US Open Cup Second Round Results and Third Round Matchups

The 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup played out it’s sec­ond round last night across the coun­try.  The remain­ing 16 teams from the open­ing round bat­tled it out for their guran­teed chance to face one of the qual­i­fy­ing eight Major League Soc­cer teams in just a week’s time.

Among the high­lights:
*The lone remain­ing ama­teur side, Hol­ly­wood United, were bounced from the tour­na­ment by the MLS bound Seat­tle Sounders 6–0.  Seat­tle put two past Hol­ly­wood in the open­ing 15 min­utes, and then striker Sebastien Le Toux took over, net­ting four con­sec­u­tive goals (two in the first half, two in the sec­ond half) to lock up advance­ment.
*The Cleve­land City Stars were the only USL Sec­ond Divi­sion club to defeat a USL First Divi­sion oppo­nent in 4 games, win­ning on the road against the Min­nesota Thun­der 2–0 after extra time.  Cleve­land finally broke through in the 104th minute of the match, and despite being down to 10 men for the sec­ond 15 of extra time, got a late penalty to secure their win.
*And in the lone game to fea­ture two USL First Divi­sion sides, Miami FC shut out the Atlanta Sil­ver­hawks 1–0.  Alex Afonso net­ted the lone goal in the 40th minute to secure Miami’s place in the next round.

Also advanc­ing were the Rich­mond Kick­ers, Crys­tal Palace Bal­ti­more, Charleston Bat­tery, Car­olina Rail­hawks, and Rochester Rhi­nos.  You can read more on the matches at the USL web­site, or check out the run­ning blog of the night over at USOpenCup.com.

Next week’s intro­duc­tion of MLS teams sees half of the eight on the road and the other half host­ing.  Will MLS see an improv­ment on last year’s third round, where five of the eight MLS clubs were bounced in their first game?  With a spot in the CONCACAF Cham­pi­ons League now offi­cially on the line, you would think so.  Your third round matchups (all matches July 1 at 7:30 local time unless noted):

Kansas City Wiz­ards at Car­olina Rail­hawks
Hous­ton Dynamo at Charleston Bat­tery
New York Red Bulls at Crys­tal Palace Bal­ti­more (time and date TBD)
Chivas USA at Seat­tle Sounders (time 7PM)
Rich­mond Kick­ers at New Eng­land Rev­o­lu­tion (time 7PM)
Cleve­land City Stars at Chicago Fire
Rochester Rhi­nos at DC United
Miami FC at FC Dallas

Tagged as: US Open Cup