U.S. Open Cup - Episode 1 - Battery fire into the Round of 32

[00:00:00] Welcome to Cannon Crue, a weekly podcast discussing the Charleston Battery.

[00:00:21] Your host Granit will be joined by other defenders of the fleet from the Black and Yellow Supporters

[00:00:26] section and together they will help fortify and conquer the other Cannon Crue.

[00:00:37] Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast and we're in for a little treat our first time doing

[00:00:42] a special episode and today's is the Bone Us as in the United States Open Cup episode.

[00:00:53] Kind of a little intro.

[00:00:55] I'm Granit, I'm your host and I'm joined by Patrick.

[00:01:01] What's up everybody?

[00:01:03] Also joined by a junior co-host Liam.

[00:01:08] So man.

[00:01:09] And we're joined by Ryan.

[00:01:12] Ryan.

[00:01:14] Oh that's right.

[00:01:15] Where is Ryan?

[00:01:18] Ryan's on a little holiday this weekend.

[00:01:20] So we'll have to make do with our junior correspondent Phil and then is he taking some will earn time

[00:01:27] off or just just taking time off.

[00:01:30] I think he's taking a break before he gets to watch a little more MD Myers so we'll

[00:01:36] are an R from MD.

[00:01:39] So we wanted to put this little podcast together, a little extra episode to talk about the US

[00:01:44] Open Cup, the batteries playing in and just kind of intro the whole thing to people.

[00:01:51] The US Open Cup is a knockout style tournament in the US where the winner moves on and the

[00:01:55] loser is out.

[00:01:56] If the game ends in a tie it will be decided by extra time and then into penalties.

[00:02:02] So it's pretty much a regular kind of tournament right?

[00:02:05] Yeah, pretty straightforward.

[00:02:08] Little different from the Jager Meister Cup which they introduced this year which

[00:02:12] pretty much cuts the extra time but something we're all familiar with.

[00:02:17] Well, game's going to have a winner and a loser no matter what.

[00:02:22] And there's a total of eight rounds.

[00:02:25] We're earning in the fourth round by virtue of being a USL championship team.

[00:02:32] Is that right?

[00:02:34] Yeah, not just a USL championship team because we've seen them in this competition in

[00:02:39] earlier rounds but the battery because of their placement in last season's standings

[00:02:46] earned this position in the round of 32 along with the eight MLS teams that are entering

[00:02:53] in this round as well.

[00:02:54] So I mean they get in by virtue of billionaire owners and we get in on merit so something

[00:03:03] to keep in mind on that one.

[00:03:05] Yeah, we'll talk about the inactivity or activity or MLS here in a second at the end of this

[00:03:11] because it's kind of an interesting narrative that kind of underlines everything.

[00:03:17] Yeah, speaking of teams so who all is in this tournament?

[00:03:22] That's a good question.

[00:03:24] So there's for this year's tournament there's a total of 100 teams that actually qualify.

[00:03:30] A lot of the amateur clubs have to go through a qualifying process through their own leagues.

[00:03:35] So there's not a lot of them left at this stage.

[00:03:38] There's actually zero.

[00:03:41] But from MLS, pro, next, whatever teams they want to call themselves these days,

[00:03:48] they were in it.

[00:03:50] We'll get to this a little later on as well because there's only one of those teams left

[00:03:53] but USL League 1, MLS and then obviously the USL championship teams who have all

[00:04:00] been playing in it besides the top eight from round one on.

[00:04:05] So quite a variety.

[00:04:08] Pretty much the whole pyramid of US soccer is across this tournament as you would want

[00:04:14] to see in a US style tournament.

[00:04:17] Amateur teams can earn their way into this tournament and be playing up and could

[00:04:21] potentially win the whole thing.

[00:04:24] Corrects.

[00:04:26] Very difficult to do so.

[00:04:27] But in theory, your local players out on the pitch on a Sunday league can respectfully

[00:04:34] get through and figure out how to qualify and bar you have the talent you can get there.

[00:04:40] That's pretty cool.

[00:04:41] Very cool.

[00:04:42] Something you don't see every day.

[00:04:44] I know we see it in the FA Cup over in England, but

[00:04:48] not a lot of teams can just have the option to play for something that means

[00:04:54] so much and play against professional teams.

[00:04:56] Yeah, it's pretty interesting.

[00:04:57] So I understand if you win,

[00:05:02] there might be some fun prizes.

[00:05:05] Yeah.

[00:05:07] So first place will get three hundred thousand dollars.

[00:05:09] Second place receives one hundred thousand dollars.

[00:05:13] And the furthest team from each league receives twenty five thousand dollars.

[00:05:17] What does that mean Patrick?

[00:05:20] So pretty much we're seeing it with New York City of C2, which is the last

[00:05:26] MLS next pro team left in the tournament.

[00:05:29] They automatically will be receiving twenty five thousand dollars just for

[00:05:33] the fact that they are the furthest from their said group or league to make

[00:05:39] it to this point.

[00:05:40] So the furthest point from their respective league.

[00:05:43] So if the MLS somehow bounces every team and the battery are lefts,

[00:05:49] the battery would get twenty five thousand in addition to that three hundred

[00:05:54] thousand dollar prize once we win it all and beat everybody.

[00:05:58] So it's kind of a little added bonus.

[00:06:00] Hey, you may not win it.

[00:06:02] You may not go the furthest, but if you may get the furthest out

[00:06:05] of your league, you're going to get some prize money.

[00:06:07] So it's a little nice incentive to keep the teams wanting to play.

[00:06:11] So the winner of this would get a birth into the

[00:06:15] twenty twenty five Conca Calf Champions Cup, which as a USL team is pretty

[00:06:22] much out of your grasp unless you win this tournament.

[00:06:25] So another huge possibility for said battery or anyone else in our league.

[00:06:32] And then a little caveat, the winner of that tournament actually gets

[00:06:36] to enter in the FIFA World Club World Cup.

[00:06:43] So an even bigger tournament where you see teams like Barcelona,

[00:06:48] Man City, PSG, stuff like this.

[00:06:50] So there are pipeline dreams that the battery could be playing

[00:06:56] against a Barcelona in the future.

[00:06:58] That's crazy to think that that could happen.

[00:07:00] But it could happen.

[00:07:01] That's the beauty of this sport, right?

[00:07:04] You know, this tournament started out and I think it was 1914.

[00:07:08] Reading champion last year was the Houston Dynamo and MLS has won this

[00:07:14] every year since 2000.

[00:07:15] So it sounds pretty daunting, odds, but you never know.

[00:07:20] Yeah, you never know.

[00:07:21] I mean, we saw a USL championship team last year or sorry, 2022 get into the final

[00:07:29] and previous to that it was the battery back in, I believe, 2007, maybe.

[00:07:34] So it's been a long time since that gap, seeing someone even get to a final.

[00:07:40] But hopefully it can be an upset year.

[00:07:43] I mean, it doesn't seem like the MLS take this cup very serious anymore.

[00:07:47] And it's something I think all of us USL championship fans can rally behind

[00:07:51] and root for us dead underdogs to win.

[00:07:55] Yeah, and a couple of notable matchups.

[00:07:58] We start our first match is next week.

[00:08:02] And we're up against.

[00:08:05] Tormenta FC and we played them before in preseason.

[00:08:10] And I think their team out of Georgia.

[00:08:12] Yeah, so something we've talked about on a previous pod.

[00:08:16] But you listen back and you're wondering, where's that third home game

[00:08:19] coming in a row? Well, this is it.

[00:08:21] It's the US Open Cup at home.

[00:08:23] And lucky for us, we get to have a little preparation.

[00:08:27] We're on a bit of a heater.

[00:08:29] But then just being able to stay at home and prepare for this team.

[00:08:33] Another USL league one side, but.

[00:08:36] It's a cup game, so anything can happen.

[00:08:38] We've seen it throughout football that one game is one game

[00:08:42] and it's a knockout style.

[00:08:44] So any preparation, no travel for us will help, which is pretty cool.

[00:08:50] I think we have a.

[00:08:53] Possible cool matchup going on if we win that game.

[00:08:58] I forget who it was, Brad, you remember?

[00:09:02] Yeah, so if we win this match, we can move on and play the United

[00:09:07] or shuttle independence, shuttle independence, the USL league one team.

[00:09:12] But we might be pretty nice to go beat up on an MLS team

[00:09:17] so we keep moving through the rounds.

[00:09:21] Then another little point to look out for is

[00:09:25] if we move past our game against Tormenta,

[00:09:28] we will host the next game as well.

[00:09:30] So we were they do it on a draw system for doing home one away one home

[00:09:36] to away two and we were home one draw.

[00:09:39] So that means we host the first round that we're in.

[00:09:43] And if we win, we will host the winner of said Atlanta Charlotte.

[00:09:48] So pretty cool.

[00:09:49] Another another potential home game for the battery fans to get behind and support.

[00:09:55] If you're new to the sport of soccer,

[00:09:57] teams usually play in different tournaments throughout the year.

[00:10:01] They're just not in their regular league.

[00:10:03] If you watch the EPL, there's all sorts of the other EPL.

[00:10:07] There's the FA Cup tournament.

[00:10:08] There's Champions League.

[00:10:10] And this is one of these great tournaments where like we were talking about earlier.

[00:10:15] An amateur team.

[00:10:17] Guys playing on Sunday.

[00:10:20] Can make it all the way be playing MLS team and win the cup.

[00:10:23] Now.

[00:10:25] This year used to be how many AML teams only eight this year.

[00:10:31] And why is there only eight?

[00:10:33] There's only eight because I mean, we have to go back.

[00:10:38] Excuse me, not very far, but in December,

[00:10:41] there's a little bit of controversy here with even having the MLS and the MLS next

[00:10:46] pro teams in this tournament.

[00:10:48] So I'm not sure everyone's familiar, but MLS basically

[00:10:55] were sticking their nose up and saying we're too good for this.

[00:10:59] I don't think it's the players themselves.

[00:11:01] I think it's the owners of these clubs who want to just

[00:11:03] not be embarrassed by a lower level club or a lower league club.

[00:11:09] But pretty much they said, we'll send our MLS next pro teams.

[00:11:12] And that's how we're going to treat this tournament

[00:11:15] where the US soccer announced, yeah, we're just going to deny that notion.

[00:11:20] You're not going to be able to do that.

[00:11:22] Now this was happening between December

[00:11:26] and March, which the tournament started in April,

[00:11:31] mid-March, April.

[00:11:32] So this is very recently that we even had a decision

[00:11:37] where the two parties, the US soccer and the MLS

[00:11:40] organization met and compromised that they would go ahead

[00:11:44] and allow, we say allow.

[00:11:48] They're forcefully being like MLS, you're either in or no one's playing

[00:11:51] in this tournament. You need it as much as everyone else does.

[00:11:54] It's good for the sport.

[00:11:56] But they agreed eight MLS teams to go ahead and participate,

[00:12:00] which enter that last round we talked about the round of 32.

[00:12:05] But the MLS next pro clubs had to start from round one

[00:12:08] and we're down to one left.

[00:12:12] So it's kind of a.

[00:12:15] Big moral victory for US soccer to say, hey, you only wanted to send

[00:12:19] these next pro club teams and there's only one left.

[00:12:22] So I don't know if you thought that your level of teams were just far

[00:12:27] superior to everyone else, but.

[00:12:30] You only have one of these clubs left

[00:12:32] and it's not going to be an easy journey because USL championship is taking off

[00:12:36] and rightfully so may be the direction US soccer

[00:12:40] leans into a little more in the future.

[00:12:44] Yeah, and.

[00:12:45] I wanted to go in that little more in this podcast about the battle

[00:12:50] between the MLS and USL and it's probably best as we look look into it

[00:12:57] more and more as to do another special podcast, just addressing that subject,

[00:13:02] the battle going on and seeing who comes out top.

[00:13:05] You see the USL adding expansion teams all the time into smaller towns,

[00:13:09] smaller communities and really reaching out to local communities that have

[00:13:14] their own clubs and have gone soccer clubs.

[00:13:16] You know, kind of like when people are familiar with Wrexham,

[00:13:19] that's their local club in Wrexham.

[00:13:21] USL is kind of setting itself up for that type of.

[00:13:26] League, which might show the MLS.

[00:13:31] The thing or two a couple weeks ago,

[00:13:33] and I think I don't know if we mentioned the podcast then.

[00:13:36] But the match between Louisville and I can't remember the other team that

[00:13:41] were playing played on a Saturday and thanks CBS had it on at the same time.

[00:13:46] An MLS match behind some paywall or something was being played.

[00:13:50] The viewership for the USL match

[00:13:53] was greater than the MLS man.

[00:13:56] So that's I think is very telling people might be tuned in a little more

[00:14:00] because you just don't watch your own team.

[00:14:03] You like to watch other teams do in your league because you like to keep

[00:14:06] your own team on the line.

[00:14:08] So MLS, go ahead, send your next teams down there so we can beat up on them.

[00:14:13] And then hopefully we can beat up on some of the MLS teams on the way through.

[00:14:17] Yeah, that's a great point.

[00:14:19] And for the whole MLS USL championship debate,

[00:14:23] this next round of US Open Cup gives us a little preview of that where

[00:14:28] we should have eight matchups between these said clubs.

[00:14:31] So it's really good to get a measuring stick out and be like, where you guys

[00:14:38] actually line up thinking you're better than the USL championship.

[00:14:41] And us USL championship fans have to step up and get behind these clubs in a hole

[00:14:48] to say, hey, we support them.

[00:14:51] We have a chance of knocking most of these MLS clubs out now

[00:14:56] and not letting them continue on to the round of 16.

[00:15:00] And that's why it's important for everybody to show up on match day,

[00:15:03] especially for this tournament too, because when you have fans in the stands

[00:15:07] and that's broadcast out that shows the people that there's a lot of interest.

[00:15:12] Liam is a follower of the battery.

[00:15:16] Or just want to watch the tournament.

[00:15:17] If I'm trying to figure out where I can watch this match.

[00:15:23] What can I watch it?

[00:15:25] Well, you're going to have to dig a little.

[00:15:27] You can find them at the Bleacher Report app

[00:15:30] and the main one USSoccer.com.

[00:15:34] But if you really dig a lot, you can find a few links that lead you to

[00:15:38] the Bleacher Report YouTube channel.

[00:15:40] Yeah, so they're not making it easy on us.

[00:15:43] Fans wanting to watch this thing,

[00:15:46] which Liam, I'm sure we're all used to kind of getting the ESPN plus

[00:15:51] the Galazzo Network, even CBS, Fox Sports.

[00:15:54] I mean, we're getting a little pampered.

[00:15:56] But

[00:15:58] hopefully this changes next year.

[00:16:00] We get a little viewership rights and maybe pop it on the STM.

[00:16:03] Well, I think that's a little intro.

[00:16:05] So if you wanted to, if you didn't know about the cup

[00:16:08] and the importance of it or its background, its history,

[00:16:10] hopefully if we provide a little information that you can use

[00:16:13] and look forward to seeing everybody out there may kick off at seven.

[00:16:20] Yeah, if anyone's looking for a little more history, just

[00:16:24] look up with a trophy is named after Lamar Hunt.

[00:16:26] There's some interesting facts around this guy, pretty much

[00:16:30] the father of American sports.

[00:16:31] So really cool history there.

[00:16:34] And it's nice seeing a trophy named after someone who had such an impact,

[00:16:38] not only on USSoccer but US tennis and American football.

[00:16:43] So a little caveat if you want to dig a little more,

[00:16:46] there's plenty of things to look up.

[00:16:49] Fantastic.

[00:16:50] See y'all out on the pitch.