Region II finals someone on the USL Discussions board posted the draw for the Region II finals First Round 4/25/04 Michigan v. Indiana Semifinals 5/9/04 Michigan/Indiana winner v. Wisconsin 5/9/04 Wisla v. Missouri Final, date TBD I also e-mailed a bunch of the states I don't have info on, and I already got a response from Texas North, They are setting the schedule tomorrow, three teams entered.
Re: Region II finals Nothing quite like hosting the tournament to get some teams to enter. As long as I've been following this (at least 5 years now), North Texas has never entered a team in it. Last North Texas team I know of that was involved was the Richardson Rockets... who lost in the final to Brooklyn Italians in '91.
I believe that they are now having round robin play at the regional level, I am pretty sure for Reg III at least. This removes the one and done factor which is a deterrent to teams that would have to travel a long (expensive) way. This would get increased particiapation.
It would... except if I have any memory at all (and sometimes I'm sure I don't) Region III has done round robin in the past. Check out chn's website, under Cup History. In 2001 they had a round robin. Looks like they didn't the past two years. Maybe it's a combination of having two teams per state allowed plus the round robin format.
Re: Region II finals (f.y.i.) Notes from Region II: Region II Policies http://www.usasa.com/National Cups/NC Regional Policies 2004 RII.pdf Regional Policies 1. The U.S. Lamar Hunt Men’s Open Cup competition will now allow two (2) regional champions in each region to play in the Open Cup. This means that we will conduct our Open Cup games as we always have (inter-state games) and the two semi-finalists will continue on to the Open Cup competitions. The two semi-finalists will play the final for the regional winner (going on to play for the Werner Fricker Cup) at the Regional Finals. IMPORTANT DATES TO KNOW Region II National Cups will be played June 18-20 in Milwaukee, WI National Cup Finals will be held Aug 6-8 in Orlando, FL MEN’S OPEN CUP NOTE: All State Winners must be declared no later than April 15th. We will then begin playing interstate competition (luck of the draw) so that our two regional finalists are determined by May 23rd.
Indiana qualifying is finished First Round April 3 Bloomington Cutters 4-1 Elkhart Bayer Semifinals April 10 Reggae Boys 3-1 Bloomington Cutters Lafayette Vera Cruz 3-2 FC Indiana Final April 11 Reggae Boys 6-2 Lafayette Vera Cruz Thanks to Shek Borkowski from FC Indiana for providing daily updates on the matches this weekend
Schedule for North Texas qualifying The games will be at RE Good #1 at 7:30pm on: Thursday, 4/22 (team 1 and team 2) Thursday, 4/29 (team 2 and team 3) Thursday, 5/6 (team 1 and team 3) Looks like they're doing it round robin style, so I'm assuming they're sending the top two teams. Otherwise I'm sure they would've done the usual knock-out tourney. They will draw the teams into their slots on Friday
Region II and IV info Got this info from Phillip Detmer of Tyneside United in Las Vegas: "The USASA has confirmed the state entries for the 2004 Men's Open Regional Cup Championships in Sacramento, California. The following states have entered in this years Cup Tournament: Nevada (1 team); Cal-South (2 teams); Cal-North (2 teams); Arizona (1 team); MPSL (2 teams). The format for the tournament will be two groups of four teams and play Friday afternoon (May 21). Everyone will have games on Saturday (May 22) morning and again in the afternoon. Sunday (May 23) will be the championships around mid-morning." Also, I got a hold ot Tiom Zaiss of Bavarian SC, he confirmed the Michigan and Missouri reps in Region II Region II Finals First Round 4/25/04 Chaldean Arsenal (Michigan) v. Reggae Boys (Indiana) Semifinals 4/25/04 Wisla (Illinois) v. Busch SC (Missouri) 5/9/04 Chaldean Arsenal/Reggae Boys winner v. Bavarians SC (Wisconsin) Final TBD
Did I miss a rule change this year? The California Gold-Utah Blitzz match ended 0-0, but they decided the game on penalties, which Cal won 3-1. Are they doing this for just the matches designated as qualifiers?
The Maryland site now has the full Region I draw. I know it's on the page, but wanted to add it here. Quarterfinal games are (supposedly) this Sunday. Northern United (New Hampshire) v. NY Greek American-Atlas (ENY) Boston Olympiakos (Massachusetts) v. Bridgeport Italians (Connecticut) LCC International (DC/Virginia) v. Sports Club Portugese (New Jersey) Allied SC (Maryland) v. Lighthouse (E. Pennsylvania)
It's improved a lot lately. It hadn't been updated in over two years. Now it has pretty extensive results for their State Open Cup, which featured over 150 teams, which is huge compared to what I've seen on some other sites. But I don't think it serves as a qualie for the LHUSOC. This begs a question I've had about the state level: Why don't the states, and then the regions, just make their national amateur tournament the qualifying for the Open Cup? Why have seperate tournaments? If a regional finailst doesn't want to go on and play a PDL team, then take a third place team. I'm pretty sure most USASA teams in SoCal think they can still beat the USMNT (even after Jeonju), let alone USL teams, so maybe they just don't get excited enough about having to spend more money and take off more time from their lives. If there was one catch-all tourney that served that function, ti could encurage more clubs into the state qualifications, which would make a lot of you Open Cup-ophiles completely lose it!
I did a double-take at that myself, until I noticed this in a Modesto Bee article a couple of days later: "The Gold played to a 1-1 draw with the Utah Blitzz on Saturday after two overtime periods. The Gold thought it had won Friday's game on penalty kicks after double overtime. But United Soccer League rules dictate that penalty kicks are only used to decide playoff games. So Friday's decision was ruled a tie." Apparently, the refs just screwed up.
Wisla is the first team to qualify for the 2004 Cup! They defeated Busch SC 2-1 after extra time to claim one of the Region II spotsChaldean Arsenal of Michigan, who defeated Indiana's Reggae Boys 2-0 yesterday, will face Bavatians SC on May 9 for the other Region II spot, and Wisla will then face the winner of that match for a spot in the USASA National finals. Only have one score from Region I so far, Allied SC of Maryland defeated Lighthouse SC 2-1.
More results from Region I LCC International 1-2 SC Portugues Greek American Atlas 5-2 Northern United (NH) Boston Olympiakos ?-? Bridgeport Italians the Maryland website says Olympiakos won on PK's Semifinals - May 9 Allied SC v. SC Portugues Greek American Atlas v. Boston Olympiakos winners qualify for the US Open Cup
I would once again like to give a huge THANK YOU to chn for keeping on the USASA teams/regions to keep us all updated. I know very well the time and energy it takes, and it's much appreciated from this end. I'm still mulling over whether to make the trip up to Dallas for the Region III tournament.
Thanks for the props Violet. You forgot to add frustration to time and energy! For every one e-mail asking for info that I get a reply back for, there are 15 more that go unanswered. Here is the schedule for the Region III finals http://www.ntxsoccer.org/Adult/regionals/finals_schedule.pdf Round robin format, 6 teams involved. There are two Open Cup matches scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the final to determine the Region III's USASA National represenative on Monday. http://www.ntxsoccer.org/Adult/regionals/region3nationalcupstournament2004.pdf The teams involved: DS United (Florida) Sunrise & OES (Florida) Depotivo Peru (South Texas) Reynados, Azzuri or Legends, 2 teams get in (North Texas) 1 team from Mississippi
I can't believe, with Dallas so close, that no-one from Oklahoma decided to go for it. And regarding the frustration, I *totally* understand. At least there are emails for a lot of these folks now. I did you're doing before there were any email contacts for any of these guys. So I know *exactly* what you're going through. That's the reason that I wanted to thank you again!
Richmond qualified as one of the A-League teams last night by beating Virginia Beach 2-0, winning the series 3-1 on aggregate.
Sioux Falls in the hole losing their first two qualifiers. Lost 3:4 to KC Brass & 0:2 to St. Louis Strikers. Looks like Differential might save them if they win the next two. PDL Central.
http://www.ussoccer.com/events/competitions.sps?iType=262&icustompageid=9091 Teams in: MLS (10 autobids): Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, D.C. United, Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, MetroStars, New England, San Jose A-League (3): Charleston, Minnesota (autobids), Richmond PSL (1): Wilmington (autobid) PDL (1): Cape Cod (autobid) USASA (1): Illinois S.A.C. Wisla
Three more USASA teams get in this weekend Region I Greek American Atlas v. Boston Olympiakos Allied SC v. SC Portugues Region II Chaldean Arsenal v. Bavarians SC
Region II Yes, here is the blurb on the Region II game: http://www.soccermidwest.us/NatlCups.htm The Chaldean Arsenal beat the (Indiana) Reggae Boyz 2-0, and the Arsenal will now host the next rounds of games against the (Wisconsin) Milwaukee Bavarians. That game is currently scheduled for May 9th at 1:00pm at Hurley Stadium in Berkley, MI. The Illinois S.A.C. Wisla beat the (Missouri) Busch SC team 2-1 in overtime and will now advance as one of our two semifinalist winners to become part of the USSF Lamar Hunt Open Cup.
PSL qualifying update Last night Charlotte became the fist PSL team to complete their four qualifying matches, defeating Northern Virginia 5-0. This gives them 9 points from their 4 games, and a tiebreaker goal differnce of +6*, which should see them clear into the final top 6 for qualifying. San Diego stands second, with a maximum 6 points from their 2 games. A draw with Utah on May 14 should assure them of a top 6 spot. The rest of the clubs are still jumbled up in the middle, but some of that should be cleared up tonight, with 4 matches kicking off. Northern Virginia is the only club eliminated, sittiong at the bottom of the table at 0-3. *-I'm assuming the USL is using the same tiebreakers as last season, which is a maximum 3 goals + or - counted towards goal difference and goals scored. Those gome after head-to-head record, and total wins. http://lhusoc.tripod.com
Not sure if you've gotten the score by now but it was 1-1, and then Olympiakos won 4-3 on penalties. Got the info from the Olympiakos website: http://www.geocities.com/boston_olympiakos/