I agree Mikey. They have to promote this tournament some more and hopefully when it does happen, there will be more success.
They were really able to keep the matchups local in the first round. The only one that even stands out is Jersey Shore Boca @ Michigan Bucks. Pretty darn good in the big scheme of things. (Looks like some SoCal to Seattle trips too once the USASA Region IV tourney is finally settled.) Second round is quite a bit uglier. Lots of ugly looking cross-country trips to Wilmington, Carolina, and Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando and Charlotte games don't look so great either. They did a good job of keeping most of the other matchups local, but I wonder if they'll be tempted to allow teams from the same league to play each other again next year. I guess they'll see how their bottom line looks a month or two from now. (Other than that, nothing can be done with the geography of the teams.) predictions for the 3rd round draw: Jersey/Michigan/Pittsburgh - Columbus (maybe Philly) Long Island/Sonic/Harrisburg - Philadelphia (maybe Red Bulls) ???/Kitsap/Wilmington - Portland ???/Portland/Carolina - Seattle Fresno/Satnislaus/Ft Lauderdale - San Jose KC/Real Colorado/Orlando - Rapids, RSL, or KC NYGreekA/Reading/Charleston - Red Bulls or New England (maybe Philly) Brooklyn/Portland/Rochester - Red Bulls or New England Tampa/Jacksonville/Orlando - Rapids or RSL Carolina/Richmond/AegeanHawks - DC Atlanta/Georgia/Mississippi - Chivas or LA New Stars/Laredo/San Antonio - Houston Dayton/Chicago/Croatian Eagles - Chicago, KC, or Columbus Minnesota/Des Moines/Milwaukee - KC or Chicago Charlotte/Rayados/El Paso - Dallas Ventura/Fullerton/LABlues - LA or Chivas
Just a slight confusion. It's not a guarantee Minnesota (If they advance) will have to play Chicago or Sporting, is it? Can't it be any MLS team?
I'm a little miffed that my Michigan Bucks can't get a home match in the second round, but the Chicago Fire PDL team could. Couldn't Michigan/Jersey been paired with Dayton, instead of Chicago/Croatia? I understand how it fits geographically (a trip from Chicago/Milwaukee to Pittsburgh seems a little long.) And, of course, the other big question: will there be any Snooki impersonators at the Michigan/Jersey match?
Random is as random does. (source: http://thecup.us/more-details-revealed-on-new-us-open-cup-hosting-process/ )
Someone needs to look into Cal FC. I heard the Barrera kid hasn't been cleared from Europe and isn't even cleared to play in the states until transfer window. Sounds like the same issue SD Flash had last year with a pro player. Or does wynalda have connections to get him cleared to play. He must be paying him good money!
With great retrospect, 1st round pairings Jersey to Michigan/ Brooklyn to Portland? (ok, so its Maine, not Oregon...still an 8-9 hour bus trip). How do these clubs fund these journeys? I'd think mostly out-of-pocket, players and or parents...
USSF provides the traveling team with about $8,000, but especially if you have to buy plane tickets on short notice, doesn't really cover the cost, but it's certainly better than nothing.
Give or take. They haven't announced the dates for the qualifying deadlines yet, but I'm sure it'll be somewhere in that neighborhood.
Well, they can't really announce them until (almost) all of the qualifiers are known, now can they? 2012 - May 1 2011 - June 1 2010 - June 2 2009 - May 27 2008 - May 28
Now that they determine the PDL spots based on the previous year's results (assuming they continue to do that for 2013), then they don't have to wait for that, so that's a plus. The tournament (again, assuming they continue that as well...) starts earlier, so they have to get qualifying done earlier, which is challenging sometimes.
You still have the NPSL and USASA qualifiers, though, right? Or do they just slot those regardless of which teams fill the slots?
USASA will definitely have qualifiers, but MOST of the NPSL last year followed the PDL's lead and just based their entries on the previous year's results. Which is smart because most teams depend on college players and most of them aren't available until mid-May, so qualifying in March/April is difficult. Not sure what the deal will be with US Club Soccer, they might have a little qualifying tournament again too.
Each "conference" in the NPSL apparently operates under their own set of rules (SEE: AL/NL baseball ... or more accurately state law vs. federal law) so if the teams in the Western Conference decide they want to have a qualifying tournament, they can just do that. There's no league control over that apparently. The league just says "you get to submit X number of teams ... figure it out"
Which, again, gives us scenarios where teams playing in the 2013 tournament aren't - in makeup, at least, in large part - necessarily the same teams that "qualified" for the tournament based on their performance in 2012.
Exactly. And while the overall benefit of compromising with MLS to get ALL the teams in the tournament (MLS wanted the tournament to start and end earlier) is much greater than having the first 4 PDL games have meaning (that was fun). Another way to look at it is this is a way for the 'rich' to get richer. So let's say you're the Michigan Bucks, who already do a great job of recruiting top notch college talent ... they win their division and qualify for the Open Cup for next year. So now, a team that is already successful by virtue of winning their division (and whatever playoff run they made), they now have "we are playing in the Open Cup next year" as a recruiting tool for next season. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing ... there are definitely pros and cons to this system, but it puts an even greater value on regular season success for the PDL (and the NPSL too if they continue to use the same system ... except for the Western Conference)