooklyn, both have allowed five goals this season. The backline does not give either much comfort or wiggle room.
On the other side, the Cosmos aren’t doing much better in third division USL League One. At the time of this writing, the Paterson Cosmos are eighth in the 17-team table. With three losses to start the season, the third iteration of the club made it seem like head coach Davide Corti took on too big of a task. The idea of a younger, less star-focused Cosmos, a point made clear by owners Erik Stover and Giuseppe Rossi, may have been a poor choice for getting wins.
But a change at goalkeeper played a big part. Former New York Red Bulls II keeper Derrek Chan helped lead the Cosmos to their first win and a clean sheet over Fort Wayne FC on March 28. He followed that with a second win on April 3 against Charlotte Independence, 3-2, where midfielder Ajmeer Spengler got the extremely rare “all penalty kick” hat-trick variant.
However, with Chan now hurt, it’s back to Tristan Stephani in goal. His fourth game between the posts last weekend saw errors and wind lead to a disappointing 2-2 draw versus Forward Madison while New York was up a man at Hinchliffe Stadium.
It’s funny to watch 34-year-old Sebastián Guenzatti, a USL legend and proven talent, fall behind Spengler in goals scored so far this season. That said, the veteran is proving himself to be better without the ball. His presence in the box causes issues for defenses and leaves others to get goals. Including Spengler, who has two when he isn’t scoring PKs against Charlotte.
Against Madison, the Madison back line always seemed keenly aware of Guenzatti as they bunkered while down a man. Long balls were constantly going in his direction, and to his credit, he either came down or redirected passes a majority of the time.
In essence, this is a game between two teams with one guy who scores a majority of their goals each. This doesn’t feel like a game between a second and third division team. It feels like a game between two new teams with green rosters and struggles aplenty.
If anything, Cosmos might be the more complete of the two, but that isn’t saying much.
Remaining USL Cup Schedule for BKFC, NY Cosmos
- May 15 - Westchester SC (USL1) vs New York Cosmos - Mount Vernon, New York
- May 16 - Brooklyn FC vs Hartford Athletic (USLC) - Brooklyn, New York
- June 6 - New York Cosmos vs Hartford Athletic (USLC) - Paterson, New Jersey
- June 7 - Brooklyn FC vs Portland Hearts of Pine (USL1) - Brooklyn, New York
- July 11 - Portland Hearts of Pine (USL1) vs New York Cosmos - Portland, Maine
- July 11 - Rhode Island FC (USLC) vs Brooklyn FC - Pawtucket, Rhode Island
