With the U.S. Open Cup draw being held on Wednesday several A-League clubs could be forgiven for doing a bit of looking ahead. Certain clubs that have had a good early portion of the season will be looking forward to their opportunity to make a mark on the national level with a slot in this tournament. After Wednesday's draw the odds look long for several A-League clubs particularly in the West. El Paso gets another match against Chico who were a handful for the Patriots in qualifying. San Diego will play the Chicago Fire. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds somehow landed in the Western bracket and get to face the Colorado Rapids. The defending MLS champion Kansas City Wizards will take on the Sounders in a match that could bounce Seattle's way if they get to host. The Rampage get a tough match against Utah who are a D3 team in name alone. Nashville also somehow wound up in the West and will get to meet the Galaxy. Meanwhile, the Seattle Sounders Select got a slightly less difficult draw on paper by pulling out the Burn but the bouncy turf in Seattle could prove crucial once again if the Sounders Select side get to play host to their MLS counterparts. The other match in the Western portion of the draw pits the San Jose Earthquakes against the PDL's Central Coast Road Runners.
The Eastern bracket looks a might bit easier for the A-League clubs unless you're Charleston. For some strange reason the Battery seem to always find themselves up against the better Eastern clubs in the Open Cup every year and this season is no exception with their drawing of the Metrostars. Needless to say it would've been a lovely opportunity for a homecoming of sorts for Clint Mathis in a visit to Battery-land. The surprising Connecticut Wolves drew the hard-luck Tampa Bay Mutiny with this match providing a great opportunity for an upset while giving Temoc Suarez a shot at Valderrama. The Kickers will get a chance to take on the Rage in a match that Richmond should get past. Meanwhile, a marquee match for anytime this season will feature Hershey battling Rochester once again in the knockout tournament. The other Eastern bracket matches feature: New England v. Mid-Michigan, Columbus Crew v. Carolina Dynamo, Miami Fusion v. Uruguay S.C., D.C. United v. New Jersey Stallions. Watch this space for further "insight" into the Open Cup in coming weeks.
Now we move on to the regular season action that went on in the last week. Once again we saw some surprises around the league while, at the same time, there were several clubs who showed flashes of the success they had earlier in the season.
Atlanta was one such club that seemed to get back into the good graces of the soccer deities after winning both of their matches against the Eagles by 2-1 scorelines. The Wizard of Ig returned to form with some assistance from newly acquired Paul Schneider. The exploits of Sean-Michael "Dirty Harry" Callahan were enough to put away the Eagles in their rematch. Both of these clubs will rue missed opportunities at an Open Cup slot while drowning their sorrows with visits from the Cincinnati Riverhawks this weekend. Charlotte will look to rebound while the Silverbacks will hope to maintain some of their newly gained momentum.
The Riverhawks, meanwhile, spent last week working overtime as they played into extra periods against both Charleston and Indiana. The Hawks were able to snatch a win against the Blast in an exciting 4-3 match but were outlasted and outblasted by the Battery and Paul Conway in a 2-1 loss. After last week's split they will be looking to gain points against the Eagles and Silverbacks.
Charleston's week didn't end with their overtime win in Cincinnati instead they faced trips to Nashville and Richmond. They were able to escape the wrath of Fenger Company at Ezell Park with a 2-2 draw courtesy of Paul Conway and Jon Akin on Saturday. Then, in a midweek match against Richmond, Conway struck yet again in the opening moments of the match for the only score in the Battery's 1-0 win over the Kickers. The Battery will take their conference lead into their home match with Indiana this week as they hope to extend their lead in the standings.
The Battery's opponent from last week will be meeting in Richmond this weekend as the Metros travel to Virginia to face the Kickers. The two clubs split meetings earlier this season and the Metros would like to continue to show improvement. Besides, the last time the Metros came calling to Richmond they came away with an upset win. The Kickers will look to get back on the right track after dropping a hard fought 1-0 match against Charleston and they'll need to regain some of the composure they had in dealing Long Island a 2-1 loss last week.
The Canadian teams had a fairly middling time of it this past week with Montreal and Vancouver netting the only victories of the three clubs' four matches. The Impact downed conference leader Hershey 3-2 in overtime thanks to the efforts of Niall Thompson, Mauro Biello, and George Papandreou. The Whitecaps got a goal from an unlikely source: a player on their team. Chris Craveiro ended a 227-minute scoring drought for the Whitecaps in their victory over the Minnesota Thunder.
The rest of the week wasn't quite as nice for the Canadian clubs as Hershey rebounded from their loss to Montreal to defeat Toronto at Varsity Stadium where rumors abound that the grass is finally thawing. Eddy Sebrango scored the lone goal for the Cats in the 1-0 victory and had his second of the weekend after scoring one of their two against Montreal. Meanwhile, the Impact dropped a 2-1 decision to Connecticut in their second game of the week. Temoc Suarez and Max Zieky did the damage against the Impact in the Wolves victory. Vancouver's other match saw them travel to former NASL rival Portland where they found themselves in a 1-1 deadlock with their hosts with the latest edition of space age grass technology. Vadim Tolstolutsky scored the equalizer in the waning moments after the Whitecaps' Terry St. Louis had put them on top in the 74th minute. Overall not a bad week the Canadian delegation with a 2-1-2 record but many are still waiting for the Lynx to start playing better.
"Team(s) Canada" will do their own bit of in-fighting this week as Toronto and Montreal face each other in a home and away series that could be important to the Northern Conference standings later this season. Meanwhile, Vancouver has the week off, as they'll likely attempt to figure out what's gone wrong with their offense seeing as how they've scored a scant 4 goals since the opening of the season.
Minnesota's misery carried over from their loss to Vancouver in a rather dour match in Seattle that the Sounders were able to win 1-0. Rees Bettinger proved to be the undoing of Minnesota in this match and made it even more apparent that the thing that's costing the Thunder so dearly at this point is their inability to create anything resembling chances. It was likely this fact that caused them to send Stoian Mladenov packing in midweek to Rochester, who sent Carlos Parra to Atlanta who, in turn, sent Steve Armas to the Thunder. With the additions of Armas and Paul Nowak it appears clear that the Thunder are trying to find the right midfield combination to get their forwards the ball.
Hershey, who split their Canadian trip last week, gets a preview of their Open Cup match, as they'll host Rochester. Former Rhino Eddy Sebrango is heating up just in time to face his former mates and will look to provide some scoring punch against the Rhinos stingy defense. The Rhinos were busy beating Pittsburgh 2-1 while the Wildcats were dropping the overtime match to Montreal last week.
Portland will hope they won't need last minute heroics this week considering that last week had to be slightly trying for the Timbers fans. Portland spent Saturday getting pounded by the Utah Blitzz to put them out of their Open Cup misery but had a heart stopping last minute goal to gain a draw from their midweek match with Vancouver. This week they'll go on the road to face Minnesota after downing the Thunder at home not too long ago.
Prior to downing the Timbers, though, the Blitzz were beaten by the Sounders 3-0 to put them out of contention for the Open Cup spot earned by that group winner. This weekend Seattle will celebrate reaching the Open Cup proper along with their Select club from the PDL level. They won't get to celebrate too much though as trips to San Diego and El Paso are on their plate for this weekend.
San Diego had a busy time last weekend as they hosted Milwaukee in a rematch from earlier this year and Stanislaus County in an Open Cup match. The Rampage were able to upend the home team 2-1 on Saturday but Flash F.C. turned it around against the Cruisers winning handily 7-1 while wrapping up an Open Cup berth of their own.
Minnesota will also have yet another match at Milwaukee after hosting Portland on Saturday. They'll hope to send out their new personnel in an effort to get the better of their fiercest rivals. It looks like desperate times and dire straits for the Thunder and they'll need results this weekend to being to scale the mountain they've built for themselves. A playoff position isn't necessarily out of the question but it has become something less than the near birthright it seemed before the season began.
Some interesting matches in the East round out the remaining schedule for this week with Connecticut and Pittsburgh playing a home and home series while Hershey hosts Long Island in the lone Wednesday game. The Wolves are probably eyeing an eight point weekend if they can take the series against the 'Hounds but Kai Haaskivi's men are tough to beat at home and should provide a nice test for the up and coming Wolves.
There are some interesting matches to watch and here are the storylines I'll have my eye on: Connecticut- can they keep it up? Minnesota- can they get back up? Last but not least, Hershey vs. Rochester- the Beasts from the East continue their rivalry that will spill into the Open Cup soon. Regardless, all the action in the league should be exciting as always so don't forget to support your local club and catch as much action as possible.
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