Lamar Hunt US Open Cup– Quarter Finals
Another fantastic night of American soccer, at the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. 3 matches, 6 MLS teams, 16 goals (9 of which were scored in the penalty shootout), and tons of American Soccer heart and soul.
Thursday, July 23rd, 2015
New York Red Bulls 1(3) – 1(4) Philadelphia Union
The match actually started with New York – ranked 3rd in the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference – dominating the match, dictating the pace and creating chances Against Philadelphia Union – Ranked 7 in the MLS Eastern Conference. Philadelphia’s defense was confused at best, and non-existent in other times.
Things have gone from bad to worse for Philadelphia Union when senior player, forward Conor Casey committed a stupid foul and clipped New York’s defender Conor Lade’s heal to trip him after heal took a ball in the penalty box. Casey was show the red card (40’), leaving the Union with 10 men for the night.
Still, a phenomenal performance by Philadelphia’s young goal keeper John McCarthy, who made 9 saves during the night kept the Union in the game. Early in the second half, Union’s Eric Ayuk scored (55’).
However, seconds away from Philadelphia registering a win against all odds, New York Red Bulls Lloyd Sam scored (90’+4’).
During the Penalty shootout, a miss by red Bull’s Bradly Wright-Phillips; and another save by Union’s McCarthy, denying New York’s Lloyd Sam of a penalty goal, provided Philadelphia with the narrow win.
Sporting Kansas City 3 – 1 Huston Dynamo
Although Visitors Huston Dynamo are currently having their fair share of trouble, ranked 9th in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, the team came determined to fight, and have led the match well into the 2nd half. But Sporting’s Dom Dwyer had different plans for the night…
The first setback for Huston came on the half-hour mark, when midfielder Luis Garrido was shown the red card and sent off due to a reckless tackle on SKC’s Amadou Dia.
Despite player with 10 men, Huston Dynamo held its ground against hosts Sporting Kansas City, ranked 4th in the MLS Western Conference, and Huston’s Will Burin scored the 1st goal of the match (59’).
12 minutes later, Kansas’s Benny Feilhaber scored the equalizer (71’). This brought Kansas back to life, and after relentless attacks, Dom Dwyer scored a late second for Kansas City (86’).
Two minutes later, Dwyer went on to assist Kriszian Nemeth to score an insurance goal for Kansas, sealing the hosts’ victory.
Chicago Fire 3 – 1 Orlando City FC
This game can only be described by the cliché: “the best team won”. Although Orlando’s Boss Adrian Heath declared at the beginning of the US Cup that winning this competition is one of the expansion team’s main goals, sadly it all ended with a bang on Tuesday night.
It was a bit of a surprise for all to see hosts Chicago Fire exploding into the pitch as it did. Chicago now sits at the bottom of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference, while visitors Orlando are actually clawing their way up.
With an epic opening for the hosts, Chicago’s Patrick Nyako scored the 1st goal right after kick off (3’).
Orlando still managed to somehow deny Chicago from the many chances it created on the first half, and even got even early in the 2nd half, with Cyle Larin’s equalizing goal (56’).
However, 2 substitutions that Chicago made, that had proven to be crucial, sealed the win for the Fire.
Forward David Accam came on at the 2nd half (59’) and started to increase the pace of Chicago’s attack in his typical fast and forceful style of game.
A few minutes later, Fire’s boss Frank Yallop also brought in Kennedy Igboananike (66’). Both designated players Accam and Igboananike injected a face pace into the game, which seemed to be too much for Orlando to contain.
It ended up with Igboananike scoring 2 phenomenal goals at the end of the game (87’, 90’), to bring a win to Chicago Fire, who dominated the game for most of the night anyhow.
