Last year, U.S. Soccer changed the way that the U.S. Open Cup bracket was created. The teams were separated into groups of four, based on their location, but in the effort of making the competition as level as possible, each group was required to have an equal number of professional and amateur clubs. The idea was well-intentioned, but when there wasn’t room in a particular team’s region, they were forced to be shipped out to another region, thus, forcing the team to embark on a considerable journey. This year, U.S. Soccer has done away with the rule that forces the number of pro and amateur clubs in each four-team group to be equal.

The prime examples from last year saw the Yakima Reds of the PDL making a cross country trip to Harrisburg, Pa. to play the City Islanders of the USL Second Division. Another massive trip saw Crystal Palace Baltimore of USL-2 going coast-to-coast to Los Angeles to take on the PDL’s Legends. U.S. Soccer tried to even out the playing field by equaling the number of amateur or professional clubs. What ended up happening is that some clubs were left out of their local group because including them would exceed the limit of two amateur or professional clubs per group.

With the new rules in place for the 2009 tournament, USOpenCup.com has decided to attempt to predict the groups for the 2009 US Open Cup that each set of four lower level teams will participate in, as well as the Major League Soccer club that will play the winner of that group in the Third Round. The groups have been picked based on region without concern for ratio of professional to amateur clubs, following the rules given by U.S. Soccer.

The actual draw will be revealed either today or Wednesday.