The Carolina Challenge Cup has been a boon in creating more attention for the Charleston Battery and the Wilmington Hammerheads as well as the USL overall this early in the preseason. Any time you can have MLS teams visit USL stadia it is something that can help relations between the leagues and provide a treat for fans. When you multiply that by having the "next big thing" on one of those MLS teams and making three appearances with his club in a week at USL venues it has the potential to be a great thing in terms of generating media attention and fan curiosity. It is also a great chance for D.C. United to show just how much Adu they'll give fans this early into his first full professional season.
The penultimate matches of the competition will take place at Blackbaud Stadium with the two MLS clubs, D.C. United and the Columbus Crew, will decide the champion of the inaugural Carolina Challenge Cup while the two USL champions, the host Battery and the Wilmington Hammerheads, will provide a nice preamble to their meeting. It provides another chance for outstanding MLS players such as Bobby Convey, Ben Olsen, Edson Buddle, and Kyle Martino among others to impress Battery fans. Oh yeah, that kid Adu should also be making another appearance to gets some oohs and aahs out of the Charleston crowd as he continues his attempts to earn a starting spot for United's nationally televised opener on April 3rd against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Overall, competitions like this provide an incentive for fans to cheer on their club to another piece of silverware as it's always nice to add more to the trophy room and the teams get some valuable preparation time over a week with minimal travel involved as season openers loom. There are also some side benefits and pitfalls for a team that hosts these kinds of events. For one, in the A-League and USL overall you'll usually see teams coming together for the first time around this week each year where an MLS team has been in camp for anywhere from four to eight weeks sometimes. Then there's the "headless chicken" effect it causes amongst the game day staff at an A-League club that's not necessarily quite up to high gear yet. You see, they were probably expecting to have at least a couple more weeks to prepare things around the park for the four to five thousand fans to come through the gates.
In any case, this event seems to be doing particularly well so far this year pulling in solid attendance numbers and getting a very nice dose of media attention from all over the place. Over 1,000 fans turned up to Blackbaud Stadium on Wednesday night to see the Crew down the hometown Battery 3-1 with goals from Chad Marshall, Frankie Hedjuk, and Ross Paule. The lone Battery goal came courtesy of the seemingly ageless Paul Conway who has scored both Charleston goals in this tournament so far.
In Wilmington more than 3,500 fans turned up to catch 20 minutes of Adu and to go with a close match that was decided by a Jaime Moreno penalty kick after Bobby Convey had earned the chance. George Corrie and the rest of the Hammerheads played fairly well for a club still trying to resolve exactly what players they have and will be looking forward to trying to take some pride points away from the Battery at the Baud on Saturday evening.
The closing match of the Carolina Challenge Cup should see a little more Adu and possibly a very exciting match if one or both clubs decide they really want the trophy that earns them an invitation to potentially this same tournament next season. So far the Crew have looked far more impressive on the offensive end in their two matches but Peter Nowak's squad is still working the kinks out with skillful players like Ben Olsen, Bobby Convey, Jaime Moreno, and Ronald Cerritos trying to figure out exactly where the ball will be to provide them their best scoring chances. The Crew will continue to look towards Frankie Hedjuk and Ross Paule to create the offense while Edson Buddle and Jeff Cunningham work through some early injuries and kinks in their overall game.
Besides an exciting day of soccer what else is there that should be noticed from a tournament such as this? Well, provided the right buzz this kind of preseason event could mean a whole lot to teams, fans, and management. It gives the teams themselves good training in front of some fans. It gives fans an excuse to get out to see their favorite teams earlier than usual. It gives management a chance to have another revenue-making event as well as a chance to run through their game-day operations. In the end there are several winners in a packaged tournament like this and, who knows, it could turn into quite a tradition. Maybe we'll see preseason tournaments spring up in Puerto Rico with the Islanders coming to life in the A-League this season or more exhibitions that could turn into a similar tournament in Raleigh at SAS Park like the matches that will take place there with the Kansas City Wizards and LA Galaxy. Once Atlanta has completed their stadium complex they could also see a tournament similar to this, as it is almost certain that once their park is completed they'll see many an exhibition. After all, for those of you living way up north, wouldn't it be nice to vacation somewhere warm in late February or March and get to see your team at the same time?
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