When the New York Red Bulls took the pitch today for its US Open Cup game against Chicago their starting line-up was as follows:
Coundoul, Albright, Keel, Lassiter, Jones, Schneider, Rooney, Kassel, da Luz, Ballouchy ©, Hertzog
If you’re unfamiliar with some of those names, you wouldn’t be alone. It was the very definition of a second choice line-up. This is, of course, not uncommon in the US Open Cup, where many MLS clubs have treated the competition with disdain. There have been notable exceptions – the Seattle Sounders have famously treated the competition with a great deal of respect during their first two seasons in MLS.
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Actually, over the past few years there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of clubs that give the Open Cup the ‘ole Junior College try. The Red Bulls choice to go entirely with reserves tonight is the exception now, not the norm (in the main draw. In the qualifiers, it’s still a reserve-fest). Part of the reason for that has been an increased interest shown by the hardcore fans.
Those fans don’t take kindly to being shown a less than full effort by the clubs. They particularly don’t take kindly to seeing that when they have travelled from New York to Chicago to watch the game. Understandably, the Red Bulls are getting all kinds of flack from MLS fans tonight. If the Sounders gave their fans money back for playing poorly last year, I can only imagine what those 15 or so Red Bulls fans deserve to get from the club for traveling tonight.
Squad rotation is a fact of life and every team has the right to do what they think is best. However, when you demonstrate the level of contempt for a competition that the Red Bulls did today (they lost 4-0, by the way), it does cause one to take pause.
Consider for a moment that New York is the last original MLS team to have a bare trophy case – no Supporter’s Shields, no MLS Cups and no US Open Cups (they do have a Western Conference trophy, which only counts as a significant award in Don Garber’s mind). They only needed to win three games to end that drought. Alas.
Regardless, it’s stuff like this that should make Canadian fans thankful for the popularity and success of this county’s much younger trophy. The Voyageurs Cup may not have the history of the US Open Cup, but the competition matches it for passion right now.