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 The United States is sometimes derided for its lack of football culture and traditions. For at least one night, the Lamar Hunt U.S Open Cup filled that void admirably as Seattle Sounders F.C. defeated D.C. United 2-1 in the 96th edition of the oldest competition in American football.
Spurred by a war of words between the two team’s front offices, the game drew more interest than the U.S. Open Cup had seen in recent memory, and the game lived up to the hype with lots of action, entertaining goals, impressive saves, and amazing stupidity.
Of the 17,329 in the stands at aging Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C., supporters of the D.C. United soccer team - Barra Brava , and Screaming Eagles - filled the east side of the stadium, while the Sounders F.C. supporter impressively fills its section of the upper deck, even though its home field lies more than 2,700 miles away from their team’s pitch. The hundreds of supporters were living up to their banner crying "We Will Follow You Wherever You May Go."
Resembling England’s FA Cup, the U.S tournament features professional, semi-professional and amateur clubs from the top five levels of U.S. football: Major League Soccer; the United Soccer Leagues’ (USL) First Division, Second Division, and Premier Development League; and the United States Adult Soccer Association. In 2008, D.C. United defeated the Charleston (S.C.) Battery of the USL First Division and was going for a rare repeat of U.S. Open Cups. The winner of the U.S. Open Cup also earns a birth into the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Champions League.
Only a year ago, Seattle had a USL club, but that has been transformed into one of the more exciting clubs in the U.S. after being selected to join the MLS. Led by former Premier League keeper Kasey Keller, Columbian Fredy Montero, and former Premier League and Swedish national Freddie Ljungberg, the expansion MLS side is battling for a playoff spot, easily leading the league in attendance, and - on this night - winning its first hardware.
"This is just important for our club and our team. It’s tremendous for our fans to be able to get this win and be able to take this back to Seattle with us," Seattle Sounder F.C. Manager Sigi Schmid said. "For qualifying ourselves for the CONCACAF Champions League next year, it's a tremendous thing for our organization. Teams need to win big games to start believing they can win big games, and this is the first step on that process."
After exchanging numerous opportunities, Montero broke open the scoring by knocking in a rebound at 67th minute. Up until then D.C. United keeper Josh Wicks had demonstrated stellar play and had arguably been the Man of the Match. However, the infamously hot-tempered Wicks went from hero to goat in seconds after earning a deserved red card after stomping on a prone Montero after the goal.
"Josh kept us in there, but made a mistake that cost us," D.C. United manager Tom Soehn said. "A player can’t put himself before the team."
"I can’t tell you [what I was thinking]," a gravel-voiced and somber Wicks said. "It was a mistake on my part...There’s no excuse for it."
D.C.’s already shaky defense couldn’t handle the man disadvantage and gave up an easy goal to Sounders F.C. Sebastien Le Toux, who stood by himself in front of the goal at the 86th minute to tap in a easy cross from Roger Levesque after his defender slipped.
In the waning minutes, D.C. United offense ratcheted up the offense with Clyde Simms knocking in a deflected free kick in the 89th minute. D.C. kept up the pressure, forcing Keller to make a couple big stops in extra time, but could not get a ball to the back of the net.
As Keller, one of the legends of U.S. football, kicked the ball away to midfield in the waning moments, he also sealed Seattle’s first trophy and inched his club’s history and American football tradition a little bit further ahead.
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