Form held Tuesday in the second round of the US Open Cup. Now, the cup moves into the third round and MLS teams will begin to participate.
Here's the entire bracket as it stands. It seems that potential quarterfinal matchups are already set, and I hadn't seen that before. As far as the third round goes, there very well could be some upsets. Of the eight games, only two will be hosted by MLS teams as FC Dallas hosts Atlanta and Colorado hosts California.
Other matchups: Chivas USA at Seattle Sounders, LA Galaxy at Richmond Kickers, Houston Dynamo at Charleston Battery, New England Revolution at Rochester Rhinos, Chicago Fire at Carolina Railhawks and DC United at Harrisburg City Islanders.
The DC-Harrisburg City match will be at a high school! The others will be played at soccer stadiums or in college stadiums.
As far as potential upsets, I'll have to rely on El Guero's USL-1 power rankings for advice but it looks like New England will have a tough go at it in Rochester. New England traditionally hasn't fared well in the USOC. For the record, Richmond and Harrisburg City are USL-2 teams; the rest are USL-1.
Hopefully there will be upsets. It will make for a more interesting tournament that way.
Interesting points for the 3rd round:
ReplyDeleteSeattle and Chivas USA again. These teams know each other VERY well.
The thing about Rochester is they're up and down right now. They're leading the league but their fans are upset for one reason or another. Hey, I'd like to be leading the league and have so many problems.
But remember last year's 4th round: New England beat Rochester at Rochester in penalties 5-4 after the Rhinos held a 2-0 lead in the penalties after two had gone for each team. I'm still trying to comprehend how they blew that one.