2012 NPSL qualifying

The National Premier Soccer League qualifiers for the 2012 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup are nearly complete with one Western Conference team clinching a spot, while another put themselves one win away from the 99th edition of the tournament.

The Fullerton Rangers defeated San Diego Boca, 3-2, in their final qualifying match to punch their ticket to the US Open Cup. The club formerly known as the Santa Ana Winds before an off-season rebranding, will enter the tournament in the first round, which is scheduled to begin May 15. It was a single-elimination tournament for the Western Conference’s Northwest flight and Fullerton advanced to the final without allowing a goal. They defeated Santa Clarita Storm 5-0 on March 24 and three days later, edged FC Hasental 1-0 to reach the final against Boca.

On the north side of the conference, the Bay Area Ambassadors punched their ticket to the tournament with a win over the Sacramento Gold in a penalty kick shootout (VIDEO BELOW). It looked as though Bay Area was going to walk away winners in regulation with Brayan Walle scoring off a rebound in the 64th minute, but Sacramento’s Manolo Pina tied the game in the 82nd minute. There was no extra time played as the match was decided by penalty kicks. The shootout was knotted up at 4-4 when Bay Area goalkeeper Derek Leslie dove to his left, but was still able to get a foot on Mykell Bates’ shot down the middle to make the save. Mohamed Abalil would follow up with a goal on the next attempt to send the Ambassadors to an April 28 Open Cup play-in match that they will host against the winner of US Club Soccer’s qualifying tournament. The Ambassadors will be attempting to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 2010, when they lost an opening round match against the PDL’s Kitsap Pumas, 4-2.

Bay Area’s path to the play-in game started in the Southwest Flight’s round-robin competition. They blew a 3-1 lead in the final minutes to Sonoma County Sol to finish regulation 3-3. The referee mistakenly failed to call for penalty kicks to decide the outcome, but the Ambassadors made sure that error didn’t matter as they stomped the San Francisco Stompers by a score of 8-0 to put them into the final against Sacramento. Walle and Dylan Leslie each scored a pair of goals in the victory. The Gold cruised through their group, beating Real San Jose 2-0 and North Coast Tsunami 5-0.

There was some confusion following both teams earning their respective victories as to which team would enter the Open Cup directly, and which would participate in the play-in game against a US Club Soccer representative. The league website erroneously announced that Bay Area would get the Open Cup spot, but TheCup.us later confirmed that Fullerton have indeed qualified.

Five other NPSL clubs have already booked their place in the 2012 competition, as all of the other conferences decided to submit their teams based on 2011 results. Already qualified are last year’s NPSL champion Jacksonville United, Southeast Conference co-champion Georgia Revolution, Northeast-Atlantic Conference title holder Brooklyn Italians, and Midwest Conference winner Milwaukee Bavarians (the NPSL version of the Bavarian Soccer Club). Originally the league announced the Erie Admirals would represent the Northeast-Keystone Conference, but the club elected to withdraw from the Open Cup, allowing runner-up FC Sonic to replace them (as TheCup.us had originally reported).

This is just the second year NPSL teams have been given direct access to the Open Cup. Prior to last season, clubs had to get in through the USASA’s regional qualifying tournaments.