I attended the W. Mass. Pioneers v. Cape Cod Crusaders Open Cup match tonight at Lusitano Stadium in Ludlow. At times the level of play reminded me of the Revs (and I don't mean that as a compliment), but in all it was an entertaining match. It was nice to see former Rev Rob Jachym score a brace, albeit in a losing effort. The Crusaders won 3-2, aided by a dodgy PK leading to the tying goal. Jachym beat the wall and the keeper on a beauty of a free kick that bent just inside the far post. After an opening period of dominance by Cape Cod, during which the Pioneers scored against the run of play, the game seemed to be the Pioneers for the taking. They had a couple of dangerous (drink!) free kicks in the second half but couldn't put it away. The disparity of playing ability between players on the same side was clear. The Pioneers have a right mid named Fletcher who has some talent, he could rival Heaps with his vertical jump. If he could improve his passing he could play at a higher level. They also have an Irish central defender named McCabe who organized the defense well and also showed some promise. The Crusaders will now play away at Richmond on June 30. Rochester will host the Chicago Fire Reserves and Columbus will host the Syracuse/South Jersey winner. The pairings for the fourth round (when the remaining MLS teams enter) should be announced in the next 24 to 48 hours. One would think that the Revs would be paired with the winner of one these matches (since there is an attempt to keep things regional). Charleston is hosting Wilmington, so that may also be a potential pairing, but as much as I would like to see a Revs-Charleston match, I'd rather see the Revs get more of a minnow The fourth round is to be played on July 20. Anyone know if the Revs have requested a home match and any inside info on possible location? I think I speak for many of us in requesting Lusitano. I took three teenagers with me tonight, had a beer and nachos and only spent a total of $32.50 and I could have saved $4 if I had bothered to stop at Big Y to buy my tickets. Parking was on street and free...and there was no traffic after the game.
friend and i went as well. officiating was really bad....for both sides. the way this season is going for us/revs right now....i'm thinking we won't see it out this way. unless, they do it out at lusitano again. at this point, i don't really care what they do with this match. maybe its better if there's just one less revs game i have to go to......arggghhhhh.
Was there as well. It was possibly the worst officiated game i've seen in a while, what a joke those refs were. RE: Fletcher- The first goal could be blamed on him. He left his man (the goal scorer) unmarked in the box. The third goal he was too busy being pissed off to be involved in the play. Bottom line with him, after watching him for a few years now, he is fast and can do some nice moves with the ball, but for a defender he does not defend too well (or pass or shoot/cross well either.) I love that stadium though, the revs should definately return this year.
Well who ever we play at least it won't be a surprise when we start all or Developmental Roster players
I heard back from Craig T, the Revs will be applying to host their USOC match on July 20 and Ludlow is one of the venues being targeted. Of course if the Revs draw the Rhinos again US Soccer will be hard pressed not to choose Rochester with its promise of a larger gate. But if that is the case then we will just have to pack up the muffin pans and charter a bus!
Hard to say who we might play, but it would be nice to mix it up a bit and not play Rochester again. We played MM Bucks 2 years in a row, and I think Dallas lost to Virginia Beach Mariners last year, so why are they playing them, of all teams again? So these are the pairings, with the winners going on to play against an MLS club in the next round: Boulder Rapids Reserves vs. Minnesota Thunder (likely MLS opponent: SJ, LA, KC) Utah Bitzz vs Portland Timbers (LA, SJ, ColR, KC) Columbus Crew vs Syracuse Salty Dogs-South Jersey Barons winner (Met, DC, NE, Chi) Chicago Fire Reserves vs Rochester Rhinos (NE, Met, DC) Cape Cod Crusaders vs Richmond Kickers (NE, DC, Met) Carolina Dynamo vs Atlanta Silverbacks (any MLS team) Virgina Beach Mariners vs Dallas Burn (any MLS team) Wilmington Hammerheads vs Charleston Battery (any MLS team) If either the Rapids or Fire reserve teams win, they can't play their parent club, but most of the other matchups are up in the air. Usually they will try to pair teams with someone fairly close geographically, but between Dallas and Virginia, that's a lot of ground to cover. Plus, there are two pairings in the southeast, not near any MLS teams, so they could go anywhere. Is this now a semi-random draw? In past years, it used to be known who you'd play in the next round, but has this changed? On to Ludlow, opponent be damned! Tom
The trip to Ludlow is worth it for the pints of Sagres and Chourico sandwiches by themselves - great little venue.
A few days have passed and so with a cooler head, for what it's worth and to defend the often unfairly-abused officials, US Soccer deemed all the referee's performances at that match as being acceptable performances. Maybe sometimes we judge too much with a fan's eye and don't place enough blame for what happens on the field on the players.
The US Soccer site said that the fourth round match ups would be announced a day or two after the second round matches. Craig said that the Revs have applied to host. Together this leads me to believe that the process is the same as in the past. The dilemma is that the match ups have to be decided based on a "the winner of..." Thus the intriguing match of Cape Cod vs. Revs at Ludlow could end up Richmond vs. Revs at Ludlow. I have no idea what US Soccer does if both teams in a match don't apply to host. That is, if this were the match to be paired with the Revs, could it be "winner of Cape Cod v. Richmond at Ludlow (if Cape Cod wins) or at Richmond (if Richmond wins)"? The permutations are staggering unless MLS teams are given right of first refusal on hosting. I guess we will all know soon. Let's just hope we are heading to Ludlow on July 20.
the usoc cut out all the "pre" qualifying matches between all the minnows this year. as a result, there are a couple rounds more than normal this time (whatever that means). anyway, its been hard to use the word "draw" in relation to the tourney to date. more like they "coordinate" between the 2 teams that are regionally closest to each other for any given round (for the 3 that have been organized so far). while i understand the expense problems presented for usasa, usl-psl, and some pdl teams....imo, this shouldn't have come into play for the recently announced round 3. however, you can see that while it didn't "exactly" come to that.....you certanly don't see the portland timbers playing any of the other 7 teams that were a possibilty for them that would have seen them travel more than the few hundred miles they'll have to go to meet utah. to me, this is not a "fair" system....esp. if some of the "regions" are "deeper" than others. i'm really hoping that by the time the 4th round is anounced (any day now), they'll set things up with a better "randomized" system. it'll certainly be interesting to see which 2 mls teams will "draw" the winner of the crew v salty dog/s.jer barons game as well as the burn/vb mariners match. i'd certainly rather see portland come in than minn, roch, or charleston yet again.
In the past it was roughly an east and west bracket, but right now, the numbers of teams don't bear this out. Dallas playing Virginia Beach doesn't make a lot of sense (or maybe the PDL team in the Dallas area was "supposed" to win that round?) There don't seem to be a whole lot of "western" teams in the OC. Quite a few in the southeast, but DC United can only play one of them. Say what you will, but I'd rather see the 10 MLS Clubs, the (whatever the number is this year) US-based A-League clubs, and whatever winners of previous minnow rounds thrown in a pot at the round of 32. You could pair them up in East/West/Central groups just so that a smaller club wouldn't have to travel too far. You could keep it regional for one more round (16), but by the final 8, it should be a random draw. Tom
i don't disagree with that scenario totally. somehow, i think is just has to be a bit more random than it is now. whether or not its "fixed" to some degree or not, the fa cup seems to conistently have one rogue path to the 1/4's, semis or the final where some d1 or d2 sides manage to avoid the big fish altogether. there's something about that possibility that's attractive to me. save '99, seems like as soon as mls clubs get involved its so evenly distributed that they just take over. no different this year as its guaranteed that each mls side will be playing a winner of rnd 3. personally, in the 4th round i wouldn't mind seeing (roughly speaking and assuming a-lg teams go in for the large part)....for 8 games, mls v mls mls v mls a-lg v pdl/usl-psl a-lg v a-lg mls v a-lg mls v a-lg a-lg v pdl/usl-psl mls v mls somehow i think they set it up so they avoid the least possible embarrasment of having an mls team not win this thing every year now.