Complete U.S. Open Cup Coverage
Every year, TheCup.us introduces all eight of the USASA clubs who qualify for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to American soccer fans everywhere.
The clubs profiled in this feature don’t often make headlines during the long qualifying process, but all of them have a goal once the tournament begins: to become this year’s Open Cup Cinderella story.
The Mid-Michigan Bucks have always been one of the lower division troublemakers of the US Open Cup, and this match against the New England Revolution at Foxboro Stadium helped build that reputation. Goalkeeper Eric Pogue was the early hero for the Bucks, saving a Shaker Asad penalty kick in the 7th minute to keep the score 0-0. The Bucks stayed with the Revolution for 90 minutes using a high-tempo style of play and eventually sending the sparse crowd of 1,857 Revolution fans home disappointed.
What is the attendance record for the First Round of the US Open Cup (Modern Era)? What is the most lopsided game? How far has a team advanced after starting in Round 1? We answers to those questions and more.
The Professional Era’s greatest First Round upset came in 2008 when Hollywood United, the USASA Region IV qualifier from California, traveled to PGE Park in Portland Ore. and knocked out the Portland Timbers 3-2. Hollywood United trailed twice during the match, but each time they trailed, Matt Taylor would convert a penalty kick to tie the game back up. With the score level at 2-2, Earl Alexander scored a 90th minute goal to send United to the Second Round and left Portland fans stunned. It was only the second time in the Professional Era that a USASA team has defeated a USL First Division team, and the first time that a USASA team had upset a USL-1 team on the road.
When it comes to Bavarian SC and the US Open Cup, it’s more of a case of catching up with the Milwaukee club rather than meeting the team.
Bavarian SC is making its sixth appearance in the tournament during the Professional Era, a record for amateur teams in that span. In those five previous trips, they’ve won three matches and advanced to the third round in 2003. And before that, the club advanced to the final in 1994 — the last year before professional teams joined the tournament — before falling to San Francisco’s Greek-Americans.
If seeing the underdogs prevail is your thing, then you went to sleep disappointed last night.
Of the fourteen matches first round U.S. Open Cup matches last night, only one was won by a team from the lower division, and even that wasn’t much of an upset.
The Chicago Fire of the Premier Development League moved on to the Second Round of the US Open Cup with a 3-1 win over USASA power Bavarian SC of Milwaukee.
The Fire PDL franchise kept a streak going as they have won their opening round game in each of their three tournament appearances (2004, 2005, 2009), all of them under a different name.
Connally Edozien celebrated his 29th birthday with a goal, then turned provider as the Carolina RailHawks of the USL First Division ousted the final USASA team in the competition, Milwaukee’s Bavarian SC.
The RailHawks dominated play throughout, limiting Bavarian to just a few scoring opportunities in a match delayed nearly an hour at the start because of lightning in the area. The amateur team stood strong until the final eight minutes of the first half, when the duo of Edozien and Anthony Maher put Carolina in charge.
Bavarian SC pulled off the upset of the First Round, knocking off the USL Second Division’s Cincinnati Kings 1-0 at Bavarian Soccer Park in Milwaukee, Wis. Bavarian becomes the first USASA team in the Professional Era (1995-present) to beat two professional teams in their club history. They knocked off the Reading Rage of the D3 Pro League (USL Second Division) in the Second Round of the 2003 tournament.
