Baltimore Draws Ocean City Barons in Open Cup First Round

Published on June 3, 2009 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Crystal Palace Baltimore News Release


June 3rd 2009 - Baltimore MD - Crystal Palace Baltimore has been handed a road-trip for its US Open Cup first round tie, facing the Ocean City Barons of the Premier Development League at Carey Stadium in Ocean City, New Jersey at 7:00pm on June 9, 2009. The winning team will advance to the second round to take on the winner of the match between Aegean Hawks FC (of the US Amateur Soccer Association) and Palace's local USL2 rivals Real Maryland. The second round game will take place on Tuesday, June 16th at a location to be determined. The first round pairings were determined by dividing the clubs geographically into eight groups of four and then conducting random draws within each group.

In Palace Baltimore's inaugural 2007 season, their first taste of the U.S. Open Cup was not a pleasant one. In their opening round visit to Ocean City, a physical contest saw Baltimore's Harold Urquijo sent off in the 22nd minute followed by Sergio Flores in the chaotic final minutes, while the Barons were issued a total of seven yellow cards.

Palace will instead draw inspiration from their performance through last year's Open Cup campaign, which saw them shock Major League Soccer's Red Bull New York 2-0 in the third round and nearly knock out the reigning champion New England Revolution in the quarter-finals, eventually succumbing to the MLS side in a penalty shoot-out.

Very few players that played in the first year are still with the team so Palace Baltimore Co-Manager Pete Medd, doesn't consider the 2007 game an issue: "Our success from last year is fresh in our memories and we want to carry that into this year. We're a good cup team but amateur teams can sometimes present a problem for professional teams - their level of desire is extremely high but as pros we have to handle that and we'll be ready for that. I don't think we'll take our foot of the gas just because they're not professionals."

A total of 40 teams, including 24 professional and 16 amateur clubs will compete when the tournament kicks off in June for the 96th consecutive year. Palace receive an automatic berth into the first round of competition, alongside the seven other U.S.-based USL Second Division teams. Joining the eight USL-2 teams in the first round on June 9th will be eight USL First Division teams and 16 amateur teams. On June 16th, the 16 first round winners will face off with eight victors moving into the third round to take on the eight teams representing Major League Soccer on June 30th. The quarter-finals are scheduled for July 7, the semi-finals July 21/22 and the final September 2.

Overall, 120 amateur division teams nationwide participated in 2009 U.S. Open Cup qualifying, with 16 teams advancing to the tournament. Major League Soccer's top six teams from the 2008 standings qualified, while D.C. United and the Seattle Sounders won their respective play-in games to complete the field of 40.

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