By night's end, the final of the 2011 U.S. Open Cup will be set.
The Chicago Fire and Richmond Kickers square off in a battle of unlikely semifinal participants who are both looking to maintain their surprising runs (8:30 p.m., live stream on Chicago-Fire.com). The Kickers are the last non-MLS team remaining in the field and will look to beat their third straight MLS opponent, although the Fire enter the match in good form as winners of two straight games.
In the nightcap, two MLS Western Conference powers do battle for a spot in the final as the Seattle Sounders host FC Dallas (10 p.m., live stream on SoundersFC.com). Both teams have been coping with schedule congestion, but both will be amped up in hopes of getting a step closer to potentially sealing a place in the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League.
If you will be watching Tuesday's U.S. Open Cup semifinals, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action.
Off topic – ESPN Insider has claimed that a deal for Dempsey to transfer to Arsenal for $16.3 million will happen before the close of the deadline.
I’m very excited he will get a chance to play in the Champions League this year!!!
nice photo selection on the Fire website – yikes
Wow this stream on the Fire site is terrible….
Which squad is the USL Pro team again?!?
I like the fact that the fire have a live stream on their website, but i feel like i am watching a replay of a game from the 70′s.
Hardly any team broadcasts a high quality feed for these USOC games. Often times it’s just a feed from the jumbotron type display in the stadium. Doesn’t it make you feel like you’re watching an online stream of a Carling Cup game or something?
Yeah but this is the semi-final….
Would love to see these games on TV somewhere
Any scores? Following on my phone.
0 – 0 26th minute
do the fire seem to be in charge of the game?
Am I the only one who’s video isn’t working?
Nope. No video for me, either.
Nice try, but the Sounders Open Cup streams are 10 million times better then this. This is garbage.
Video is working for me.
Chicago up 1-0 at half. Oduro almost made it 2-0 right before the half too.
Same with Grazzini. Chicago is dominating play (as they should be).
Word from the Fire is they’re gonna fix the stream at halftime but they didn’t want to interrupt any actual gameplay.
As for the game, the Fire started off slow, but really started to pick it up right before the PK and then really controlled the game for the most part after that, minus one or tow Richmond breaks.
Video feed sucks, but the guy calling the game is pretty good. Wish MLS would hire him over some of the others they have. Fire looked lost early, but starting to control the game since the PK. If only they could finish they might be up 3-0 at the half.
They’re fixing it at halftime. link to twitter.com
As a fire fan I pretty much consider this a lost season but a US Open Cup championship would help make things a little better. I have to admit I’d be worried about us in the CONCACAF champions league though… If we can’t do well in the league we wouldn’t have the depth to do well there.
16.3 million? I’m a huge Dempsey fan but that seems like too high a price to pay for him.
Well to be fair TFC aren’t embarrassing themselves in the CCL, and look at their track record in league play. The Fire have been bad, painfully at times, this and last season, but TFC is consistently well below average.
It’s the second half and it still sucks. The Fire feed is so bad that I hope Richmond wins, despite their terrible name.
For a proven epl goal scorer? That seems right. I’m an arsenal suppporter and if we pay $16 for 10 goals I’d say good deal
tuned in just in time to see Odura score a beauty. 2-0 Fire.
Oduro…Oops
what’s gotten nto Oduro lately? nice goal
I suppose. I guess it’s just hard for me to imagine anyone paying that much for a US player haha. I think the most that’s ever been paid is around 10 million for Jozy?
Oduro played for richmond GK Ronnie Pascale while he was at VCU
Oduro just completed a sweet backheel layoff for Nyarko and I’m pretty sure it’s what he meant to do! Where did Oduro suddenly find this technical ability!?
I didnt think it was possible to find a play by play announcer more annoying than the LA Galaxys’ (Jim Watson) The guy doing the play by play for the Fire is a certifiable Tool…
tense ending but Fire advance 2-1
where is the sounders game being played?
wow, the sounders are playing a great style.
Go Fire!!
Hope Seattle wins…..cause they suck… and Dallas doesnt.
1-0 Sounders. Beautiful goal from Freddy Montero.
call me crazy but i thought richmond was the better side… thought they had the better bits of possesion… Kickers just didn’t have anything to offer in the final third. Great goal by Oduro, class right outside the box, ultimatly the difference in the game
You’re crazy.
Richmond did well to get a goal, but the Fire dominated all night and would have had more if the ref had called the game in front of him instead of whatever delusional fantasy he was watching in his mind.
Dallas not really showing up here outside of two Martin Chavez passes that Brek Shea couldn’t get to.
The two teams are about mirror images this season, but Seattle is dominating this game. I trust in the Busdriver to make an adjustment and get going.
Ugo Ihemulu looks terrible, I can’t see him being on the Nats radar for a while with all the other up and coming CB’s ahead of him in my book.
i’m not sure how you can say chicago dominated. run of play was pretty even and favoring richmond if either team.
I will say the ref seemed a bit partial to the kickers, and richmond was lucky to not have a few calls go against them in their own third, don’t think it had a huge impact on the game.
Brek Shea has been absolutely nowhere this game…haven’t really seen anything positive from him the entire match.
hahah…a little mean spirited but I like the “Blackburn Reject” chant
This match is what USA soccer should be about!
Let’s go win the US Open Cup!
SSFC!!
Yeah, but his proven through and through an rightly so is valued as much.
Thank you Zach Scott!
I don’t understand why Seattle doesn’t get a relatively big soccer-specific stadium-I understand Century Link was built with soccer in mind, good relationship with the Seahwawks, etc., but don’t the best fans in the league deserve a much larger version of Livestrong Park?
A 50,000 seat sss would probably increase attendance because a) it would be amazing and no turf and have amenities and b) because sounders fans wouldn’t want to have empty seats, so they would bridge the 13k difference between status quo attendance and capacity.
The biggest reason seemingly to do this is to become the Wembley of the US-I understand we have way more cities than England and we want to diversify, but this bs of having more away fans than home fans, taht wouldn’t happen in Seattle-great USMNT support plus relative lack of latinos(not to be racist, just the demographics-the US plays in Colombus against mexico for gods sake right now).
because of the lack of large sss’, the US has to either a) play in football stadiums which aren’t meant for soccer or b) liverstrong stadium’s which are great but small. Do it Seattle, become our Cauldren.
All’s far in love and war, as the saying goes.
LOL! I read this as “Chicago’s gonna throw the game”, Black Sox style.
classy move directed at a REAL Seattle homegrown product.. who was also the best player on the pitch for the last 45+min.
why wasnt he starting Schellas? damn
I think we’re a good match. Any given game, either of these two can win.
I’m expecting them in the playoffs. Kinda sucks because one of the two best teams will be out too soon, but it’s gonna be one helluva series.
The only valid point is the turf.
I assume you have never been there.
CLink is the best stadium in the world. I have been to over 100 soccer games there, it is an awesome stadium.
They will build The Starfire Complex to seat more than 4.5 thousand very soon. I hope they don’t go too small. Make it 15,000 or so, rather than 7,000.
He was a Dallas player during the game. Now that it’s over, he can be a REAL Seattle homegrown product again.
Seattle has Stadium district, an entire district of the city built around the two stadiums. Bars, restaurants, public transpo, parking, everything is built around Qwest and Safeco.
There’s not room for another stadium in Stadium district and building anywhere else would make the gameday experience much worse. We have a “SSS” (Soccer SPECIFIC stadium). We do not have an “SOS” (Soccer ONLY Stadium).
Plus, our goal is to sell out Qwest for MLS matches, not downsize.
Agreed with Charles!
If we’re gonna spend money on a stadium, let’s spend it on Starfire!
All fair points-especially the stadium district one, obviously being in an urban setting like that is a big deal.
My question then is, is Century good enough as a stadium to become the US’ Wembley?
Demographically and support-wise, could you guys get a majority/super-majority US crowd to games, even against small Central American countries?
With all due respect, why do we need a Wembley?
England is a small country and London is the capital as well as the largest urban area–by a large stretch. Even folks who don’t cheer for London teams must feel a connection to the city due to its role in the nation.
You think Ives feels that way about Seattle? Or Joe Blow in Philly? Or any typical MLS or USMNT fan?
Don’t get me wrong–I’m a Sounders STH and love this town. But it does feel a little isolated up here sometimes. It’s a long way to pretty much anything except Portland and Vancouver, which goes a long way towards explaining the rivalry.
Well, I think part of the “national-ness” of Wembley is that no club plays their league matches there. The stadium belongs to the nation.
That said, I think the Clink would be a pro-US crowd against any country with a potential exception of Mexico, but I dunno. Football talk at my office is Sounders, not USMNT.