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USL Pro’s Orlando City, Charleston pull off huge upsets Tuesday in U.S. Open Cup third round

DomDwyer (Orlando City)

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

Last year, half of Major League Soccer’s 16 American clubs were bounced out of the U.S. Open Cup in the Third Round.

Barring an upset-heavy Wednesday night, more MLS clubs should survive in the tournament’s centennial edition—but the upset bug was buzzing all around the country on Tuesday.

MLS expansion hopefuls and runaway USL Pro leaders Orlando City were the story of the evening after cruising to a 3-1 home win over the Colorado Rapids. Sporting Kansas City loanee Dom Dwyer, who may face his parent club in the next round, recorded a brace for the home team after Colorado equalized early in the first half. The Rapids comeback bid was crushed early in the second half when goalkeeper Stewart Ceus received a straight red card for a hard foul.

Meanwhile, the Charleston Battery recorded a famous home win of their own, a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes. Charleston defender Colin Falvey headed home the eventual match-winner in the 73rd minute, and San Jose’s hopes of an equalizer fizzled out after Brad Ring received his second yellow card seconds later.

Elsewhere, Dan Kennedy was the hands-down man of the match for Chivas USA in their 2-1 win over the neighboring Los Angeles Blues. In addition to the goalkeeping that has kept Chivas afloat in several matches this season, Kennedy also netted the match-winning goal. The veteran stepped up to the spot in the second half and buried the shot, giving Chivas their first win in two months.

Here’s a closer look at all of Tuesday’s action from the third round of the U.S. Open Cup:

Orlando City (USL Pro) 3, Colorado Rapids (MLS) 1 (REPORT)

Philadelphia Union (MLS) 2, Ocean City Nor’Easters (PDL) 1 (REPORT)

Richmond Kickers (USL Pro) 0(2), D.C. United (MLS) 0(4) (REPORT)

Fort Lauderdale Strikers (NASL) 0, FC Dallas (MLS) 2 (REPORT)

Charleston Battery (USL Pro) 1, San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) 0 (REPORT)

Rochester Rhinos (USL Pro) 1, New England Revolution (MLS) 5 (REPORT)

Sporting Kansas City (MLS) 2, Des Moines Menace (PDL) 0 (REPORT)

Real Salt Lake (MLS) 3, Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL) 2 (After Extra Time) (REPORT)

Los Angeles Blues (USL Pro) 1, Chivas USA (MLS) 2 (REPORT)

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What did you take away from these results? Impressed with expansion hopeful Orlando City’s big home win over Colorado? Enjoy Dan Kennedy win the game for Chivas with his hands and his feet?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Tampa Rowdies just knocked out the Seattle Sounders, 1:0.
    The Bulgaian, Georgi Hristov with the game winning goal; he can’t stop scoring!
    Martens missed a late penalty for the Soundes.
    4,200 in attendance in St. Pete’s Al Lang Field.
    Don’t mess with the Tampa Rowdies!

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  2. I was at the Orlando City match last night and the Rapids got beat from minute 1. Orlando City dominated most stretches of the match and pretty much shut things down after the 70th minute. I heard that the Rapids put out loud of reserves but shame on them for not bringing in the a team.

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  3. I’m sure SJ was doing their best with an A/B line up to get a win, but doubt they’re too upset about missing having to play extra games as they try to salvage the season and make the playoffs. I wouldn’t doubt an early flame out in CCL either…can’t realistically expend a lot of energy going for extra accomplishments if you can’t win at home. Priority number one is making the MLS playoffs.

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  4. I’m hard pressed to see the Orlando result as an upset–that’s a good team, playing at home, in a game that is a much bigger deal to them than to their opponents. If anything, going 7 of 9 makes it a pretty good night for MLS.

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  5. I’m heading out to Red Bull Arena tonight to catch them against Reading. If nothing else, it’ll be great to see Ryan Meara back on the field, and maybe we’ll get to see Conor Lade after months of rotting on the bench…

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  6. Fort Lauderdale Strikers actually were the better team against FC Dallas in the first half with 3 excellent opportunities, then they ran out of gas in the 2nd half and were outplayed. Great game…impressed that the Strikers were able to hang with Dallas when Dallas was playing a lot of their A-Team including George John, Hedges, Perez, Hassli, etc.

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  7. I’m sensing something different in the atmosphere around the country with this edition of the USOC. There’s a different level of excitement buzzing around. I’m excited for tonight’s match at Red Bull Arena against Reading United. Let’s go boys! Hold the fort!

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    • Agreed. I think supporters of 2nd/3rd division clubs are recognizing that while they wait for MLS franchises, they can still play against MLS teams. The US Open Cup is such a wonderful tradition. I only wish that they could expand it to include college teams, too.

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      • College? Absolutely not.

        They: don’t play during the same period. Can’t win the money anyway. Don’t play by FIFA rules. Their season isn’t long enough. Probably not enough funding. Etc.

        USSF is taking the right steps: more coverage, more video feeds, more money. The problem our Open Cup has compared to others like the FA Cup, is that we’ve never had a consistent league for those 100 years. Nor have we largely had consistent teams. So there’s no real tradition.

        The feeling of pride will come with time. For now it’s seen as an inconvenience. You can’t create tradition. MLS learned that the hard way in the late 90s, early 2000s.

      • Agreed, they’d have to play on FIFA rules, but as to the money… I’m sure the schools would put it in the “scholarship fund.”

      • +1 on the “can’t create tradition” comment. All of the great tournaments (FA Cup, NCAA Basketball) take time to develop. Let the enthusiasm grow, and we”ll see a major increase in interest, etc.

  8. shouldn’t DC United be concerned that they couldn’t score on the Kickers for 120 minutes? There is something seriously wrong in DC.

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  9. 2 MLS squads lost last night, another survived a PK shootout and another survived in ET. Since the MLS teams just don’t (sadly) see the point of caring to win their country’s championship trophy until the QF’s (at the earliest), I expect to see more than 2 more go down tonight.

    With the Galaxy having played in LA last Sat., tonight in Carolina, and this Sat. in Foxboro, hopefully the Railhawks can help them concentrate on their MLS campaign (again).

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    • No need to bag on MLS. This is pretty standard around the world for cup games. Clubs use a mix of starters and reserves.

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      • Whenever someone says “because of the salary cap….”

        I feel like saying “because lack of support from soccer fans”
        There is a salary cap in the NBA and guys are making more than $20 million a year.

      • As the product improves, the general interest is likely to follow.

        The foundation for fans of the league and game has already been in place for years. It’s the fringe fans that MLS needs to capture and retain.

        Until we take the training wheels off or loosen them a bit, I really can’t blame them for not diving in head first to our league.

      • As TomG highlights as well, the reason comparing other leagues to ours is the restricted salaries and limited depth.

        NC Jeff is right, when the backups and true reserves actual get minutes, the MLS clubs are borderline giving up on the match, given the lack of quality.

      • You would still expect the back end of an MLS team to be better than lower division, the margins are just slimmer.

      • I don’t see how the upsets make MLS look bad?

        Because of the lack of depth in the MLS the upsets aren’t really that surprising. It’s much worse for top European clubs to loose in the early rounds of their league cups. The gap in quality is closer in the US.

        But I guess some people will just use any excuse to bag on the MLS.

      • I never said this makes MLS look bad. You’ve apparently responded to the wrong person.

    • Good way to rationalize it but its not good for any MLS club to get bounced in this round. Next round, ok, maybe due to stiffer competition but it appeared SJ played, almost, an A team. SJ will NOT advance out of the CCL group stage is they continue this form.

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