It's been their modus operandi for Crew 2 for a while now which I'm not a fan of since it takes away from the postgame high-five tradition. If they ever decided to actually promote that team again, at least it'd look halfway decent on TV. But it's always fun to have the sun behind you.
$1 in fees is my guess. Apparently it's now uncool or whatever to list the fees separately. I've seen this practice elsewhere.
Hopefully we will Knox them out of the tournament! Their match against DC United was very entertaining.
I got an email about US Open Cup parking. It'll be $6 or $7 in the garage and Laz lots immediately south of the stadium. (Insert comment about that one non-Laz lot being $25 or $30. It always seems much more expensive than it should be.)
THE CUP resumes tonight. Nothing super interesting on the books this evening from a matchup standpoint. Tomorrow night should be a lot more fun. Aside from the Crew, we get a Hudson River Derby, Chicago-St. Louis, and two USLC teams gunning for glory. I've always been a huge fan of Louisville and the Switchbacks! As a reminder, the final draw for the tournament is set for Thursday at 9:00 AM. Paging @Hamburgler03... there's still a chance for us to lose at Chicago if we take care of Knoxville!
Switchbacks have been up a man for 50 minutes and looked terrible, capped off by conceding with less than 10 minutes left. Rapids just gave them a gift with an unneeded handball in the box to send the game to penalties.
Crew win 4 - 1. Orlando over the Revs 4-3. Rapids and Switchbacks each with a late extra time goal, followed by seven rounds of penalties, finally won by the Rapids. Houston with a late goal to beat Louisville. #LoveTheCup Edit: I was cheering for Louisville and Colorado Springs. So disappointing in that regard. But still some enjoyable drama.
I haven't seen if they're trying to group the final draw geographically but, if they do, I'd assume the groups to be: East - Columbus, NYCFC, Atlanta, Orlando West - San Jose, St. Louis, Houston, Colorado I wouldn't mind staying away from San Jose for as long as possible.
It would be wonderful to avoid NYC in the next round but my guess is the "random draw" will have Atlanta vs Orlando and the Crew playing NYC at Citi Field or Red Bull Arena. Columbus has that NYC, NYRB, Philly road swing in the week prior to the next round. The Yankees are home both days during the next round so NYC would need to move any home game they get. If the Crew get to host, I would hope they get slotted for a game on the 19th. The 20th is a Bruno Mars concert at Ohio Stadium.
Not all that confident going against NYCFC. But if we can squeeze past them I like our chances against Orlando or Atlanta at home, and then playing for a trophy.
At this point Open cup has to be top priority and we should send out a healthy best XI match and MLS play is secondary.
They're the toughest draw on our side of the bracket, sure, but I don't think the Pigeons are gigantes. After their hot start to the season (wins over Philly, Orlando, and Colorado), they've struggled in league play. In the six games since, they've drawn two and lost four, including a home loss to Charlotte and a loss at Montreal. Staying out of the ballpark is a big boon for us, too.
NYCFC's defense is fairly bad. They have freese, but hes struggled with the chaotic line in front of him. On the other side of the bracket, Bruce probably wants this trophy very badly, but he will have to do it on the road here on out.
Hoisting the USOC this year would be #10, trophy-wise: 2002 USOC 2004 SS 2008 SS 2008 MLS Cup 2009 SS 2020 MLS Cup 2021 Campeones Cup 2023 MLS Cup 2024 League Cup