2009 Massachusetts State Cup Champions Emigrantes Das Ilhas booked their place in the USASA Region I Open Cup tournament next Spring by defeating Boston Olympiakos (2007 National Amateur Cup champions) 4-2 on penalty kicks on a rainy evening in East Boston. The build up to the game needed no extra incentives as the two teams had just met 48 hours earlier in a fiercely contested US Amateur Cup game in Brockton.
Almir Barbosa
2009 First Round: Western Mass Pioneers win in-state battle with Emigrantes Das Ilhas, 3-2
The Western Mass Pioneers yet again survived an extra time scare from a USASA club, this time a 3-2 win over Emigrantes Das Ilhas.
The Brockton, Mass. USASA club took a 1-0 lead when Zico Viego booted a 20-yard shot past Pioneers goalkeeper Matt Jones. The USL2- team knotted the score just before halftime, when Jay Willis scored in first half stoppage time.
2008 First Round: Harrisburg spoils Yakima’s cross country trip
The Harrisburg City Islanders wasted no time making sure the Yakima Reds wasted their cross-country trip, scoring in the first minute en route to a 5-1 drubbing of the PDL club. The Open Cup draw forced the Washington state-based PDL team to travel to City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. and the extra travel showed on the field as the City Islanders jumped on the Reds early.