US Open Cup Second Round Preview
Having proven that they can beat a team of developmental professionals from an MLS club and still facing the recruitment battle that amateur sides all face in the Cup's early rounds, Des Moines Menace now play a second division 3 professional side in Union Omaha. The Owls are the defending USL League One champions and secured their first win of the young league season, cruising to a 3-1 win on the road against South Georgia Tormenta.
Forward Madison moves on from their victory over Duluth FC in the first round to face FC Tulsa of the USL Championship. The Oklahoman club is 3-0-1 in their league and their hosts are 1-0-1 in League One.
Looking forward, the remaining Championship clubs will join for the third round, and the clubs MLS has deigned to include in the tournament will join in round four - including our own Minnesota United. Both Menace and Forward play on Wednesday night. Stay tuned to this site for full coverage, and follow us on Bluesky for live posts.
US Open Cup First Round Review - Forward Madison FC see off the BlueGreens
Forward Madison 5-1 Duluth FC
Forward Madison finished with a fistful of goals and a comfortable score-line but the course of the match may have been very different had Duluth FC’s Alex Mihov not raised his hands into the face of Nico Brown for a straight red card in the thirty-fifth minute. It only took Forward 5 minutes with the numerical advantage to score, through Ferrety Sousa but that was the extent of the damage at the half, in part because of a goal line clearance by Jake Starling in first half injury time.
A long-ball over the top of the Forward defense in the 63rd minute saw home defenders obstruct each other and Mario Fernandez swept the ball home after the on-rushing goalkeeper couldn't fully stop a shot. Ten minutes later, the home advantage was restored as Eddie Munjoma finished a passage of passes in close on the right wing. The final score gained an unrepresentative gloss in the 85th minute as Juan Galindrez broke out on the counter and settled the bouncing ball before half volleying it into the corner. John Murphy Jr slotted away Forward's 4th after Tristan Adams missed a cross, and it was 5 after Adam Braman in goal for Duluth conceded a PK and Galindrez saw his penalty saved but the rebound nestle in the net.
Coming Up:
Forward move onto the 2nd round, where they host FC Tulsa of the USL Championship on April 2nd at 6:30pm.
US Open Cup First Round Review - Sporting Kansas City II pay the penalty against Des Moines Menace
Sporting Kansas City II 1-2 Des Moines Menace
Des Moines Menace brought an experience-laden squad to the maelstrom of Swope Park, with a 15-year age gap between the two squads' average ages.
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However, even with the aid of wind gusting up to 45 mph at their backs, the home side failed to make their advantage count in the first half. SKCII accumulated 6 corners and hit the crossbar twice (within a minute).
With the visitors gaining the wind advantage in the second half, they might have been expected to stroll away. Still, neither team asserted themselves and it took until near the hour mark for the deadlock to be broken, from a penalty kick by Sacha Kljestan (52 caps for USA and 13 years in MLS, amongst other things) as Bradley Wright-Phillips (twice MLS golden boot winner) tiptoed through the minefield at the top of the SKCII area and Benny Feilhaber (150 games for SKC, 44 caps for USA and a former head coach of SKCII) burst through, only to be halted by a foul by Jacob Bartlett. Their lead would only last 5 minutes, as SKCII loaded the box and Beckham Uderitz slotted home the equalizer. In the 74th minute, a lightning fast attack down the right by Leroy Enzugusi for Menace set up the winning goal as he wriggled his way into the penalty area, stopped by a foul by an SKCII defender and despite a solid appeal for offside. The penalty kick, taken and scored by Kljestan for his second goal and last touch of the game, would be the winning goal.
Coming Up
The Menace, who will still be without a lot of their college-athletes and therefore likely to repeat the All Star trick, will enter the second round draw scheduled to take place after all the games are over this week (or most, since we have an anomalous Friday match due to weather). Stay tuned to our social media channels for more.
Tonight sees Duluth FC v Forward Madison in the capital of Wisconsin. Full coverage of that on our Bluesky, and here tomorrow.
Update:
The second round draw is out, with Des Moines Menace hosting Union Omaha , who won on the road against Flatirons FC
US Open Cup First Round Preview
A jam-packed mid-week schedule sees the return of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup after the conclusion of qualifying. With US Soccer deciding that every tie would feature an amateur club and a pro side, the Des Moines Menace of USL League Two faces Sporting Kansas City II of MLS NEXT PRO on Wednesday, and Duluth FC of NPSL travels to Forward Madison of USL League One. Since this is amongst the first match for everyone, there are precious few roster details available (apart from Menace, but more about that below)
The tournament structure has been revised yet again, with only 16 MLS sides competing (their NEXT PRO sides will represent the rest). The Loons are one of those 16.
Menacing the opposition since 1994
Des Moines Menace are the designated amateur side in their match. However, this is a weak distinction given that the Menace organization is pros-in-waiting (as USL Pro Iowa) and that they will field a roster thick with former pros who have reinstated as amateurs. Oh, and they are a two-time champion of their league, amateur though that is.
In their 13 year history of matches in the USOC, they have been knocked out by a panoply of professional sides, most recently Union Omaha last year.
SKC II have four players from the MLS club on their roster (Ian James, Jack Kortkamp, Jacob Bartlett and Stephen Afrifa) and 7 academy players from a 30 man squad and have started the season 0-2. Check out the action from SKC II vs MNUFC 2 last year for a snapshot of their recent past, via our sister sister site Northland Soccer Journal.
The Flamingos host the BlueGreens
Forward Madison will host Duluth FC for a second year in a row, having secured a 2-0 win in Wisconsin last year. The hosts began their season tonight, with a surprisingly blunt 2-0 defeat on the road against a resolute smash-and-grab effort from first year club FC Naples. The margin of defeat equals any of the 6 they suffered last season across four tournaments as they reached the semifinals of the USL League One playoffs and the final of the Jägermeister Cup, losing both on penalties.
Their guests are in the off-season but also reached the semifinals of their league, winning the Midwest Region on the way. The match will mark the first competitive outing for new head coach Thomás Pazo. The Carioca man joins following Sean Morgan's move to lead coaching for the Gitchi Gummi youth club. They played Dakota Fusion in 2018 to a wild PK shootout and played the Menace in the 2019 competition (reports courtesy of our predecessor, E Pluribus Loonum).
We will be live on BlueSky and will have a full recap on both these matches later.