Knowles: What The Return Of The Open Cup Means
The Tampa Bay Rowdies played their first U. S. Open Cup match in nearly three years last week. In a 6-0 demolition of The Villages SC, mostly irregular starters got to show their quality and claim for this club a spot in in the third round.
The next level of competition will represent a significant jump up from the amateur USL League Two team, as the Rowdies have drawn Major League Soccer side Orlando City SC. It’ll take more than just a good performance to beat a club with their wages; but, with this game being one outside the usual league schedule, it can fairly be asked, “why should Rowdies fans care?”
Before jumping in with the current campaign, we are best served backing up and to get a little context. For anyone unaware of the history involved, the U. S. Open Cup has the distinction of being the oldest extant soccer tournament in America. The first champion was crowned all the way back in 1914 and, up until COVID-19, there had been a competition every year since. Teams from any tier league could take part. While American soccer clubs have come and gone over the years, the U. S. Open Cup remained – always there for them to compete in whether they were considered professional or amateur.
For American fans relatively new to soccer, a helpful corollary would be the March Madness tournament in college basketball. Teams from all leagues (in the NCAA’s case, conferences) can compete in a knockout tournament, only advancing based on their ability in each and every game. Most frequently won by the biggest names in college basketball, each year there are numerous upsets and Cinderella teams who seem to punch above their weight and stun all but possibly a few local diehards.
Win-or-go-home style competitions create this drama better than any other, and anyone worried about supposedly “boring” ties in soccer need not because of that format in the Open Cup. A winner must be named – and a loser must as well. Naturally, this heightens the tension when your local lower-division club comes up against a top tier team expected to win.
All of that brings us back to last week’s draw for the third round. After handling our previous amateur opponents, the Tampa Bay Rowdies now find themselves in the situation described right above this: second division versus first. Should we expect a similar fate to The Villages in their game against us? This humble podcaster says, “Not so fast!” There may be a trick or two down the hooped socks of the Rowdies players and coaching staff (all the coaches wear hooped socks, right?). We definitely have reason to believe there is some Magic left in this cup run.
Seventy-eight teams had entered the Open Cup by the second round. That included at least sixteen amateur sides, in addition to all those from the USL Championship, League One, NISA, and the two independent clubs in MLS Next Pro.
Only two amateur teams remain at this stage; but, that doesn’t mean there were no upsets. North Carolina Fusion U23 defeated former Rowdies-conference opponent Charlotte Independence, who self-relegated to the USL League One, while semi-pro FC Motown beat nominally-professional side Syracuse Pulse of NISA. Additionally, St. Louis City SC 2 of MLS Next Pro, a third division league, knocked out USL Championship side Indy Eleven. In one particularly wild result, USL League One’s brand new Northern Colorado Hailstorm bounced Colorado Springs Switchbacks, who currently lead the West in the USL Championship.
These seemingly irrelevant results point to something about the Open Cup, a truism known throughout the soccer world: on any given day, any team can win. Sure, if Havant & Waterlooville of the sixth tier National League South in England take on Liverpool of English Premier League fame, nine times out of ten they lose – and badly. However, that tenth result might just be the surprise of the season. After beating two professional teams to get there, Havant & Waterlooville took the lead twice over their giant opposition in 2008. Ultimately losing, they captured the imagination of viewers over the course of just one game, which is why I still remember them over a decade later.
One thing fans can say for certain is that this third round will contain upsets. Who will be responsible for them? Perhaps it’ll be a NISA club drawn against an MLS side. Maybe it could be an MLS Next Pro team coming up against perennial USL Championship powerhouse Louisville City. The aforementioned Northern Colorado Hailstorm have been drawn against MLS’s Real Salt Lake, surely the toughest team that club will have played in their short history.
I’m hoping for something different, of course. The Tampa Bay Rowdies have been a very successful team lately. Orlando City, by contrast, have not achieved the type of success that their coach is known for in MLS. The nasty reputation fans from the middle of the state have garnered here in the Bay Area likely won’t be helped much if we do beat them. But, the Rowdies play with a balanced formation and have several ways of breaking teams down. Possibly more importantly, we are known as a team for our ability to defend well and keep the opposition out of our net. We’ll need our defenders to do that to the best of their ability, as well as a healthy dose of luck, if we do want to come out on top against a team who were previously our closest league rivals – both physically and psychologically. To be a thorn in Orlando fans’ sides and become this year’s Cinderella team, we need to capture some of that Magic of the Cup. Then maybe, just maybe, it’ll carry us to the fourth round and beyond.
