It was a wildly entertaining 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Third Round match held Tuesday night in Charlotte. The host Charlotte Independence played to a 4-4 draw with the visiting Rhode Island FC over 120 minutes of soccer ebbs and flows before Independence goalkeeper Austin Pack provided the decisive moment to separate the sides and push the hosts into the Round of 32.
Just when it seemed like one team would create an advantage and begin to pull away something spectacular would happen and the game would be level again and right back where we started.
In the end, it was Charlotte who prevailed in the PK shootout by a score of 5-4. It was the Jacks’ second straight shootout win in the tournament and earned the club its first trip to the Fourth Round since their inaugural season in 2015.
The game started very brightly for the visitors from Rhode Island, a USL Championship expansion team making their first Open Cup appearance. They were trying to become the first Rhode Island team to win an Open Cup game since 1969. Rhode Island jumped out on the front foot and into the lead in the 11th minute as Conor McGlynn collected his own deflected shot and made little mistake on the second effort scorching the ball into the net for the early advantage. It was a cat-and-mouse game of the high Rhode Island FC backline tempting the Independence service to go up and over the top. The Independence then seemed to grow into the match looking to go over the Rhode Island FC backline and they earned a penalty kick off a trip in the box that JC Obregon Jr. slotted home in the 26th minute to level the score.
The game settled into a midfield duel at that point and then in the 35th minute the Independence again burnt the very high Rhode Island FC backline with a ball over the top that Tresor Mbuyu wove around the onrushing keeper and into the net for the 2-1 lead. The announced crowd of 3,865 erupted in approval and it looked like the hosts would carry this advantage into the half.
However, Nathan Messer of Rhode Island FC had other ideas as he found a loose ball and in an individual moment of brilliance tied the game squeezing in a long-range rocket from a tight angle in first-half stoppage time.
Exiting the halftime break knotted at 2-2 it was the visitors who came out the more aggressive and Clay Holstad ripped a swerving ball through the crowded Independence penalty box that had eyes for the far post and the Rhode Island FC 3-2 advantage.
After Rhode Island FC took most of the air out of the game with some slow deliberate possession, Charlotte’s Luis Alvarez, totally against the run of play, stole the ball off a Rhode Island FC defender before going on a surging run at the Rhode Island FC backline leveling the game 3-3 a low driven back-post shot.
Rhode Island FC almost won the game in the 90th minute with a quick burst of shots but Independence goalkeeper Austin Pack slammed the door shut with two point-blank saves to send the game to full time still deadlocked at 3-3.
Full time quickly turned into extra time and in the 95th minute the Independence looked to have won the match with another wild sequence in front of goal where Obregon Jr. found a way to put away his own rebound into a 4-3 lead.
Rhode Island FC’s Stephen Turnbull didn’t read the script and never quit on the match and in one of their final ventures forward in the 115th minute flipped the storyline one last time to tie the game at 4-4 and send the match to penalties.
Charlotte took an early advantage in the shootout but quickly gave that back with two shots skied high over the bar after four kickers.
Rhode Island FC was on the verge of advancing with their fifth kick but Austin Pack made another clutch save to send the shoot out to sudden death.
After two more rounds it was Charlotte clinging to a narrow 5-4 lead after Anton Sorenson buried his kick and Rhode Island FC needing to convert their seventh-round kick to stay alive in the Cup. As Rhode Island’s Gabriel Alves stepped up to the ball Austin Pack stayed big, stayed patient, and stayed focused parrying away the shot with a strong left hand to push the Independence into the Round of 32 in early May. After the kick, Pack just froze in his saving pose on the ground before being mobbed by his jubilant teammates.
“I am tremendously proud,” said Independence head coach Mike Jeffries. “It took a lot of character to go down twice in the game and find a way back. They showed the confidence to stay in the game and get it done. We talk a lot about the mentality needed to win, and the guys showed it tonight. Certainly credit to Austin (Pack). Not just the penalties, but he kept us in the game when we needed it.”
The Ocean State had waited over 25 years to have a team back in the US Open Cup and have to go back over 80 years to 1941 to find the last time a Rhode Island squad posted a victory in an Open Cup match. Despite the dramatic tie Tuesday night in Charlotte, ending this winless streak will have to wait another year for the Ocean State faithful.
Charlotte now looks ahead to the Round of 32 and must be dreaming of another deep run in the Cup like they posted in 2015 defeating MLS opponent New England Revolution en route to a Fifth-Round finish. Full highlights including each penalty kick are below.