A Strange New Problem Pops Up in the Open Cup

This issue is not about play on the pitch, it's about before the match starts and other moments

As we progress through the 2025 edition of the US Open Cup, we have seen certain themes popping up in each edition of the tournament. That's why we love this competition, the tales we tell that are true and wild.

We have seen multiple Red Cards being given, and the team that has been down a man or two wins the match. A multitude of penalty shootouts, Own Goals are the game winners for the opposition, or a wild regulation goal fest that keeps giving.

But now we have a new one that will never be penciled in on the scoresheet, but we have seen it happen with our own eyes. It's kinda difficult to explain, but we have seen these clubs attempt to start extra time on the wrong side of the pitch.

How is it possible that you don't remember which side of the pitch you started on in the first half of regulation, which is the same side you start on in the first half of extra time if the score is level? Who were the ones that had the brain fart?

It looked like all of them did, as that was the third or fourth time it's happened in the US Open Cup. CBS Sports play-by-play announcer Mike Watts was dumbfounded during the restart of the match before extra time began when DC United and the Charleston Battery had to switch sides as they started the wrong way round.

In the second round of the Open Cup as the Portland Hearts of Pine Vs. Hartford Athletic match was going from extra time to the penalty kick shootout in Portland, Maine. The referee informed the crowd, who jammed up behind the net to allow space behind the net so there was no visual interferrence for the kick takers.

When has that ever happened? I admit it's a high school field, there are no bleachers behind the end zones and goal nets, but to delay the start of the penalty kick shootout so the referee tells the fans to stop distracting the kick takers was ridiculous and silly.

For all my years watching and reporting on the US Open Cup, I have never seen anything like that in my entire life, or as Bugs Bunny would say. "WELLLLLLLLLLL SOMETHING NEW HAS BEEN ADDED!"

But if we didn't have the U.S. Open Cup, we wouldn't hear or see with our own eyes these types of whacky displays of mis-communication or just forgetting which side to start from if the match does go to the extra time session, or now the referee telling the crowd to step away from the back of the net.

We've seen pitch invaders, fights in the stands, goal celebrations, and shootout celebrations either in regulation, playoffs, continental club cup tournaments, and so on. Forgetting where to start in extra time and referees directing the crowds during the shootout, well that's a new wrinkle in the history of the US Open Cup.