West Chester United SC and Vereinigung Erzgebirge (VE) are the sibling rivals of eastern Pennsylvanian soccer. Having just played each other six days prior in the Robert M. O’Neil Amateur Cup group stage, the two teams were ready to lock horns again in the Fourth Round of the 2025 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup qualifying tournament.
The all-important “Win & You’re In” round meant a lot to both sides. West Chester United SC was looking to qualify for the third year in a row and the sixth time as a club. Meanwhile, VE was looking to build on last year’s progress as the club competed in the Open Cup proper for the first time since 2002, but lost to the Charlotte Independence of the USL League One (Div. 3 pro).
Ultimately, the spoils belonged to West Chester United on Saturday night on their home field at Kildare’s Turf Field. They defeated a 10-man VE squad 2-1 to advance to the First Round of the 2025 US Open Cup.
The temperature boiled over early in the first half. Contact between VE player Christopher Baker and a West Chester defender caused tensions as Baker looked for a penalty. It was clear this game would be hard fought for both teams. In the 33rd minute, VE was forced to make a substitution for midfielder Alex Haji, who went down in pain after a serious challenge. In his absence VE’s game plan had to change.
West Chester would take the lead in the 38th minute after a contentious penalty. Kenneth Roby converted, and with the first blood drawn, the match got more intense.
VE pushed for a response over the next few minutes, hoping to level the match. Their hearts would break as Joshua Luchini intercepted a poor back pass to Jimi Leder near the halfway line. He ran down the pitch like a jewelry bandit with last night’s lotto winnings. VE goalkeeper Stephen Paul, did his best to put off Luchini, but there wasn’t much he could do as Luchini gave West Chester a 2-0 lead right before at halftime.
West Chester was 45 minutes away from glory, and VE had 45 minutes to rewrite the story thus far. VE would strike in the 56th minute. A corner kick to the far post was headed toward the goal but appeared to come off both the post and the goalkeeper. Derek Antonini bundled it home in the end. With more than a half-hour left to play, the fans in attendance seemed to be on their way to being treated to a dramatic finish.
VE’s chances of completing the comeback took a significant blow when they went down to 10 men in the 73rd minute. In a match that featured so many personalities that knew each other so well, it was unsurprising that there was a lot of talk going back and forth between players of both sides and the referee to both sets of players. Kevin Smolyn was sent off for dissent against the center referee, and a challenging task became even more difficult for VE.
In the last 15 minutes, it was all about making the most of every opportunity on the ball while working tirelessly to ensure their deficit was only one goal. In the best defensive play of the match, VE had a triple save between the goalkeeper and the defenders. Considering the context of the match and what winning would mean, it was clear players wanted to leave it all out on the pitch.
In the end, West Chester was victorious. They move on to the first round of the US Open Cup which will take place next spring. Both managers had different perspectives. West Chester’s Blaise Santangelo focused on his team’s performance but suggested they could close out games and possess the ball better before round one.
“We just trained to play faster,” said Santangelo. “You know, if you get linked up with them , they are smart. They know how to grind on you, and they are good at countering. We just wanted to play on their side of the field with possession. I think we did that for parts of the game, but not all of it.”
Meanwhile, VE’s head coach Rob Oldfield lamented the injury substituion as well as the mistakes his club made during the match.
“The Haji sub really limited us. You never want to have to make a sub that early. He’s been playing so well. I thought the back line was pretty good. Jimi made one mistake. If you take away that and the PK, it wasn’t so bad.”