Throughout the world, national cup play captivates lovers of the game. Cup play is the chance for the underdogs to humble the greats, for the Plymouth Argyles to beat Manchester United, for the local side to beat a Chicago Fire or Kansas City Wizards. 

In the United States national cup play exists on several levels. There are cups for U-20 teams, for U-23 teams, for U-30 teams, and one exclusively for amateur teams. But, the most prestigious is the national cup tournament open to all teams, professional and amateur – the Open Cup - with the winner presented the Lamar Hunt Trophy.

Every year teams in the MLS, A-League, D3 professional league and the Premier Development League are required by their leagues to participate in Open Cup competition. The winner competes for a $100,000 purse and the opportunity to compete against other national cup winners in North and Latin America (CONCACAF). The amateur team that advances the farthest in the competition also earns a $10,000 prize.

With this prestige and money, why do teams at every level strive mightily not to win?

Consider first the plight of amateur teams. Eight amateur teams will qualify for the elimination rounds; four from the 45 team Premier Development League (PDL), the only national amateur league in the United States, and four regional winners in competitions sponsored by the United States Amateur Soccer Association. These eight teams together with eight teams from the D3 League will compete against teams that survive the A-League selection rounds and the teams from the MLS.

The first four games each PDL team plays each year are deemed Open Cup selection games. The teams in each of the three PDL regional conferences (West Coast, Central, and East Coast) that amass the greatest points and one wild card team will advance. Points are awarded for winning with bonus points for scoring three or more goals a game, plus additional bonus for securing a shutout. The advancing PDL teams in past years have posted 4-0 records and tallied three or more goals in each game.

In 1998 the Kansas City Brass, our local PDL team, was one of these four teams. What followed next taught the Brass the same lesson that the Pyrrhus learned 2,200 years ago. After losing virtually his entire Greek army in achieving a victory over a Roman Legion Pyrrhus exclaimed, “Another such victory and we lose the war.”

The Brass Pyrrhic victory resulted from United States Soccer Federation (USSF) rules, which still mandate that the lower division team travel to the higher division team. The PDL is considered a Fourth Division team. The D3 teams compose the Third Division; the A-League is considered the Second Division, while the MLS is the First Division. As a PDL qualifier the Brass was required to travel to play D3 teams first in Michigan then in New Jersey. Because of the way the USSF schedules Open Cup qualifiers, compressing the matches into four months compared to the nine months common to almost every other nation, the Brass learned the dates each game would be played only six days before the date scheduled for the game.

The Brass experience with the Central Jersey Riptide was typical. The Brass was required to book a flight from Kansas City to Newark, New Jersey for 16 team members and two coaches, rent vans, pay for hotels, and meals, and then arrange flights from Newark to Denver the next day so that the Brass could play an evening game in Denver. Because of the short notice there were no discounts available and the cost of the trip exceeded $8,000.00. To add insult to injury, the flight schedule required the Brass players to drive from the airport to the field and start play with almost no warm-up, during the game two Brass players were injured and hospitalized, and then the Brass lost in overtime on a golden goal. 

While the USSF claims to reimburse teams for travel expenses, the reimbursement is limited to $5,000.00 per second round game, the level the Brass played in New Jersey. In 1998 the first round game in Michigan was not reimbursed. The total cost to the Brass of the two Open Cup qualifying games exceeded $18,000.00. Six months after the Brass was knocked out of Open Cup competition, the Brass received a check for $5,000.00 from the USSF. 

As an amateur team dedicated to preparing high school graduates for the college game and college players for the jump to professional soccer, the Brass cannot afford the net $13,000 cost of playing Open Cup games. As a consequence the Brass and most other PDL teams have adopted, with a wink and a nod, an unwritten policy of keeping scores low or playing reserves in the initial PDL Open Cup selection games. Emilio John, president of Kansas City Youth Soccer, Inc., the not for profit company that owns the Brass explained, “We do not try to lose these games, but we learned that running up the score to gain maximum points in the competition will lead to bankruptcy.” John claimed that this is the policy followed by most PDL teams. To combat this trend and force PDL teams to try to win with maximum points in Open Cup competition, the League changed its policy last November and converted the four Open Cup selection games from exhibition games to League games that will have a bearing on the final League standings.

You would guess that the Wizards would not be deterred by loses of a few thousand dollars a game. Yet, why haven’t they won an Open Cup game in four years? Like the Brass the Wizards, and virtually every other MLS and A-League team, risk much more by winning than by bowing out early. 

As the home team, MLS and A-League teams bear the cost of stadium rental and referees and must split the gate with the USSF. However, because the USSF provides often less than two weeks notice of game dates, the MLS and A-League teams do not have time to promote the games. It becomes cheaper for these teams to absorb the cost of travel to the lower division team (the USSF will not reimburse costs for travel when the higher division team refuses to host a game) rather than host a game. (For D3 teams it is cheaper to host than pay travel costs because their stadium rental costs are much lower.)

A more vexing problem for A-League and MLS teams is the risk of injury to key players. The A-League and MLS teams enter the qualifying rounds of Open Cup play in early June. This is the time when League races are tightening and teams cannot afford to lose a Tony Meola or Matt McKeon. The Open Cup prize money and the honor of winning are not insignificant, but the rewards of winning this tournament belong only to the two teams that reach the Finals. There is rarely any television coverage or revenue until the semi-final games. The MLS and A-League teams know that the odds are small that they will reach the final. There is no honor, no payment to the losers of the preliminary rounds.

Is it any wonder then that teams like the Wizards play their developmental players and reserves in Open Cup games? Is it any wonder that the games are close, of lower quality than a typical MLS game, or that the Wizards have achieved such a dismissal record in the competition? Is it any wonder that MLS and A-League teams do not field their regular starters until the semi-final matches, when the prize is in sight?

Open Cup competition will begin in Kansas City on Friday, May 11, at 8:00 pm when the Brass opens its 2001 season at the Blue Valley District Activities Center, 135th and Switzer in Overland Park, against the Colorado Springs Ascent. Look for a 2-1 game and sighs of relief from the loser.

© Kansas City Soccer Scene