USL-1 Charleston Battery

Battery heads to Dallas for U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal

July 7, 2008 - USL First Division (USL-1)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston, SC. The Charleston Battery squares off against Major League Soccer's FC Dallas Tuesday night (July 8) at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX (8:30 PM, REAL 1340 AM); the game is a quarterfinal match in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The Battery advanced to the quarterfinal with a thrilling shootout win versus current MLS champs, the Houston Dynamo (1-1 AET); Dallas defeated the Miami FC Blues (USL1) 2-1, behind two goals from forward Abe Thompson to earn its berth in the last eight.

The game is a rematch of the 2007 quarterfinal that Dallas won in OT; this is the third consecutive year that Charleston has met FC Dallas in the Open Cup; in 2006 Dallas bounced the Battery with a shootout win (3-3 AET).

Last Tuesday's penalty-shootout win versus MLS's Houston Dynamo marked the second year in succession that the Battery has knocked the Dynamo out of the competition; in 2007 midfielder Stephen Armstrong scored a dramatic OT winner to send Charleston through.

Charleston finished the game versus Houston with only nine men after defender Marco Reda and midfielder Chris Corcoran were both shown red cards; both players will be ineligible to play Tuesday night in Dallas. The game went to a penalty-shootout after ending 1-1 after extra time; the Battery was perfect from the spot scoring four out of four with goals from Osvaldo Alonso, Stephen Armstrong, Darren Spicer and Tim Velten. Houston defender Geoff Cameron missed and forward Franco Caraccio was denied by Dusty Hudock who saved the final Dynamo PK to lift Charleston to victory.

Dallas enters Tuesday's match on the back of a 1-1 tie with the Kansas City Wizards in a game played last Friday night at Pizza Hut Park. Dallas is currently in 6th position in Major League Soccer's Western Conference but is just three points behind the leaders, LA Galaxy.

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the U.S. Soccer Federation's National Championship, is an annual competition open to all amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. It is the oldest annual team tournament in U.S. sports history and among the oldest soccer tournaments of its type in the world. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor long-time soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.

At stake in the tournament is $180,000 in prize money broken down as follows: $100,000 to the champion, $50,000 to the runner up and $10,000 to the team that advances deepest into the tournament from each of the Division II, Division III and amateur levels. The winner of the U.S. Open Cup also receives an automatic berth into the CONCACAF Champions League.

Radio / Web Video

Tuesday night's U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal will be broadcast live in Charleston on REAL 1340 AM; pre-match starts at 8:15 PM with kick off set for 8:30 PM. The game will also be available via a live video feed on the web at http://fc.dallas.mlsnet.com/t104/.

NEXT UP: Charleston Battery at FC Dallas (MLS), US Open Cup Quarterfinal. Tues., July 8. Kickoff at 8:30 PM. REAL 1340 AM / 8:15 pm.

NEXT LEAGUE FIXTURE: v Puerto Rico Islanders, Sat., July 12, Blackbaud Stadium, Daniel Island. Kickoff at 7:30 PM (971-GOAL / www.charlestonbattery.com).

Check out the Charleston Battery Statistics



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