One USL-1 Team Will be Playing in the US Open Cup Final

By: Laurie | July 9th, 2008

First thing about last night’s US Cup quarterfinals: I don’t think the USA Today writer who covered the Seattle-KC game is a footy fan. The headline last night (which I’m guessing will have been changed by the time you read this) said:

Seattle Sounders beat Kansas City Wizards 1-0

Um…no. I was there. That’s not how it went.

Things don’t get much better in the body of the text, either:

Chris Eylander made two saves in the penalty kick shootout and Zach Scott converted the game-winner in the seventh round, giving the Seattle Sounders a 1-0 victory Tuesday night over the Kansas City Wizards in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal game.
Seattle won the shootout, 6-5.

Well, at least they got the shootout part right. (I love the American mainstream media. No. Really.)

The end result of the game was a 0-0 draw after 120 minutes. And Seattle did win the penalty shootout, 6-5, so that part’s correct.

(Seattle advances!! Woohoo!!!!!!!)

/gloat

The game itself was about as close to an even match as you can get while still declaring a winner. It’s hard for me to believe that KC sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference in MLS. (Although let’s be honest here. How much difference is there really between top-of-the-West LA Galaxy at 21 points and bottom-of-the-East KC at 17?)

But I digress. In the four quarterfinal games tonight, two MLS teams and two USL-1 teams advance. The interesting part of this is that the two USL-1 teams will play each other in the semis, as will the two MLS teams, guaranteeing a final with one MLS and one USL team.

In tonight’s matches, three of the four games went to extra time, and two of those went to penalties. But the fouth game? Not even close.

Sadly, the only USL-2 side, Crystal Palace Baltimore, the Cinderella story of the tournament, went home after losing their penalty shootout 3-5 to the New England Revolution after tying 1-1 at the end of extra time. But Crystal Palace guys? Hold your heads up high. You made it to the shootout in the quarters. You guys done good.

In the only all-MLS matchup, DC United advaces after a 2-1 extra time win over the Chicago Fire. Chicago has to be seriously hurting over this, because they took the lead in the 36th minute on a Daniel Woolard goal, and they held that lead until the 77th minute when Francis Doe equalized. And then Bryan Namoff finished it off in the 107th with “a header from an impossible angle,” according to the Chicago Tribune, which also says that Chicago dominated most of the match, at least up until the goal.

But here’s the juicy part from that game: Double red. DC’s Marc Burch and Chicago’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco were both ejected.

The first extra period culminated with an ugly scene that led to the ejections of Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who knocked the ball out of United midfielder Clyde Simms’ hands during a stoppage in play, and United defender Marc Burch, who retaliated by knocking Blanco to the ground with his shoulder.

So no Burch against New England. Hope it was worth it, Marc.

The other non-Seattle game was the shock upset of the night, and it wasn’t even close. The Charleston Battery (USL-1) took out FC Dallas, 3-1. And Dallas didn’t even score their single consolation goal until the 4th minute of stoppage time. And worst of all, they weren’t really playing their reserves.

Ouch. (And congratulations, Charleston!)

In the semis, to be played August 12, we’ll be seeing Seattle vs. Charleston in Charleston and New England vs. DC in DC. And remember that this counts, especially for the USL teams, since there’s a guaranteed spot in the CONCACAF Champions League next year for the Cup winner.

Oh, and the fun part about the game in Seattle? In addition to a lot of Sounders jerseys and a few from KC , I saw the following jerseys: Pirlo, Crespo, Del Piero, Totti, Zidane, several Beckhams, plus some others I’m not remembering. Also generic Celtic, Marseille, ManU and Italy jerseys, plus a number of Mexican and Brazilian sides that I didn’t recognize on sight.

Because when you don’t have your own heritage, you can feel free to borrow someone else’s.

(Says the woman with the Zidane jersey.)

(Which she never wears out in public.)