I hope everyone enjoyed my blog report on bringing back the respect for the International Calendar. I have to tell you that it took me a good while to think of these solutions to help the US Supporter & for MLS. But now we have to look internally at one of the oldest club tournaments in US Football and it’s been around since 1914. Everyone knows how much I enjoy and love US Soccer’s version of the English FA Cup. The tournament that bares the name of one of US Soccer’s pioneers in the NASL & in MLS, Mr. Lamar Hunt.
At the moment the current members of Soccer House has made the amount of clubs to enter the tournament less than what it should be. That also includes the number of MLS & USL-2nd Division sides that are allowed into the Cup since 2007. At the moment only six MLS Sides that qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs from 1st to 3rd automatically go in as well as all eight USL-1st Division, the USL-2nd Division Champions automatically enter. That leaves nine MLS clubs to go thru qualifiers (Including the Seattle Sounders that will be promoted to MLS next season) and eight USL-2nd division clubs fighting for seven places as their regular season schedule doubles as qualifying matches to the US Open Cup up to a certain point. The PDL & US Adult Soccer Association will send their usual eight sides ( 2 per region or conference) thru the usual qualifying stages. I agree that the Semi-Professional leagues like the PDL & USASA has to go thru qualifying, but the 14 MLS sides including the 8 USL-1st & 9 USL-2nd American clubs must be automatically placed in certain designated spots. Let’s take a quick look at how US Soccer design the set up of the past two US Open Cup rounds & Designations.
Round 1: 8 USL-1st Division sides, 8(out of 9) USL-2nd Divison Sides, 8 Qualified PDL Clubs & 8 Qualified USASA Clubs = 32
Round 2: 16 Round 1 Winners face each other
Round 3: 8 Round 2 Winners face 8 Qualified MLS Clubs
Quarterfinals, Semi-Finals then the Final. The prize money of course totals to $180,000.
US Open Cup Champions = $100,000
US Open Cup Runners Up= $50,000
US Soccer lower Division clubs that go the furthest from their respective leagues $30,000
(USL-1st Division Club = $10,000, USL-2nd Division Club = $10,000 & PDL -$10,000)
Very pitiful if you ask me. While Superliga gets a cool Million, the US Open Cup has been treated as the bastard child of US Soccer. To try and bring the respect back to the US Open Cup, I have created a bracket like set up and a calendar to have the dates being played in a crowded 2009 International & MLS club fixtures. First let me show you how the 2009 US Open Cup Brackets will be set up.
| US OPEN CUP: ROUND 1 | US OPEN CUP: ROUND 2 | US OPEN CUP: ROUND 3 | US OPEN CUP: ROUND 4 | USOC: QUARTERFINALS | USOC: SEMI-FINALS | US OPEN CUP FINAL | |||||||||||||
| PDL EAST | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | |||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 1 | CHARLOTTE | CHICAGO | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL EAST | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 1 | CRYS. PAL. BAL | CHIVAS-USA | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL CENTRAL | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 2 | HARRISBURG | COLORADO | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL CENTRAL | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 2 | PITTSBURGH | COLUMBUS | QF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL SOUTH | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | QF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 3 | REAL MARYLAND | DC UNITED | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL SOUTH | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 3 | RICHMOND | FC DALLAS | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL WEST | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 4 | WESTERN MASS | HOUSTON | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| PDL WEST | ROUND 1 WINNER | ROUND 2 WINNER | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| USASA REGION 4 | WILMINGTON | KANSAS CITY | SF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||
| ATLANTA | SF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| LOS ANGELS | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| NEW ENGLAND | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| CAROLINA | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| NEW YORK | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| CHARLESTON | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| REAL SALT LAKE | QF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| MIAMI FC | QF WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| SAN JOSE | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| MINNESOTA | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| SEATTLE | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| PORTLAND | ROUND 4 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| CLEVELAND CITY | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| ROCHESTER | ROUND 3 WINNER | ||||||||||||||||||
| BEST PDL Q PTS | |||||||||||||||||||
As you can see you will still have the 8 PDL & USASA clubs fighting against each other in the first round. All USL 2nd Division Clubs will be involved as well as all MLS Clubs in the 3rd round. Here are the designations
Round 1: 8 PDL Clubs Vs 8 USASA Clubs
Round 2: 8 Round 1 Winners Vs 8 of the 9 USL-2nd Division Clubs.
Round 3: 8 Round 2 Winners & 8 USL-1st Division Clubs Vs all 14 American MLS sides, USL-2nd Division Champion Cleveland City Stars & the Best PDL Qualifying Points/Record side
Round 4: All Round 3 clubs enter the Round of 16
Quarterfinals: 8 Round 4 Winners
Semi-Finals: 4 Quarterfinal Winners
US Open Cup Final: 2 Semi-Final Winners
As you can see I added the Best PDL Qualifying record position as an incentive to bring the best record from a club in one of the four conferences to start later. If the club with the best record comes from the east, the third position of the US Open Cup Qualifying table will also come from the east. Same for the Central, South & West if it happens. Now to schedule the different Rounds on the US Soccer Calendar.
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | JUNE | World Cup Qualifier | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Round 1 | MLS Regular season | |||
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | US Open Cup Matches | |||
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Round 2 | Confederations Cup | ||
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | Gold Cup | |||
| 28 | 29 | 30 | Round 3 | |||||||
| 1 | Confed Cup & MLS | |||||||||
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | JULY | 2 | Confed Cup & USOC | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | Gold Cup & MLS | |||||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 4 | Gold Cup & USOC | ||
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Round 4 | 5 | WCQ & MLS | |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||||
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | Quarters | ||||
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | AUGUST | |||
| 1 | ||||||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Semis | |||
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | ||||
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | ||||
| 30 | 31 | |||||||||
| SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SEPTEMBER | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||||
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Final | |||
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ||||
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
As you can see with the help of Microsoft Excel. I have planned these months to start the US Open Cup in June thru September. Round 2 Matches are available on Tuesday, June 16th as that is a free day in the FIFA Confederations Cup Schedule. Tuesday, July 14th could be a free day in the Gold Cup for Round 4, but the schedule hasn’t been made yet so at the moment it’s speculative. Of course you can change the date for the Semi-Finals either a week before the date I choosed, or the date after the World Cup Qualifier on August 19th. But I think that this would be what both US Soccer wants and those who support the tournament wants as well. Just enough room to play the matches and have the separation to keep the mystique of the US Open Cup alive. The current formation is to get it over and done as quickly as possible which is disgusting right now.
Once again setting up both the brackets and the fixture schedule for the US Open Cup took me a good long while to make sense of the whole damned thing & I give credit to the schedule makers as well as the US Open Cup Committee to set up the damned thing. It’s easy to cry and scream foul, but it’s tough to be in their shoes to create this tournament each and every season of US Club Football.
