The 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup rolled into Kennesaw, Ga. Tuesday night with a quarterfinal match between Atlanta United FC and the visiting Indy Eleven.
Indy Eleven used a first-half Augustine Williams goal along with a second-half own goal to build an advantage that the late-pressing hosts just couldn’t equal. The result was the first Open Cup win over an MLS foe for the Indy Eleven and the first time the franchise has advanced into the Open Cup Semifinals.
The win marked just the second time in the tournament’s 109-year history that a team from the state of Indiana has reached the final four. They join the 1992 Indianapolis Inferno as the Hoosier state’s only semifinalist.
Indy Eleven will move on to play the winner of Wednesday’s match between FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City in the Semifinals. Indy will play that game on the road and will take place during the week of Aug. 27-28.
It was a night that played out just like the season fortunes of the two sides taking the pitch who seem to be moving in opposite directions.
Atlanta United currently just below the MLS playoff line in the middle of a mid-season reboot with numerous transfers out and an interim manager. This season of change found the hosts again out of rhythm and just not fluid in all phases of the game.
Indy Eleven currently sits in third place in their USL Championship campaign and have been very successful on the road with a stable and sturdy roster of proven USL performers. The commitment and energy was there whistle to whistle as they took full advantage of the opportunities that presented during the match.
The first part of the match was start-stop due to numerous fouls committed by both teams. The major difference is that the Atlanta fouls provided dangerous free kick opportunities in the Indy attacking third that helped the visitors control the tempo of the match and make opportunistic attacks probing at the Atlanta defense.
The breakthrough moment came in the 31st minute for Indy as Douglas Martinez made a surging run up the right flank driving a low ball across the penalty spot that Augustine Williams slotted under Josh Cohen in the Atlanta net for the 1-0 advantage. The team mobbed Williams at the corner flag just in front of the very vocal and very happy Indy supporters’ group.
Atlanta seemed to regroup at the half and came out very strong to open the second half but again the errant passes, mis-timed supporting runs, and movements off the ball just didn’t sync up for the hosts. As Atlanta began to substitute players and become more urgent and direct against the run of play Indy whipped a ball in from the right flank into the Atlanta box where it was defected in for an own goal in the 83rd minute.
Atlanta missed a sitter just seconds after the own goal blasting the loose ball in the box into the side netting leaving the United fans to wonder what could have been.
Atlanta’s Nic Firmino did clean up a loose ball in the Indy box to score a goal in second-half stoppage time. It was the first goal allowed by Indy Eleven in the 2024 US Open Cup, snapping a shutout streak of just under 360 minutes. But in the end it was just too little, too late as the Five Stripes went crashing out of the Open Cup at Fifth Third Bank Stadium at the hands of a USL Championship team for the second year in a row.
Indy Eleven Head Coach Sean McAuley praised his team after the match.
“We needed to come out and show a bit of confidence and if you come out in a negative mindset you can get drawn into just protecting,” said McAuley. “We wanted to come out with a really strong attitude towards getting to the goal. I wanted them to recognize we could hold our own in this environment and we knew Atlanta would come out strong in the second half.”
“I remember a lot of our players throwing their bodes in front of the ball, the goalkeeper coming an taking crosses at critical moments which clamed things down, and everybody, a lot of the players running so hard to keep what we had an us into the semifinal,” added McAuley.
With Indy Eleven’s win, it marks just the 15th time since MLS joined the tournament in 1996 that a lower division team has reached the Semifinals. They are the 10th different lower division club to reach the final four during that span.