It Seems To Me . . .

MLS, USSF must find a way to pump life into U.S. Open Cup.

By Robert Wagman
SoccerTimes

(Friday, July 23, 2004) -- For the first time ever, four A-League teams reached the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by defeating Major League Soccer clubs in the fourth round of the United States Soccer Federation-sponsored event.

The Charleston (S.C.) Battery defeated the MetroStars 1-0, the Minnesota Thunder defeated the league-leading Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 in Minneapolis, the Rochester (N.Y.) Raging Rhinos went on the road to defeat the New England Revolution 3-1 on penalty kicks after drawing 1-1 in regulation, and the Richmond (Va.) Kickers have ousted D.C. United 2-1.

It's something of a tradition around the world that occasionally lower-division clubs defeat higher-level clubs in Cup competitions. At least theoretically, however there should be a sharper distinction between the first-division MLS and the second-tier A-League than between clubs in many first and second divisions around the world who compete in promotion\relegation systems.

In truth, there is probably not a huge difference between the worst team in the English Premier League and the best team in the First Division, and ditto between the worst in 1Bundesliga and the best in the 2Bundesliga. Thus, while a win by a lower-division team is still an upset wherever it happens, at times it is almost understandable.

But the A-League does not feature teams who played in MLS last season and hope to again be playing in MLS next season. Rather, the best players on many of A-League teams, are players who have failed in MLS, or who were not good enough to make their rosters in the first place. The difference in the level of play between the two leagues should be substantial. So, having four MLS clubs to go down to defeat to A-League clubs raises some interesting issues.

After being eliminated by the Rhinos, New England coach Steve Nicol said "We want to win every game we play. We have some tough games ahead, but the team we fielded was capable of winning this game."

That statement almost perfectly captures two of the most glaring issues.

Just how seriously do MLS coaches take the Open Cup? The simple answer is not very. Against Rochester, Nicol started a squad mostly of reserves. He said he wanted to rest his regulars for the upcoming weekend's match with the San Jose Earthquakes. That was true of the lineups that started for the Galaxy and the MetroStars. They too were relying heavily on reserves and a number of usual starters did not appear until late in their matches as panic started to settle in.

D.C. United's Peter Nowak appeared to take his team's match against Richmond a bit more seriously; at least he seemed to take the loss harder than the other three coaches. In his case, he was missing three starters to injury, but he also kept his usual starting goalkeeper and central defender on the bench. So he was down at six normal starters.

If the coaches took these fourth-round matches seriously, then they would start their best 11 and would not bring on the reserves until getting a couple goals in the lead. MLS teams mostly take the other approach: starting mostly reserves and waiting the panic to set in before inserting key players.

It seems most coaches in MLS assume they can start just about anyone on their rosters and easily cruise to a win against an A-League opponent. If this week showed anything, that's simply not true. Despite all the chest thumping by MLS, the quality of play has dropped off noticeably over the past few seasons, and this is most pronounced when you dip into the reserves on most team's meager rosters. There you find young players just starting out or fringe players holding onto jobs in many cases because they are willing to play for very little compensation. Maybe, few on A-League rosters could win starting roles in MLS, but when you get down below number 12 and 13 on many MLS teams, the A-Leaguers are at about the same talent level and in many cases are much more experienced.

If there was one common factor in the four MLS team losses, it is that their players, especially the veteran regulars who did start, seemed to treat the matches even more casually than their coaches. Truthfully, what is there that might motivate them, except perhaps pride, and that's not all that much of a motivator in the dog days of summer when you are being asked to play an extra midweek match.

In most of the countries of the world, winning the Cup means both prestige and a very nice personal payday. Winning the U.S. Open Cup really means neither.

Somehow, both the USSF and MLS need to work together to make the Open Cup a more meaningful competition. Whether it's finding a sponsor to add to the prize money given to the winning club, to be distributed directly to the players, or using the competition as qualification for some other lucrative tournament, more incentive needs to be added. Currently, the winning team received $100,000 and the runnerup $50,000 to distribute how it pleases.

After DC United's loss, midfielder Dema Kovalenko told The Washington Post. "We didn't come out to play and it's all our fault. We've got to do better."

He could have been speaking for most of the players on all four losing MLS teams.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent. E-mail Robert Wagman.