Three nights of the US Open Cup are in the book. I recognize this week’s first round was not aptly timed as it conflicted with maybe the biggest week of sports on the US sports calendar.
At least in terms of online sports I’ve been told multiple times that data shows the first week of the NCAA tournament drives more Internet streams and online clicks in the US than even the Super Bowl.
Nonetheless, Open Cup this week had followers and importantly a committed US Soccer Federation that did more in terms of promoting the matches and giving robust online presents to them than we’ve ever seen before. The buzz about the tournament was greater than I have ever seen.
Despite the start of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s basketball tournaments, sellout crowds turned out for matches in Burlington, Vermont and Lubbock, Texas, two college towns with good college basketball teams!
Unsurprisingly there were a fair amount of upsets in the tournament and also some near misses amateur teams trying to up professional teams.
We learned that despite unbelievable chaos off-the-field, NISA teams still are pretty decent on it. No NISA team lost in this round in regular time outside of course the Georgia Lions, who forfeited their match. Last year, I had observed that NISA as a league had gotten much better on the field, but that hardly matters in the big picture when there is nothing but constant chaos off of it. Still this season we need to focus more on the players and coaches in that league because there are some great stories.
We found that in some cases MLS Reserve Teams because they are so young can run and run and run for 90 or 120 minutes in a manner some other teams can’t. Ultimately I don’t think they have the quality or veteran guile to make runs in this tournament, but they certainly do have the fitness levels could make a difference.
We found out MLS Season Pass media star Sacha Kljestan can still play as his presence is the primary reason the Des Moines Menace outlasted NISA’s Capo FC.
I personally found out in matches I attended how good some amateur teams in Florida are. Brave SC and AS Frenzi. The amount of talent knocking around central Florida is pretty extraordinary.
One of the most important lessons we learned is that the quick turn around time between announcements of the draw and Round 1 made it difficult for some clubs to secure, adequate venues and sell tickets although in other cases, it clearly did not inhibit them.
We also learned a lot about how summer league teams have to build rosters for a competition that used to start right before their season began but now starts much earlier thanks to MLS pushing the calendar up to accommodate Leagues Cup. I’ll be writing more on this early next week.
And the final thing we learned or at least I learned is that despite no longer being in NPSL, Miami United can still get some pretty good players and beat big as they did upside and Chattanooga FC on Tuesday.
Below is the won-loss tally (from SoccerAmerica), which supports that most MLS Next Pro players would probably get better experience and exposure playing for USL Championship or League One teams!
The first-round records of the three Division III pro leagues:
• USA League One (11-1)
• MLS Next Pro (7-4)
• NISA (6-3)
I wonder if a winning formula for establishing future USL or NISA clubs may be targeting college towns with rabid basketball fans? Would that translate to becoming enthusiastic soccer fans as well?