I’m going to chew up some ground that I’ve already ground up pretty good here – but this one deserves to be revisited.
Talking U.S. Open Cup, D.C. United and fairness
As we examine the vexing question, “What in Sam Hill happened to D.C. United!?” one possible answer is the false hope provided by consecutive deep runs into the U.S. Open Cup. United won in 2008 and finished as runner-up in 2009. So, perhaps that success in the scrappy little ragamuffin of a tournament led United officials to mistakenly believe the problems were short-term, easy fixers. Now we know better. This thing is a short-term fix like the
But let’s look a little closer at those deep runs. (Alert: here’s the ground that’s about to be re-covered.)
Consider that every contest during United’s two good Open Cup campaigns has been a home match. Nine in a row.
This isn’t United's fault of course. If U.S. Soccer is going to allow it, you can’t begrudge United for exploiting the opportunity. So, here’s a word to U.S. Soccer:
Come on fellows. It’s time to tweak the Open Cup structure and your process of awarding sites. Any competition where a club gets nine consecutive home matches (including one already this year) is not a fair tournament. The charm of the tournament is that the little guys have a chance to be giant killers. But if the wealthy clubs get to buy their way into advantageous positions … well, what are you really creating there?
United just announced its next Open Cup match. It will be June 2 against
Yep. Right there in the friendly confines of rickety RFK. That will make 10 in a row.
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