What started as a team designed to provide quality training competition for top-level club boys teams has turned into a pretty competitive side in its own right. CASL Elite will make its debut in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup on Tuesday night, as the team based in Raleigh, N.C., hits the road to play […]
US Open Cup Qualifying
2010 Meet the USASA: Legends FC of North Texas
Legends FC are back in the US Open Cup for their third trip in the Professional Era. The club from North Texas, founded in 1992, have seen three recent players sign with Major League Soccer and they will take on FC Tampa Bay of the USSF 2nd Division in the first round.
Meet the USASA: Class of 2009
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.
2009 Meet The USASA: Dulles Sportsplex Aegean Hawks
Dulles Sportsplex Aegean Hawks manager Jonathan Knight brings his club, new sponsor and all, into the 2009 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with a better view of their situation than in 2007. “You can’t measure the power of that experience.” Knight says of their 2007 trip to Harrisburg, which ended in a 4-0 loss for Hawks.
“I think in 2007 there was an unstated belief, a naiveté that we would get to this level every year.” The Hawks missed out on the 2008 Cup with a 3-2 loss to New York Pancyprian Freedoms in the USASA Region I semifinals, but now that they are back and more prepared for their 2009 trip to nearby Rockville, Maryland to face Real Maryland FC.
2009 Meet The USASA: Lynch’s FC
The third trip to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup for Lynch’s FC will mark the end of an era for the club. While the club shows no signs of slowing down, they will be without general manager Robert Apunte, who is hanging up his clipboard after 11 years with the club. During that time, […]
2009 Meet the USASA: Emigrantes Das Ilhas
“Immigrants of the Islands” making their first US Open Cup appearance Translated into English from Portuguese, Emigrantes Das Ilhas means “Immigrants of the Islands”, but as manager/player Carlos Amado plainly states, it simply means “We’re from theCape Verde Islands.” The club was founded in 1987 and aside from two seasons with the Super N League, […]
2009 Meet the USASA: Bavarian SC
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.
2009 Meet the USASA: Sonoma County Sol
The Sol were close to becoming two time defending NPSL champions, but losses in the ’07 & ’08 playoffs prevented that. “We use the previous losses as fuel.” Ziemer says of his team motivation for the NPSL season. The Sol may very well be paving the road for their first NPSL title. They are 6-0-1 […]
2009 Meet The USASA: Arizona Sahuaros
You might be hard pressed to find a bigger soccer advocate in the state of Arizona than the manager of the Arizona Sahuaros, Petar Draksin. The Grand Canyon University coach doesn’t get paid to manage the Sahauros, a club that has existed continuously, in many forms, since 1989. He also “will never give up” in […]
2009 Meet the USASA: Atlanta FC
With only a few exceptions, expansion teams always take time to get off the ground. Atlanta FC of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) appears to be one of those exceptions. In only their second year of existance, they have punched their ticket to the 2009 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup and will face the USL First Division’s Charleston Battery in the First Round at Blackbaud Stadium on June 9.