Open Cup

An Open Cup trip up to Germantown generally means ditching work early, getting into traffic on 270, and dealing with multiple busses of travelling fans.  Wait, what?

The Ocean City Barons brought three buses of fans to the game.  Last year’s group from Rochester was impressive in bringing one bus down.  But three?  That’s quite a good show from fans who support a team three levels down. 

But that tells you something right there: This game meant everything for the Barons.

They’re in the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League.  That’s the third tier of the USL.  They’re largely made up of college players trying to keep sharp, one player that has gone through such a team was Troy Perkins.  So while they don’t have the polish of experience (their average age was under 21), the potential is there for a player to have some talent.

United was without several stars, Moreno, Emilio, and Fred were out with injury, Jakovic and Quaranta were with the Canadian and US teams respectively.  And United usually rolls out second tier players for early rounds of the Open Cup (now that we’re actually in the Open Cup), all the missing players did was affect Soehn’s bench.  The only offensive options were Chris Pontius and Christian Gomez.  But first year players like Barklage, Jacobsen, N’Silu, and DiRaimondo got another chance to prove themselves.

If you remember the last time such a large group of rookies got the nod, they essentially shredded the NY Red Bulls.  In retrospect, that was a poor initiation into Cup play, because now they were going up against a team that seems competant.

First Half

The Barons didn’t really come out to play, they came out to get the result.  Man for man (or in some cases boy for man) they just don’t match up that well, even against United’s reserves.  But results are what moves you along in a Cup tournament, so the Barons played a compact and conservative game.  It didn’t help that United’s attackers weren’t making runs off the ball (heck, runs to a ball sometimes were in short supply), there just wasn’t much cohesiveness in the atttack and they just flat ran out of ideas in how to break down such a defense.  Chalk that up to maturity as only Ben Olsen had more than a year of experience among all the forwards and midfielders.

Halftime

Above, it was mentioned that this game was everything for the Barons, easily their biggest game over the last 12 months.  For United, not so much.  And unfortunately, the Barons fans didn’t get that.  Supporters’ Groups were serandaded by Barons fans at halftime who were taking their moral vicory as though they were US Soccer fans in 1992, not realizing that United wasn’t fielding their full team.  Yes, they were tied, yes we, as fans were disappointed that United wasn’t already up, but we knew there were options on the bench and 45 more minutes to score.  It was halftime, its no time to cheer, realize that you’re halfway home and still have a chance.

Actually, while most Baron’s fans were well behaved (including a handfull who started a "We can’t hear you" chant in the first half, there some elements that seemed to escape some.  Like the Baron’s mascot (a biplane in a never ending hammerhead stall), who kept trying to mingle with United fans. Several teenage Baron’s fans also though that coming into the United Supporter’s area to mingle and have fun was also a good idea.  There was also a Baron’s fan who decided to come into the United Supporters’ Area with seemingly no intention of fun (he met some lovely Montgomery County Officers).

Second Half

Chris Pontius came in for Ben Olsen at halftime.  It could have been a planned thing, with Olsen still coming back from injury and not exactly game fit yet.  Or it could have been a reaction to the weather as the first half had a rainstorm come through, risking Olsen on an Open Cup game with a slippery field doesn’t make sense.  Pontius played forward and brought a lot of savvy to the team.  Quality chances started coming, all of which were pretty much right at the keeper.  We all stood by and watched shot after shot at the keeper.  We all also stood by and watched the keeper not catch shot after shot.  (Note: The usage of the term ‘We’ here indicates United Supporters, Barons Supporters, casual fans, CSC Security Personnel, ball boys, Russian Spy Satellites, and United players.)

The Baron’s coach, Neil Holloway, got a yellow card after an altercation with the Fourth Official.  Play resumed for a minute, then the Referee showed Holloway a red (the only two cards in the game were to the Baron’s coach).  Holloway then stood defiantly (or incredulously, it was hard to tell from the opposite side of the field) as the ref pointed that he should now leave the field.  In a scene reminicient of last year’s Blanco-gate game in Germantown, on of Montgomery County’s finest had to get involved.  Holloway still resisted, then realized what was happening, then sprung over the Soccerplex railing and ran up the stands.  Just another piece of bizzare Open Cup history.

United finally broke it open when Gomez came in.  Gomez sent a perfectly weighted ball into the area for N’Silu to run onto, as he did, the Barons goalkeeper fouled him (or at least that’s what the ref saw), and Gomez converted from the spot.  The Barons then nearly tied the game in the last minutes of the game as thier desperation nearly matched United’s collapsing defense.  But a foul on a quick breakout led to a Gomez free kick from 25 yards out or so.  Once again right at the keeper, once again he didn’t handle the ball cleanly, but to everyone’s surprise N’Silu was there to put the ball home and the game out of reach.

Credit to the losing side though, they came prepared and put up a fight.  It took United 90 minutes to put two in on them, it took them 18 minutes to accomplish the same feat against the Red Bulls.  By empirical evidence, the Barons are the best team in New Jersey.

Onward…

United returns to MLS action this weekend in Columbus, then ‘home’ against the Harrisburg (Three Mile) Islanders next Tuesday at the Soccerplex.