United fans set off flares during the team’s Open Cup match in Richmond. Photo by Pablo Maurer/DCist.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Yes, you read the headline correctly. Mired in the midst of the worst season in franchise – and possibly league – history, D.C. United has somehow managed to play its way into the finals of the U.S. Open Cup, where they’ll take on Real Salt Lake later this evening. Here’s what you need to know.
What the hell is the U.S. Open Cup?
The Open Cup is the oldest continuously operating soccer competition in the United States, among the oldest in the world. It pits teams from all walks of the American soccer landscape against each other. Any club—so long as it’s affiliated with U.S. Soccer—can compete, whether an amateur, a lower-division professional club, or an MLS squad.
The winner gets $250,000 and a berth in CONCACAF Champions League, essentially the club championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Much like the NCAA basketball tournaments, the Open Cup’s charm lies in the potential for upsets, which can sometimes be massive. Every year, without fail, several MLS clubs fall to much weaker opposition. D.C. United’s current run is a perfect example – they’ve somehow bucked their terrible form and upset a string of opponents, and now they’ll get a shot at a little bit of joy in an otherwise moribund campaign.
How did United get here?
United’s road to the open cup started in late May with a match against the Richmond Kickers, a third tier side that also happens to be their minor-league affiliate, so to speak. To put that in perspective, it’d be akin to the Washington Nationals playing, well, the single-A Potomac Nationals. After narrowly escaping Richmond with a victory – United needed penalty kicks to secure the win – they blew by Philadelphia and New England, improbably arriving in the tournament’s semi-finals. A 2-0 victory over Chicago in the semis was good enough to book them a spot in the final.
What about Real Salt Lake? Also, why are they named Real Salt Lake? That’s sort of ridiculous, isn’t it?
Yes, it’s completely ridiculous. “Real” (royal, in spanish, of course) is a word affixed to many Spanish clubs, who’ve received that name via acknowledgement from the king of that country. To the best of my knowledge, no American royal – not George Brett, not the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, no, not even Queen Latifah herself – has yet bestowed that honor on Salt Lake City’s MLS franchise.
Silly name aside, RSL have had the luxury of facing some fairly weak opposition in the current edition of the Open Cup. After advancing past the NASL’s Atlanta Silverbacks, the “Claret and Cobalt” dispatched of the Charleston Battery and Carolina RailHawks en route to the semis. A victory over an MLS side (the Portland Timbers) in the semi-finals punched their ticket to the championship match.
Are they going to win this game?
Conventional wisdom says “no.” Though United have somehow managed to find success in the Open Cup during an absolutely dreadful MLS campaign, it’s difficult to ignore a few hard facts.
D.C. have been terrible on the road – terrible is actually an understatement. They haven’t won a single league road match this year, compiling a staggeringly bad record of 0-13-3. And their recent form hasn’t been any better – their USOC semi-final victory against Chicago in early August was actually the last game of any kind they won.
They also face an RSL side that has every incentive to win this Cup. Perennial contenders for the past half decade, Salt Lake have only managed to claim one solitary piece of silverware in their existence: the 2009 MLS Cup. Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis seems keen on changing that, anxious to rid his club of their underachieving ways.
That having been said, who knows? Stranger things have happened. United has somehow managed to be very, very good in the Open Cup. I don’t get it. United midfielder Chris Pontius doesn’t, either.
“I’ve thought about it: Why have we performed well in those games and haven’t translated it into league games?” he told us at after training Sunday. “I can’t put my finger on it.”
OK, you convinced me to make this one of the two or three days a year I care about soccer. So where can I watch this game?
I have bad news. GolTV bought the rights to televise the final, and that’s not (to the best of my knowledge) a channel that’s available in the D.C. area. U.S. Soccer attempted to arrange a live stream of the game, but those negotiations stalled.
So, you’re going to have to think outside the box. You can likely find a GolTV stream online (probably pretty easy, though you’ll have to wade through lots and lots of pop-ups and likely incinerate your virus-infected hard drive after the match) or get to one of these bars, all of whom are showing the match. Just don’t go to Lucky Bar. That place is awful.
Additionally, I’m out here in MormonLand™ and will be covering the match for DCist and a number of other sites – you can follow along at @MLSist for commentary before, during and after the match.
