US Open Cup Third Round - Day 1

It was a bloody day for MLS in the third round of the US Open Cup as only two of the six teams in action came away with victories, and one needed penalties to do so.

Perhaps the biggest upset of the night came in Wilmington where the Hammerheads saw off the Chicago Fire 1-0 despite facing frantic pressure from the MLS side. Someone I know called it :).

Wilmington will travel to Rochester after the Rhinos pulled another upset after they took the defending MLS Champions Columbus to penalties and beat them. This isn't really a shock, the Rhinos tend to take the Open Cup very seriously having won it in 1999, the club's proudest moment.

Harrisburg joined their fellow USL Second Division team Wilmington in the fourth round after they beat New England 2-1 after extra time in a match played at New England's secondary home in New Britain, CT. It's an excellent result for Harrisburg as they will now face local rivals and holders DC United at United's secondary home in Maryland.

DC defeated Ocean City 2-0 to dash the hopes of the final PDL side in the cup at the SoccerPlex in Boyds, Maryland. The match was played in awful weather and the stadium had issues that messed with the broadcast of the match.

Somehow Kansas City needed penalties to beat the Minnesota Thunder at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The Thunder came back from 2-0 down to equalize in the 87th minute which forced extra time, where despite dominating play and scoring a third goal Kansas City couldn't prevent Melvin Tarley from making it 3-3 and forcing penalties. Kansas City saved two of them and advanced 4-2.

The biggest win of the match came in South Carolina where Charleston beat Chivas USA 3-1. Chivas have really turned into the whipping boys of the cup after they lost to Dallas Roma (a local league side) in 2006. Full credit has to go to the Battery though who are having an excellent season.

This is the part where some people would say "USL is better than MLS", but I won't. The USL teams do tend to take the cup much more seriously though and that tends to annoy me. MLS teams suffer from fixture congestion issues caused by executives grabbing money. The main excuse thrown up when an MLS team is felled by a USL team is that the MLS team fielded a reserve side, the problem is, so do Mexican teams in the SuperLiga.

Chicago Fire fans are upset tonight, and rightly so. While the Hammerheads are a decent team in their own rite, they're part-time. Chicago should beat them. Three years ago, Chicago would've taken this cup seriously, it was a mark of pride for the Fire fans to play and play well in the Open Cup, it was also a mark of pride for the likes of Peter Wilt. But for the new executives at Toyota Park the cup is a burden getting in the way of the contrived SuperLiga. It's shameful, and it insults the hardcore fans.

This is a night of celebration for some USL teams, especially Wilmington and Harrisburg, and they've earned it. The 2009 almanac won't care who played, only who won.

Tomorrow night sees the tie of the round, Portland vs. Seattle. It's an old rivalry as far as American soccer goes, and as heated as it gets in the US. But don't discount Austin v Houston, the Austin fans should turn out in force for that Texas derby.