Nor'easters Travel To Michigan For Start Of U.S. Open Cup

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City Nor'easters men's soccer team is hitting the road for at least the first round of the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

The Nor’easters will travel to Ypsilanti, Michigan to face AFC Ann Arbor in the first round of the 105th edition of the oldest cup competition in the United States on Wednesday, May 9, 6 p.m. The game will be played at Scicluna Field on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.

The winner will face the Charlotte Independence, of the United Soccer League (USL) in the second round. That game would take place on Wednesday, May 16, at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews, N.C., near Charlotte. Kickoff would be at 7 p.m. The USL is a professional league ranked just below Major League Soccer (MLS).

In all, there are 97 teams in this year’s U.S. Open Cup, 20 of which come from the Premier Development League (PDL), like Ocean City. Based on their 9-4-1 regular season record last year, the Nor'easters were among the top 20 teams in the league and qualified for this year’s U.S. Open Cup.

The 645-mile, 10+ hour trip (by car) from Ocean City to Ypsilanti, Michigan is the first road game for the Nor’easters in the U.S. Open Cup since they had a chance to upset MLS side Philadelphia Union in 2013. They tied that game late, but lost in second half stoppage time. Scicluna Field seats up to 700 people, according to Eastern Michigan University’s website.

The Nor’easters home field is Carey Stadium at Ocean City High School. “The Beach House,” as the Nor’easters call it, seats about 4,000 people.

This is AFC Ann Arbor’s third year in the NPSL and fourth year overall as a team. The Mighty Oak made the NPSL playoffs in each of their first two seasons in the league. Last year, they won the Great Lakes West Division with a 12-1-1 record. They also featured one of the best defensive marks in the league, allowing 9 goals in 12 league matches. Ann Arbor fell to PDL power Michigan Bucks, 1-0, on the road in their only U.S. Open Cup appearance last year.

On the other hand, Ocean City is one of the more successful amateur teams in the country when it comes to the U.S. Open Cup, behind only the Bucks and the Des Moines Menace, also of the PDL. This will be Ocean City's ninth appearance in the U.S. Open Cup, and it has 10 wins, including five upsets of professional teams.
Of those five wins over professional opposition, all of them were shutouts in front of their home fans, outscoring the pros by a combined score of 10-0.

The first pro upset came in 2005 with a 4-0 win over the Long Island Rough Riders (USL-2). The next two upsets came in 2007 and 2009 against the same team, Crystal Palace Baltimore. In 2009, they pulled off a second straight stunner with a 1-0 extra time win over the Real Maryland Monarchs (USL-2). That earned them a date with DC United of MLS. They traveled to Maryland and lost a close 2-0 decision to the defending Open Cup champions.

Despite the disappointing loss that year, Ocean City's silver lining was that the club was awarded the prize for advancing the farthest as an amateur (or USL) team, which back then fetched the club $10,000 in prize money. Should they pull off the same feat this year, they would earn $25,000. That prize money increase is new this year. It was $15,000 last year.

In 2013, the Nor'easters claimed their fifth professional victim with a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, before they fell to the Union in the third round.

After losing to the New York Greek American Atlas SC in the first round of the 2014 tournament, the Nor'easters were left out of the competition in 2015 and 2016.

Last year, Ocean City picked up its first win in the competition since 2013, when it defeated Junior Lone Star FC, 3-1,at Carey Stadium. In the second round, the Nor'easters fell to Harrisburg on sudden death penalty kicks.

In addition to the increased prize money for going farthest as an amateur or USL team, the tournament winner will receive $300,000 (up from $250,000 last year) and the runner-up will receive $100,000 (up from $60,000). The winner will also play in the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League.

Modeled after England's FA Cup, the US Open Cup is the second-oldest continually-operating soccer tournament in the world and has been the national championship for the United States since it launched in 1913. The tournament is open to professional and amateur teams from MLS to Sunday beer league teams and everything in between.

The tournament begins in May and runs throughout the summer, with this year's championship game tentatively set for Sept. 26. Sporting Kansas City is the reigning champion.

To view the full list of first round matchups for this year’s U.S. Open Cup, visit www.ussoccer.com.

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