It's possible you've come across this page as a fan of D.C. United. It's also possible that you got here via BightestYoungThings.com (one of our favorites). Regardless of how you got here, we've got a pretty cool deal for you that may find you in front of a camera with United players as part of an exclusive photo shoot.

Small rosters. Brutal scheduling. Multiple tournaments. Player injuries. Any other excuses for New England's and Chivas USA's early exit from the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League?
The undermanned Revolution was on the wrong side of a 4-0 pasting by Trinidad's Joe Public last night at Gillette stadium, to drop the two-legged match by a 6-1 aggregate.

...in Los Angeles. But not with Chivas USA as expected. Defender Yenier Bermudez, midfielder Yordany Alvarez, and goalkeeper (hero of the 1-1 tie vs. the US U-23s) Jose Manuel Miranda - the all-star of the bunch - are now on trial with the Los Angeles Galaxy. With WIcks and Cronin, I see Galaxy giving a long look [.

Word from the Charleston Post and Courier (and that you once again to il Brucio at Du Nord for finding this link), is that USL side Charleston Battery's Blackbaud Stadium is going to be converted to solar power.
Now how cool would this be? Dynamo Park is still a long way off, but what would it say to the city of Houston (where environmentalism has a -- how shall I put this kindly -- uneven record to say the least), to MLS and to the nation at large to have the new facility, when it's built, do the same thing?

I have breaking news for you. I figured I'd pass along this update after attending last night's New England Soccer Hall of Fame meeting.
The induction ceremony is slated for November 1st at the Riviera Inn in East Providence. Among the nominees are Derek Rae (ESPN soccer broadcaster) and Jeff Causey (New England Revolution 1997-2001).

Here are the all-time average attendance standings (1994-2008) for each of the 47 different clubs in USL-1 (and the A-League/APSL prior to that): ALL-TIME USL-1 ATTENDANCE BY CLUB (Active Clubs in Gray) Club G Total Avg. Rochester Rhinos 192 1,962,192 10,220 Montreal Impact 191 1,316,637 6,893 Syracuse Salty Dogs 28 185,806 6,636 Portland Timbers 114 712,789 6,253 Puerto Rico Islanders 71 333,802 4,701 Vancouver 86ers/Whitecaps 204 928,634 4,552 Carolina RailHawks 29 129,768 4,475 Colorado Foxes 50 178,703 3,574 Minnesota Thunder 173 591,538 3,419 Los Angeles Salsa 10 33,405 3,341 Charleston Battery 170 566,825 3,334 Seattle Sounders 209 686,989 3,287 Hershey Wildcats 72 229,615 3,189 Pittsburgh Riverhounds 71 216,978 3,056 Milwaukee Rampage 88 264,089 3,001 Long Island Rough Riders 68 180,995 2,662 El Paso Patriots 102 267,218 2,620 Carolina Dynamo 14 36,474 2,605 Richmond Kickers 128 302,244 2,361 Toronto [.

Well obviously, you do!
But ever wonder who else reads MLSR? So did we.
So once again we present you a partial picture. Last time we presented some demographics of what type of people read MLSR. This time we give you a geographic breakdown, and even more interesting, a partial list of firms who have been checking us out.

What is the U.S. Open Cup? That one is pretty easy to answer. In Europe, you have your famous national cup competitions in which clubs from the top leagues compete with clubs from lower divisions to determine a champion for all levels – FA Cup (England), Coppa Italia (Italy), Copa Del Rey (Spain), etc.

With the Galaxy down to one healthy goalkeeper in Josh Weeks after Charles Alamo and now Steve Cronin suffered what Coach Bruce Arena effectively regards as season-ending injuries, he is calling in reinforcements in the shape of former Colorado Rapids draft pick Mike Graczyk, a former University of New Mexico standout now in the MLS pool of goalkeepers retained for just this purpose (so no Kasey Keller on loan then, I guess).

Longtime FC Dallas GK Matt Jordan kept a clean sheet as USL-1 side Montreal Impact advanced in the Champions League Even after DC United beats the Charleston Battery in tonight's US Open Cup Final, USL will have achieved something tangible that MLS failed at attempting, and failed badly at: to advance a team out of the [.

The quarterfinals loom large as eight teams set to square off in US Open Cup quarter final action tomorrow night.
MLS holds five of those slots as Kansas City Wizards, Chicago Fire, FC Dallas, D.C. United, and New England Revolution are all in to assert the leagues superiority.
Looking to play spoiler are two USL Division One sides, the Charleston Battery and Seattle Sounders and one USL Division Two side, Crystal Palace Baltimore.

With their 2-1 victory over ULS-1 team Charleston Battery, the D.C. United added another trophy to the cabinet, winning their second Dewar Cup, twelve years after the first success.

I missed the match entirely. Wound up going shopping with Mrs. Shatz in advance of our Ocean City trip. First full-team match that I've missed all year.
But we did get some answers to the questions that I posed yesterday:
Does [Soehn] choose to start the highly paid Quavas Kirk in this match, or keep using him only in the safety of the Reserve division?

We will have one MLS team and one USL team in the US Open Cup Final this year. Two MLS powerhouses will play each other in one semi-final while two USL teams will do battle in the other semi-final.

The New England Revolution beat Crystal Palace Baltimore on PKs after a 1-1 draw to move into the semis with DC United who beat fellow MLSers Chicago Fire.

A few days late on this, apologies: Stephen Armstrong of the Charleston Battery, keeping up relations with (apparently) Jaime Moreno of DC United during last Wednesday's US Open Cup final:

The third round of the US Open Cup is upon us.  There are 8 MLS teams remaining in the tournament - each of which will face a non-MLS team.

Three teams from the USL Second Division have made it to the round of 16.  These teams all face MLS teams in this round.  Here are those matchups:

Crystal Palace Baltimore vs.

The last amateur team is out of the U.S. Open Cup, and the lower-division teams as a whole are mostly gone. Take a look at the second-round results, taken as always from the excellent semi-official site:

Harrisburg (USL-2) 2-2 (aet) Crystal Palace Baltimore (USL-2)
CP Baltimore advance on penalties, 3-1
Western Mass (USL-2) 1 : 2 Richmond (USL-2)
Rochester (USL-1) 3 : 0 Pittsburgh (USL-2)
Charleston (USL-1) 2 : 1 Charlotte (USL-2)
Carolina (USL-1) 1 : 0 Real Maryland (USL-2)
Minnesota (USL-1) 0 : 2 (aet) Cleveland (USL-2)
Miami (USL-1) 1 : 0 Atlanta (USL-1)
Seattle (USL-1) 6 : 0 Hollywood United (USASA)

So forget the Hollywood United vs.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Open Cup final will feature an MLS team against a USL team. This became guaranteed after the results of last night's quarterfinals, when two MLS and two USL teams won to set up semifinal meetings.

Following two goals in United's 3-1 win over the New England Revolution in the U.S. Open Cup semis, Luciano Emilio was named as the USOpenCup.com Player of the Round. The Brazilian speaks below about the semifinal win, other championships he's been a part of, playing against the Charleston Battery next Wednesday and his sweet jean jacket (not really, but I kind of wish he did).

The folks at U.S. Soccer (and by folks I mean David Applegate) caught up with United Head Coach Tom Soehn and Charleston Battery Head Coach Mike Anhaeuser earlier today to talk about Wednesday's night's U.S. Open Cup final. Both interviews were originally posted on ussoccer.com.

Tom Soehn:

Mike Anhaeuser:

Game time is 7:30 p.

We have been getting reports from Charleston Battery fans since the weekend about a massive trip to the nation's capital organized by supporters and their front office in support of Open Cup underdogs, the Charleston Battery of the USL-1, the 2nd tier of US club soccer.
The game will kick off at 7:30pm on Fox Soccer Channel (there may be an MLSR stream powered by Justin.

A terribly embarrassing night for MLS in the CONCACAF Champions League. New England was assaulted 0-4 at home by Joe Public, and Chivas USA was held 1-1 at home by Tauro. It was really ugly, especially at Foxborough. There will be a lot of excuses flying today. And they all fall short of those scorelines.

D.C. United Wins the U.S. Open Cup

Well, all along I said the U.S. Open Cup was an important trophy for United to win. Okay, except for that time when I said that I wanted them to start reserves so we could keep a focus on the season. Or the other time when I called it the least important trophy we could win this year.

The Carolina RailHawks continued their mastery over the Charleston Battery, going to 5-0-0 all time against their Southern Derby rival with a 3-1 victory Saturday night at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Kupono Low started the scoring in the 21st minute when he converted a penalty earned when Hamed Diallo was bowled over in the area on a breakaway.

Longtime FC Dallas GK Matt Jordan kept a clean sheet as USL-1 side Montreal Impact advanced in the Champions League

Even after DC United beats the Charleston Battery in tonight's US Open Cup Final, USL will have achieved something tangible that MLS failed at attempting, and failed badly at: to advance a team out of the qualifying round of the CONCACAF Champions League.

A light but compact crowd gathered at Bull McCabes in Durham on Friday night to watch the USL-1 Carolina RailHawks take on the Charleston Battery. It came as a surprise to some at the bar that such significant emotion could be generated for somthing that they did not heretofore know existed.
Yet, there it was, a handful of grown men screaming with arms raised when Matt Watson pulled the midfield lever that sent Hamed Diallo racing through to goal in the 8th minute.

The Red Bulls are in South Carolina for the Charleston Cup and will play the Charleston Battery tonight in the first of three matches in the coming week.

A few tidbits:

Juan Carlos Osorio is not with the team. He is in South America scouting players this weekend. As SBI reported during the week, Osorio has stated that he has two international players lined up to be signed before the end of the MLS transfer period (April 15) but the club is hoping to land another South American-based player.

Good afternoon folks. The Red Bulls Charleston Cup match against the Charleston Battery is set for a 3pm kickoff and the word I'm getting is that it will be shown online at www.USLlive.com. If something changes on that front I will pass it along.

The Red Bulls will field the following lineup today:

------------Angel---------Echeverry------------

Borman-----------Magee---------------Sassano

-----------Stammler-----Reyna-----------------

Goldthwaite----------Parke---------------Mendes

-------------------Conway------------------------

Juan Carlos Osorio is not with the team.

A couple MLS teams dropped out of the US Open Cup last night to lower league opponents. Here are all the results:

Crystal Palace Baltimore 2 -0 New York Red Bulls

Richmond Kickers 0 - 3 New England Revolution

Cleveland City Stars 1 - 4 Chicago Fire

Rochester Rhinos 0 - 2 DC United

Miami FC Blues 1 - 2 FC Dallas

Charsleston Battery (4-3 on PKs) 1 - 1 Houston Dynamo

Carolina Railhawks 2 - 4 Kansas City Wizards

Seattle Sounders 2 - 0 Chivas USA

So we are left with 5 MLS teams, a single USL-2 team and a pair of USL-1 teams.

Last night is the perfect example of why I enjoy the US Open Cup so much. Seeing all these underweight teams try to out punch MLS sides really is enjoyable. Sure, the MLS teams see this as little more then a reserves match, but it is still good fun.
As bad as it is that MLS teams dropped three of the eight games last night, it is actually much better then last season when five top teams fell.

Video and audio links of tonight's matches courtesy of the best place online for US Open Cup information, www.USOpenCup.com.
All Times Eastern

U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals

Crystal Palace Baltimore (USL-2) at New England Revolution (MLS)
Veterans Stadium, Willow Brook Park; New Britain, Conn.

Quarterfinal round of the 2008 edition of the US Open Cup kicks off tonight in a few cities around the country. Plenty of interesting match-ups in all. Below are the times and broadcast information for each game. All Times Eastern U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals Crystal Palace Baltimore (USL-2) at New England Revolution (MLS) Veterans Stadium, Willow Brook Park; New Britain, [.

A very entertaining night of soccer in the quarterfinal round of the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Entering the night was five MLS clubs, two USL1 clubs and a lone USL2 club. After it was all said and done two MLS sides prevailed and two USL1 sides upset their big brothers from MLS. Three of [...]

After attending the DC United match last night against the New England Revolution I left with a sense of happiness that has not been with me after a game in a long time. United played with a quality I haven't seen since before the start of SuperLiga. Having Quaranta and Peralta back at full strength didn't hurt at all either.

We love the US Open Cup. We make no effort to hide that. Tonight two sides will do battle in our nations oldest competition, the 94 year old US Open Cup. A competition which decides the champion of United States Club soccer for the year and beginning this year decides one entrant into the 2009/10 CONCACAF Champions League.

Silverware! Probably our best hope for the shiny stuff this year, and probably not the most prestigious of trophies, but silverware nonetheless. And a spot in next year's Champions' League. Now, assuming that we don't get any format changes next year, the Open Cup win puts us in the qualifying round--you know, the one that MLS sides did so well in this year?

Plenty more to come, but here are your post-game quotes...

D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH TOM SOEHNOn the win We didn't play up to our standards in the first half. It gets me frustrated again that we didn't go a better job of recognizing how to possess better and get our shape a little bit better.

NEWS: D.C. United won its second Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday night, edging the Charleston Battery of the United Soccer Leagues 2-1 at RFK Stadium. The Battery came up short in their bid to become the first non-MLS...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

It took a dozen years but D.C. United finally added a second U.S. Open Cup trophy to its loaded trophy case.

The four-time MLS Cup champions downed USL side Charleston Battery 2-1 in the U.

The newly created San Jose Earthquakes team just finished up the Carolina Challenge Cup, an annual pre-season tournament featuring 4 teams. This year along with the Earthquakes the New York Red Bulls, Toronto FC, and home team Charleston Battery. San Jose went a perfect 3-0 to win the tournament while the USL team went 1-1-1 which was good enough to finish in 2nd place above the other 2 MLS teams.