Flashback 2002, 2013, 2016: All kinds of drama over the years

I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.
 
June 26
I've had the fortune to have a string of memorable soccer moments on this date over the years. June alone has brought my first in-person pro soccer game (2001, Columbus), Rice winning the NCAA baseball championship (2003, Omaha), my pro debut in minor league baseball (2005, Yakima), my first game as a sideline reporter (2012, Philadelphia), and my first US women's national team broadcast (2014, East Hartford), and an England-Germany shootout (2017, from studio).

But June 26 has had more than its share of drama, and here are three with indelible memories.

2002
As a college-credit-earning intern for the MetroStars, my first game sees me spotting for broadcast legend JP Dellacamera and sees Sports Illustrated cover boy Clint Mathis returning to MLS after the US run to the World Cup quarterfinals.

In the second half, Mathis went to the halfway line and tried to check into the game, only to be sent back to the bench by the officials. I was one of the first in the building to know why: His name had not been included on the original lineup sheet!

Here's how it happened.

2013
Maybe the best goal I've ever called, and it wasn't even the wildest part of the game. 

First, watch Darlington Nagbe's run through the FC Dallas defense in the US Open Cup:


I didn't get every aspect of the call right, but "dancing in the box ... just blew up one entire side of the Dallas defense ... that was something special!" felt right on the money.

Now what was I doing calling that game? It's a long story. Due to my wife's job, we spent one year living in Shreveport, Louisiana, which was no picnic in terms of free-lance work. But with budgets being what they are and the Open Cup important but not a huge priority, the Portland Timbers took the chance to bring on a "local" fill-in rather than travel their regular broadcast team.

So I drove the three hours to Frisco, Texas, and set up shop in a very familiar stadium (I have called FC Dallas television broadcasts off and on since 2012). I knew Portland fans would want to hear their call rather than the audio of the Dallas webstream, so I had fun doing a radio call but also explaining to those watching that there WERE fans there, they were just on the near side of the stadium under the roof.

At any rate, the game was wild, as you can tell if you watch the whole highlights, but the Nagbe goal was just a sudden burst of brilliance that took your breath away. And surely the offensive assertiveness and aggression fans have always wanted to see more of from Nagbe, despite his high level in the midfield.

Not only was the goal, the game, and the finish great, but we had one of the great post-game quotes of all-time. The communications staff brought a microphone down to relay Caleb Porter's thoughts after the game, and he dropped the line that his players "continue to show me they have big hearts and brass balls, because they know how to get it done when the game is on the line."

I mean, really, that's a hard night to top!

2016
Three years later, I called more Timbers drama, but this time I was a seriously neutral party.

Any ESPN assignment is special for me, even to this day after 8 years working for the company at various levels. To call an MLS Game of the Week at Providence Park, one of the best atmospheres anywhere, featuring my former club, the Houston Dynamo, was just over the top.


And the game delivered! Goals, energy, back-and-forth ... and a little bit of controversy at the end, when Joe Willis was whistled for a foul that allowed Diego Valeri to convert his second penalty kick of the game for a 3-2 Portland win.

I didn't think it was a penalty kick, but partner Brian Dunseth and I ran into an ebullient Portland owner Merritt Paulson afterward, and he (of course) had no doubt!

Nothing too fancy this June 26, but we can hope for more drama in future years.

One more night of Open Cup magic in Philadelphia

Somehow I didn't feel like I was at my best in Wednesday night's broadcast of the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, but partner Jill Loyden had a really strong night, we had fun, and I still felt like we got the big moments right. Like this one:


Philadelphia held on to win 1-0, and it was pretty cool to go down to the stadium club after the game and watch as Philadelphia fans and employees rooted for Sporting Kansas City in the other Open Cup semifinal. KC's 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake means that Philadelphia will host the Open Cup final on Sept. 30.

Less fun? Taking 90 minutes to get through a six-mile backup on the New Jersey Turnpike on my way home, arriving after 1 am. Such is Open Cup fever.

I can pretty much guarantee I won't be on the TV call of that championship game, but after calling all of Philadelphia's home Open Cup games in this year's tournament (plus their first two last year), I intend to be at PPL Park to see if they can lift the trophy!

Full highlights from Wednesday's game are below:

Calling Philadelphia Union vs. New York Cosmos Tuesday night

Tonight I'm working the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 game between the Philadelphia Union, from MLS, and the 21st-century edition of the New York Cosmos, from the second-tier North American Soccer League, a re-launch of the 1970s-era Cosmos. I'll have the call with Kristian Dyer, of BigAppleSoccer.com and Philadelphia Union pre-game and halftime show fame, at 7 p.m. ET on the Union's website.

Despite it being an MLS vs. NASL game, part of me considers the Cosmos favorites in this one. They're playing extremely well (19 goals for, 3 goals against in 11 games) this year, including a 3-0 demolition of the New York Red Bulls on June 14 that was more lopsided than even the score indicates. They have MLS-level talent at several positions and are really aggressive throughout the field. If they bring the same tenacity to Tuesday's game that they did against the Red Bulls, I like their chances.

That's because Philadelphia continues to struggle. Just 3-7-6 in league play, the Union needed a last-minute goal from Maurice Edu to force overtime against struggling third-tier team Harrisburg last week, and while they did rally to win, they have been anything but convincing. Their chances will significantly improve, in my view, if striker Conor Casey is healthy enough to play and if Frenchman Sebastien Le Toux gets the starting nod; he was at the heart of every significant Union chance against Harrisburg after coming off the bench.

I've really enjoyed meeting and hearing from both head coaches - New York-area soccer legend Giovanni Savarese, a former Venezuelan international for the Cosmos and Villanova grad and former MLS defender Jim Curtin for Philadelphia, where he is the interim manager. I've also got friendly faces on either side, having worked with Union midfielder Danny Cruz and Cosmos defender Hunter Freeman when I worked in Houston.

Whoever wins will host a quarterfinal on July 8, a game I plan to attend and hope to work no matter who hosts, and I'm excited to see this one tonight.

	Philadelphia	N.Y. Cosmos
Record	3-7-6	6-2-1
Place	8th/10 MLS East	2nd/NASL
Scoring	22-27 = -5	14-3 = +11
Leading scorer	Sebastien Le Toux 4 Conor Casey 4	Mads Stokkelien 3 (+2)
Assist leader	Cristian Maidana 6	Mads Stokkelien 3 (+1)
First season	2010	2013 fall
League Record	44-60-44	15-3-5
Open Cup history	5-2, 4-1 home	2-0, 0-0 away

It's no World Cup, but plenty of reasons to watch Philadelphia Union vs. Harrisburg City Islanders tonight

Philadelphia reached the Open Cup semifinals at PPL Park
back in 2012, beating Harrisburg 5-2 along the way.

Calling an American soccer game the day after the US national team’s dramatic 2-1 win over Ghana is intimidating. It’s not like any mid-season club game can top that type of drama, emotion, or significance.

Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to calling the Philadelphia Union game against the Harrisburg City Islanders tonight in U.S. Open Cup play (7:00 pm ET, Philadelphia Union YouTube channel). Here are a few of the storylines that make this one worth watching:

1. Motivation: The Open Cup often pits amped-up lower-division teams whose players have a point to prove against MLS teams for whom the game is more of a scheduling nuisance than a date to be circled. (Case in point: the New York Cosmos crushing the New York Red Bulls 3-0 on Saturday). But in this case, both teams will be highly motivated. It will be the first game for Philadelphia under interim manager Jim Curtin, which means players will be trying to prove that they deserve to either stay in the lineup or get a chance to break into it. Curtin has also stated that the Union will prioritize the Open Cup more than some other MLS teams. On the Harrisburg side, this is the biggest game on the schedule so far, and their players will bring maximum effort from the opening whistle. 
2. Connections: With an affiliation agreement in place, these teams work together 364 days per year, but on Tuesday, they will be looking for any advantage they can get. Philadelphia will not allow four players currently on loan to Harrisburg to play against the Union, depriving Harrisburg of three starters (target forward Pedro Ribeiro, wing Jimmy McLaughlin, and center back Richie Marquez). Harrisburg will rely on its knowledge of the Union, thanks in part to wing Morgan Langley and center midfielder Yann Ekra, who have both had brief stints with Philadelphia. Union defender Sheanon Williams began his pro career with Harrisburg in 2010 
3. Up against it: Harrisburg is seriously depleted. This is the City Islanders’ sixth of seven games in 21 days from May 31-June 20, and after seeing both Neil Shaffer and Clesio Bauque subbed out due to injury on Saturday against Pittsburgh, they have only 13 field players available for the 10 starting spots. Nevertheless, Harrisburg is 5-4 all-time in Open Cup games against MLS teams, so head coach Bill Becher and captain Jason Pelletier will be able to instill some belief in the players who are available. 
4. A new era: Curtin is a 34-year-old Villanova alumnus who highlighted his local roots when he was introduced as Philadelphia's interim manager last week. The passionate Union fans want to see a team that reflects their own intensity, and I have a feeling Curtin will be a good motivator. That still leaves questions such as, what formation will Curtin choose, which young players will get looks, and where will some of the more established players line up? The Jim Curtin Era begins tonight, and I’ll be there to get a first glimpse.

	Philadelphia	Harrisburg
Record	3-7-6	3-6-3
Place	8th/10 MLS East	11th/14 USL PRO
Scoring	22-27 = -5	14-20 = -6
Leading scorer	Sebastien Le Toux 4 Conor Casey 4	Morgan Langley 4 Clesio Bauque 3
Open Cup history	4-2, 3-1 home	14-7, 5-4 vs. MLS
Head-to-head	Open Cup: PHI leads 1-0 (2012) Friendly: PHI leads 2-1 (2011, 12, 13)

Two soccer broadcasts coming up next week

Storm brewing during Open Cup game between
Philadelphia and Rochester in 2012.

The eyes of the soccer world are on the World Cup in Brazil, and mine are as well. But soccer continues elsewhere, particularly in the United States, where the US Open Cup, USL PRO, and NWSL all continue playing. I’ve been fortunate enough to schedule two broadcasts so far during the World Cup, both coming next week.

First up, on Tuesday, I’ll be calling the online stream of the US Open Cup game between the Philadelphia Union and Harrisburg City Islanders. I love the Open Cup. I love the pressure the single-elimination Open Cup creates in each game, its potential for upsets, and (if I’m honest) its role as a niche competition overlooked by many. I lived in Philadelphia for almost a year in 2011-12 as my better half finished her studies, so I saw two games during the Union’s run to the Open Cup semifinals in 2012 (including their win over Rochester, pictured above), and I’m excited to be calling their home games in the tournament this year.

Tuesday's game will mean a little something extra to Philadelphia players because it will be the first game for interim manager Jim Curtin, and thus the first chance for players to prove they deserve playing time in the future. Harrisburg is off to a slow start and relies on four on-loan Union players during league play. That quartet will not be allowed to play on Tuesday, one reason Harrisburg is a decided underdog. Don’t write them off, though; the City Islanders have advanced in five of their nine all-time meetings against MLS clubs in the Open Cup.

My second broadcast next week, on Thursday, is exciting in a very different way. It will be my first chance to call a game for the women’s national team, the top-ranked team in the world, as they take on No. 4 France in the second of back-to-back friendly games. These teams’ recent competitive meetings (2011 Women’s World Cup semifinals, 2012 Olympics) were both highly entertaining (3-1 and 4-2 US wins), and France is one of the few teams that can hope to match the US in terms of skill, so this is as big a friendly as you could hope to call, and it will be streamed on USsoccer.com.

Watching tape (and by tape, I generally mean YouTube, although sketchy streams from France have also been used) on both France and the US has been a lot of fun. Both teams will bring some of the best players in the world, particularly on the attacking side of the ball, but we'll also get to see some newer faces at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., all hoping to make the squads for next year's Women's World Cup in Canada.

I took French in both high school and college and loved trying to read the daily sports newspaper L’Equipe when I have traveled in France, so determining the correct pronunciations for French players’ names has been a blast. It’s made for a busy few weeks of preparation, and it should pay off when I call both games next week!

What would a fixed U.S. Open Cup bracket look like? Check it out

The 101st edition of the U.S. Open Cup -- a single-elimination tournament open to all soccer teams in the United States -- was announced on Thursday by U.S. Soccer.

The tournament will feature 80 teams, the most in recent history, and be played over eight rounds, with Major League Soccer teams competing in rounds 4-8.

The pairings, however, are only announced two rounds ahead of time, so there's none of the fun speculation and bracket madness we enjoy with other tournaments. Imagine if U.S. Soccer released a bracket in April with all 80 teams. Imagine the pick'ems, the office pools, the bracket challenges!

There are a lot of factors to deal with, most notably long travel for under-funded teams and avoiding head-to-head games between teams and affiliate clubs. I put together a sample bracket, keeping things as even as possible between the bracket and simulating as best as I could a model that prioritizes reasonable travel for MOST matchups.

Here's what I came up with, via two extremely ugly screen captures:

Let me know what you think in the comments below! Would you like to see U.S. Soccer try this model in the future?

USOC lineups, Round 4

My last post – about the strength of MLS lineups in Round 3 of this year’s Open Cup – got a very good response, so I thought I’d revisit it after Round 4.

The benchmark of success from Round 3 was a group of players – starters AND substitutes used – which had played at least 42 percent of the team’s MLS minutes on the season. Teams at or higher than 42 percent had a .727 advancement percentage, while teams below that mark were 0-for-5.

TM	% MLS Mins.	Result
NY	66.8%	L
SEA	63.5%	W
SJ	60.1%	W
CHV	52.3%	W

There were four games between MLS and non-MLS teams this round, and we saw much stronger MLS lineups not only in these games, but throughout the round. On Tuesday, every MLS team exceeded the 42 percent mark, and those teams went 3-for-4 for a .750 advancement percentage, which feels like it should be relatively normal for such games.

Two of the teams cut it particularly close, with Chivas USA starting a lineup at exactly 42 percent (escalating to 52.3 with substitutes) and San Jose’s starters accounting for only 40.7 percent (60.1 percent with subs). Interestingly, both teams left their wins exceedingly late, winning on goals from Juan Pablo Angel in the 90th minute and Steven Lenhart in the 85th minute.

New York started the strongest lineup of the four teams (63.7 percent) but was still the only MLS side to lose, continuing the trend (can we call it a trend after only 12 games?) that numerical strength after that 42-percent threshold seems to have minimal impact on the result. The fact that the Red Bulls used only extra-time subs, one of whom has not played an MLS minute this year, may not have helped. Nor, of course, did a missed hand-ball call.

The other team to consider was the Seattle Sounders, who started a lineup at 53.4 percent, with the number rising to 63.5 after subs (all of whom were inserted after the game had been decided).

In the two all-MLS games, Philadelphia (59.8% starters, 62.5% total) edged D.C. United (57.5% starters, 66.5% total) in extra time, and Kansas City (70.5% starters, 71.1% total) took down Colorado (56.7% starters, 59.9% total). Not a whole lot to draw from there, especially with the impact injuries and absences had on lineup selection, but still a slight edge for the ‘stronger’ lineups.

Once again, I’m not trying to draw any major conclusions – I haven’t looked (and probably won’t look) at enough data for that – but it is interesting that, above that threshold of MLS minutes, the advancement percentage stayed consistent for a second consecutive round. We’ll get three more MLS vs. non-MLS games in the quarterfinals, so it’s worth keeping an eye on. Percentage of MLS minutes certainly seems to be a better predictor of results than home-field advantage, which has produced an exact 12-12 split in Rounds 3 and 4, or regular-season record.

Where's your varsity? Strong/weak USOC lineups

Philadelphia fans were treated to a relatively boring game;
other MLS fans were not so lucky.

MLS teams struggled in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup this week, with only eight of 16 teams advancing despite facing teams from lower division of American soccer. The most common assumption is that this occurs because MLS teams, to be blunt, don’t care about the tournament. In that vein, the most talked about man of this round of the tournament, Cal FC manager Eric Wynalda, proclaimed via Twitter: “the MLS teams that played a starting lineup- won. Those who didn't, lost.” This supports the common thinking: MLS teams don’t care about the tournament and use reserve-laden lineups with less experience, less talent, and less cohesion than the normal squad and less motivation than the opponent.

From there, I see two main reasons as to why MLS reserves struggle to beat minor-league starters:

1. MLS teams’ depth sometimes fails to match up with minor-league clubs because, if a club spends big on its starters, the remaining players may have been selected as much on dollar value as on talent.
2. More likely, the reserves are still more talented and often carry play, but they lack the decisive technical quality to take advantage of their dominance. You can see this in the number of games where MLS teams, even with reserves, post heavy shot and possession advantages against minor-league opposition but fail to advance.

Wynalda made his statement one night before his amateur club stunned the Portland Timbers – fielding a virtually full-strength lineup – on Wednesday night, but it still got me thinking. So I decided to take some data and see how accurate the statement was this year. My results are after the jump ...

Open Cup nostalgia: My first road trip

I love the U.S. Open Cup. Something about seeing teams from different leagues and different levels squaring off appeals to my brain. It’s one of the reasons I got into soccer in the first place: I thought club teams representing different countries in the UEFA Champions League was the coolest concept.

So I always look forward to U.S. Soccer's preliminary draw for the Open Cup, pitting teams I’ve never heard of against places I’ve never been, all vying to make it onto the main stage against professional and (eventually) MLS opposition. The tournament’s biggest lure is the chance for a rec team – such as ASC New Stars, who play in the same league I did, the Houston Football Association (albeit in a much higher division) – to face and, once in a blue moon, beat a professional team. Most amateur teams are from the more organized PDL and NPSL, in which many of the players are college players (and there are some future stars out there if you look back at old Open Cup scoring records), but the USASA qualifiers are the true Cinderellas.

I’m especially excited for this year’s tournament, because all 16 American-based MLS teams and all of the other professional teams are in the tournament. Qualifying games among MLS teams were usually an after-thought, while last year’s tournament seemed light on aspiring giant-killers without the NASL.

I’ll write about plenty of the matchups and whatever games I can attend in later posts, and those interested will of course want to check TheCup.US), but I want to provide a brief look at my most memorable Open Cup experience:

My first Open Cup game was in 2002, when I was a communications intern for the MetroStars. No New York /  New Jersey crap, just ‘MetroStars.’ As an intern with occasionally too much time on my hands, I had spent plenty of it researching the history of MLS teams playing against minor-league teams in the Open Cup. Most of my duties, however, involved press clippings, game notes, and game days in the press box. For away games, I was just another fan watching on TV. But when the MetroStars drew an away game against the A-League’s Hampton Roads Mariners in mid-July, my bosses sent me on the trip as the team’s sole communications representative. I was excited about the honor of flying solo and glad for a free trip, but looking back on it, the assignment kind of shows you what they thought of the tournament, doesn’t it?

We flew down to Virginia Beach on the day of the game, but I was later instructed to leave that out of an online report so that fans did not know just how casually we took the tournament. After arriving at the hotel, while the players napped, Octavio Zambrano’s technical staff asked me – somehow they knew I was adept at using the internet – for some help researching our opponent. Suffice it to say, professional scouting has rarely been part of my job description.

The game itself was hardly a classic, in retrospect. I wrote live text updates on good ‘ol MetroStars.com, less than 1,000 people showed up (most of them there to watch native son Steve Jolley), and Rodrigo Faria scored the only goal of the game in the 76th minute to give the MetroStars the win. I remember being impressed by the Mariners and thinking they deserved better than a shutout loss, but I sure was happy to leave with a win. It actually wasn’t a bad MetroStars lineup: Tim Howard, Mike Petke, Steve Jolley, Craig Ziadie, Andy Williams, Ross Paule, Brad Davis, and Mamadou Diallo all started. (Pretty sure I wrote this recap, which lives on at the great MetroFanatic.com.) For my take on the trip at the time - including Hampton Roads' bizarre goalkeeper situation - see the original version of this piece I wrote for the MetroStars website. It was certainly an interesting road debut for a freshman in college.

As a post-script, the MetroStars drew the next round of the Open Cup at home against Columbus and elected to play it as part of a doubleheader with the New York Power of the WUSA out on Long Island. Again, it shows you how seriously the Open Cup was taken back then. On the other hand, announced attendance was more than 8,000, so maybe they had the right idea. I can’t remember which game most fans came to see.

I later was part of several unforgettable Open Cup games while working for the Houston Dynamo – a penalty shootout loss and a revenge win at Charleston, the epic 2009 semifinal at Seattle – and I hope to see plenty more over the years. But the Open Cup will always take me back to my first professional road trip, Tim Howard giving me a nickname in the first 10 minutes of the bus ride to the hotel, and my attempts to get a coherent quote from Rodrigo Faria after the game. Good times.

2002: Open Cup road trip

I wrote this article as an intern in the MetroStars communications department in 2002.
 
The airport employee was confused: “Now wait, what’s the difference between the brown shirts and the red shirts? I couldn’t figure out who was who.”

Such is the fate of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — colorful, but not well known.

The MetroStars flew to Norfolk Tuesday for that night’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Third Round game in Virginia Beach against the Hampton Roads Mariners of the A-League. Hampton Roads is in last place in the A-League’s Southeast Division and has won just four games all year. The team almost folded earlier in the season and was without a healthy goalkeeper due to injuries and eligibility issues. Yet it was Hampton Roads that had the better of play in the first half and only a somewhat lucky Rodrigo Faria goal with 14 minutes remaining allowed the MetroStars to escape with the win before an announced crowd of 828. That’s right, eight hundred people showed up to watch their team play its best soccer of the year.

Such is the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup—surprising and intriguing, but not well followed.

Single elimination open tournaments have a rich history in soccer throughout the world, highlighted by England’s F.A. Cup, the second most prestigious title in the land. All clubs, professional and amateur, can compete in the tournament, making for a few rare occasions where a small-time team can knock off a big gun. Something about a one-game, winner-take-all atmosphere lifts the minnows to new heights and many a first division side has fallen at the hands of lower division teams.

The U.S. Open Cup, however, has not caught on in the United States. While the rest of the crowds in this week’s first round were impressive for an Open Cup match, with a sellout in Seattle and upwards of 4,000 attending most of the games, they still pale in comparison even to a weekend MLS game.

For minor league teams, however, they are a chance at the big time, and MLS teams almost always find the going tougher than expected.

The MetroStars were a quiet bunch arriving at Kean University on Tuesday morning. A 7:00 A.M. departure time took care of that. After riding to the airport, the players ducked their way into a cramped airplane for the short flight to Norfolk.

To set the record straight for the airport employee, the team polo shirts did signify a person’s role in the team by color--players were in tan, coaches and staff in bright red, head coach Octavio Zambrano in white, and one rookie P.R. representative in gray.

The players loosened up a bit after waking up from the flight, and Tim Howard took over the comedy routine while strolling through the airport terminal, making fun of everything from Big Mama’s walk to Brad Davis’ youth.

A charter bus was waiting to take the team to the hotel, where the players dispersed for the afternoon to catch up on sleep and hang out in the hotel. Steve Jolley, however, had family matters to attend to as a Virginia Beach native. With family comes responsibility, and Steve did his best, asking team travel manager Orlando Conguta for as many tickets as possible.

The coaches did not spend the entire time resting, however; assistant coach Merlin Villagomez was finding assistance to track down any kind of a scouting report on Hampton Roads and also checking on the midweek plans of Saturday’s league opponent, the New England Revolution.

At 3:30, four hours before gametime, the team assembled in the hotel restaurant for the pregame meal; then picked up their equipment from the bus and returned to their rooms before returning at 5:45 for the trip to the stadium.

The Virginia Beach Sportsplex was built primarily for soccer, with two-tiered stands close to the field on one sideline and a small grass hill on the far sideline. While the personnel and staff were as welcoming as could be, the field was another matter. There were a ton of bare patches on the field, making for conditions that weren’t exactly ideal, but that’s what the homefield advantage is for.

The Mariners may not have had the crowd advantage at home, but they played like the home team in the first half, enjoying more possession and generating more chances than their more-heralded opponents.

“The game was hard to play,” Faria said. “They had a lot of motivation to play against us, for sure, and the field was terrible — we didn’t play well in the first half.”

Former Kansas City Wizards striker Gary Glasgow was one of many thorns in the MetroStars’ side, teaming well with South African midfielder Jerome McCarthy. The pair teamed up for the best offensive move of the game, but Tim Howard made the save to keep the match scoreless into halftime.

The biggest Mariners star of the day was keeper Joe Larson, who wasn’t even supposed to be playing. Hampton Roads had been using Wizards backup Taly Goode to replace Larson, sidelined with a quad strain. Goode’s status with the Wizards, however, precluded him from competing in the same tournament with a different team. So the Mariners worked out a loan agreement for D.C. backup Mike McGinty, since United failed to qualify for the Open Cup. But McGinty’s paperwork wasn’t filled out on time, leaving Larson to play through the pain. Did he ever!

Larson made high-caliber saves on a Faria header, a Mike Petke header, and a Ross Paule chance in the box to keep the match scoreless in the second half. It looked like Larson had done it again in the 76th minute, but Faria got to his own rebound for the game’s only goal.

The MetroStars held on through a physical and at times frantic finish for the win.

The few fans that were there were certainly devoted, crowding the field after the game for autographs and words with their heroes. Any little gesture was appreciated, such as Williams tossing his shinguards to a fan on the way to the locker room. The locker room facilities were once again pretty good for an A-League side, but it took some asking to get reasonable amounts of soap for postgame showers.

The players knew that they hadn’t played their best, but a win is a win is a win, so they enjoyed their postgame meal and got to bed early, because they were to meet the bus at 4:45 the next morning to fly back to Newark.

“They played well today, they for sure had a lot of motivation to play against us,” Faria said. “But we have to move forward and be focused for Saturday now.”

The measure of a team is without a doubt the marathon of the league season, but there’s something to prove in one-game showdowns as well and perhaps in the years ahead the Open Cup will become an integral part of the American soccer scene.

Or maybe 4,000 fans will continue to be considered an excellent crowd for an Open Cup mtach.

Either way, the tournament will remain true to its roots as a place of color, surprise, and the rare occasion for an unheralded side to shock a giant.

The shock may only last 76 minutes, like it did for the MetroStars, or 86 minutes for the Wizards, but it may last a year, the way it will for the Chicago Fire. The A-League’s Milwaukee Rampage beat two-time champion Chicago 1-0 Wednesday night on a goal set up by John Wolyniec, who dressed last Saturday against the MetroStars as a member of that same Chicago Fire.

Chicago probably should’ve taken a page from Kansas City and called Wolyniec in for their match. Then again, maybe Milwaukee would’ve pulled it off anyway.

Such is the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup—anything can happen, and it usually does.