The Seattle Sounders today were drawn against the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in their first game of the 2000 U.S. Open Cup Tournament. The teams will meet on Wednesday, June 14, 7:30 p.m. at Cal-State Fullerton in the Round of 32. The Sounders found out their opponent in a blind draw held at U.S. Soccer headquarters in Chicago.
In 1999, the Sounders advanced to the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where they lost, 1-0, to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer on July 14. Matt McKeon scored the game-winning goal in the 26th minute at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
The Galaxy are currently 6-2-6 with 24 points and are in second place in the Western Division. Key players on the Galaxy team are Cobi Jones and their new allocation, Luis Hernández. Hernández joined the Galaxy last month after spending his last four seasons with the Tigres of Monterrey of the Mexican First Division. This will be the first ever meeting between the Sounders and the Galaxy.
The U.S. Open Cup Committee separated the 32 teams remaining in the competition (12 MLS, 9 A-League, 7 D3, and 4 Amateur Clubs) into two equal brackets based on geographic regions. The western and eastern regions are each comprised of 16 teams. Each bracket has eight of the 16 qualified teams seeded (six MLS clubs and two A-League teams). The unseeded teams were then drawn into matchups with seeded teams to fill out the bracket. The teams will play a single-elimination tournament to determine the 2000 U.S. Open Cup champion, with the title game tentatively scheduled for October 22.
The Open Cup is open to every professional and amateur soccer team in the U.S. Dating back to 1914, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the oldest cup competition in American soccer and is among the oldest of its kind in the world. Open to affiliated amateur and professional teams in the United States, the annual U.S. Open Cup is an 87 year-old, single-elimination tournament based upon similar competitions played across the world concurrent with domestic league action.
The 2000 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion will receive $100,000 in prize money while the runner-up will receive $50,000. For Open Cup Tournament pairing information and more information about the tournament, log on to www.us-soccer.com.
--www.SeattleSounders.net
