Sporting KC to Face Des Moines in US Open Cup

Sporting Kansas City now know their opponent next Tuesday at Sporting Park in the third round of the US Open Cup.  Tonight in Minnesota, PDL side (US 4th division), the Des Moines Menace beat NASL (US 2nd division) Minnesota United 1-0.  The win will see the Menace travel to KC next week for a game.  The 1-0 win came off an 86th minute goal off a header from former KC academy player, Brandon Fricke.

It'll be the 3rd time that Kansas City and Des Moines will meet up in US Open Cup play.  Kansas City won the first match up between the two in 2005 at Park University 6-1 off braces by Davy Arnaud and Josh Wolff.  The second match up came a year later at Blue Valley District Athletic Complex.  KC won that match up as well, 2-1 off a stoppage time winner by Scott Sealy.

This year's match up will be two days after Sporting KC's game Sunday against Houston.  But with the number of call ups that Kansas City has, some of KC's first team is likely going to have to play both games on short rest.

In other US Open Cup news, two of Sporting KC's loaned players, Jon Kempin and Dom Dwyer became cap-tied to Orlando City for this year's US Open Cup.  Both played in Orlando's 2-1 win over PDL side, Ocala Stampede.  Dwyer had Orlando's first goal.

And in news that will make some people in Kansas City happy, the Dearborn Stars, who advanced over the KC Athletics after a protest lost 4-1 to Dayton in extra time.  Dearborn had 3 players sent off, finishing the game with 8 players.

KC Athletics Out of US Open Cup

The KC Ahtletics will no longer be taking part in the US Open Cup for 2013, we have had our accomplishments stolen from us#whatajoke
— KC Athletics (@KC_AthleticsFC) April 25, 2013

Yesterday the announcement came down that the KC Athletics would have to replay their US Open Cup "Win and You're In" qualifier against the Dearborn Stars because the Stars' protest of the result due to the field width had been upheld.  Today, the Athletics officially withdrew from the competition because of the replay.  There were a multitude of reasons why the Athletics could have chosen to drop out, expenditures with traveling 530 plus miles to Chicago, the 3 day notice for their players to take time off work, change social schedules, etc, or even out of spite because of the decision. 

According to the Athletics General Manager/coach, Kyle Perkins though it was because of "Principal."

"We have proven 3 ways why the protest should be over turned, they refuse to acknowledge that fact.  We don't agree, and won't play in a game that shouldn't be played." Perkins added.

Over the rest of this post I'll break down the three ways that Perkins is referring to and what did or did not happen in that process.  And in the end led to the decision by Perkins and the Athletics to not travel to Chicago for the replay.

The first challenge to the protest had a couple points to it.  The first argument was in regards to the fact that the Athletics moved the game from Saturday to Sunday because without that move, the Stars were possibly going to have to forfeit the game due to not having enough players able to make it to KC. KC didn't have to move the game, but chose to.  Another argument was the fact that while Dearborn filed the protest, they still agreed to play the game.  Would they have continued the protest if they'd have won the game, or withdrawn the protest?  I'm going to guess they would have withdrawn.

The biggest part of the first challenge in my opinion was the measurement of the field.  The only way the field was measured was by walking the field off by the match officials.  I'm sure they have a decent idea of how to measure off a field, but if there is a protest about the size of the field, shouldn't there be a measurement done to confirm that the field is in fact that length?  The argument isn't that the field was or was not too short, the problem is the fact that with the official protest, instead of guessing by measuring only by walking it off, there should have been an official measurement of the field done with some sort of measuring tool.  To confirm the validity of the protest there should have been an official protest.

After those challenges were turned down, the Athletics came back with another issue.  As part of the rules, when a team files a protest they have to submit a copy of the protest and their $500 fee to the Regional Commissioner and a copy to the opposing team with 3 days.  The game against the Stars ended at 2pm on April 21st.  That would mean that by 2pm on the 24th, the Athletics should have received a copy of the protest. At 2:55pm the Athletics had still not received a copy of the protest so they contacted the Regional Commissioner with this information requesting that the protest be thrown out.  Shortly after the team contacted regional director, Debra Trapikas, Perkins received an email from the Stars with the proper information.  When Perkins confronted Trapikas about this, he was told that the period is until midnight of the third day.  None of that though is in the rule, 3(b)(1), which you can read below.

• The original protest  and a protest fee of $500.00 shall be submitted to the State Cups Commissioner for state rounds of competitions, and the Regional Cups Commissioner for regional rounds of competitions, within three days of the game to which the protest relates.  A copy of the protest must be forwarded to the opposing team in the game. The protest shall be submitted to the appropriate cups commissioner and the opposing team by overnight express mail, telephone facsimile, or electronic mail.

I can't be the only one that sees it as convenient that the protest shows up in Perkins' inbox, shortly after he sends an inquiry after the game was 72 hours old about the above rule. Especially since Trapikas is from Michigan.

With the midnight interpretation of the rule, from Trapikas, the protest was still upheld according to that interpretation of the rules.

The final attempt that the Athletics made to challenge the protest was to do with the interpretation of the playing rules.  In the rules, it states "In all rounds played in the National Cup competitions, the playing rules are the FIFA Laws of the Game in effect at the time of the deadline of entry."

The Athletics challenge to the protest was that Dearborn then needed to follow FIFA regulations when it comes to terms on protests.  Those terms (thanks to the USA vs Costa Rica World Cup qualifier in Denver as an example) state that a protest must "immediately lodge a protest with the referee in the presence of the captain of the opposing team."

Perkins said that this did not happen and because of this FIFA regulation, the team felt that the protest should have been over turned.  This argument as well was turned down by the regional commissioner.

With those three options exhausted, the Athletics requested their seven day grace period after they received the protest to prepare a statement in accordance with rule 3(c) of the protest rules, seen below:

• The opposing team shall have seven days from the date the copy of the protest was forwarded to it, to submit to the appropriate cups commissioner its statement regarding the protest, if any. A copy of the statement shall be submitted to the opposing team by overnight express mail, telephone facsimile, electronic mail.

This was rejected by Trapikas because of rule 410, which apparently states that "the commissioner may make the decision when time is of importance."

This meant that the Athletics were not going to get their 7 day period to prepare their response.  This is because the list of qualifiers from Region II are due next week to US Soccer.  So with all that done, the Athletics decided to withdraw from the competition.

To me, this all comes off as a load of bull shit.  The Athletics made legitimate challenges to the protest that do not appear to have been heard by the commissioner.  The ones that really gets me, are the first two. On the first one, if there's an official protest about the field size made before the game, then an official measurement of the field should take place to get an official measurement, not a "walk off" of the measurement. As for the second one it really is sketchy to me that shortly after Perkins makes the call on it, the protest magically appears in his inbox.  It could all just be coincidence, but that it one hell of a coincidence if true.

It's a frustrating situation that at this point there appears to be no more recourse for the Athletics.  The US Open Cup and the Region II finals are going to move forward without them (although it'd be interesting if Dearborn returns to KC for the regional finals and a large group showed up there).  The interesting part has come up from the casual soccer community in KC who knew that the Athletics had qualified and are now actively either cheering against the team or hoping they advance far enough to play Sporting and hope that Sporting crush them.

In the end I feel sorry most for the Athletics players who won the game on the field.  Both teams had to play on the same field, both teams had to deal with a yard and a half short on each side.  And in the end the Athletics took the game. The Athletics could have been dicks to Dearborn and not even moved the game for them, and I bet next year if something like this were to happen they'd likely think about it harder before making the decision. It's just frustrating the whole situation.

Athletics Forced to Replay "Win and You're In" Qualifier

2013 @usopencup qualifying: @dearbornstarssc protest upheld, replay ordered this weekend vs. @kc_athleticsfc in Chicago. Details TBA
— TheCup.us (@usopencup) April 24, 2013

That announcement came down today on the protest over the KC Athletics 1-0 win over the Dearborn Stars.  Dearborn had protested the result because the field at Olathe North High School was not wide enough, 62 yards instead of the necessary 65. A disappointing result considering that the Athletics had moved the game to Sunday so that Dearborn could play the game.

As stated above, the match will now take place on Saturday in Chicago. With the game only 3 days away, it'll be interesting to see if the Athletics actually do travel.  If it was me, as I said on Twitter, part of me would want to say fuck it and not go at this point.  While I understand the rule, I find this quote from the post game write up about the game hilarious: “I do. I think so, we’re a technical team. With it being so congested I thought it played to their strengths, more of the tackling aspect of the game.”

That quote came from Dearborn coach Mo Hijazi.  Excuse me, I've played on fields of all shapes and sizes and a yard and a half on each side is not going to make that big of a difference in your tactics for a game.  No word yet on whether the Athletics are going to travel or not, but we'll find out soon enough.

Athletics Qualify for US Open Cup

A 90th minute goal from player/coach Kyle Perkins helped to see the KC Athletics through to the US Open Cup for the 3rd time in 4 years as the Athletics topped Dearborn Stars out of Michigan 1-0 yesterday at Olathe North High School.  The win sees the Athletics advance to the USASA Region II finals on June 29th in Overland Park, KS against RWB Adria out of Chicago who defeated FC Indiana on Saturday 2-1 in extra time.

There are questions about the result though, as Dearborn filed a protest before the game took place because of the width of the field.  The USASA minimum requirements for fields is 65 yards.  The field at Olathe North is apparently only 62 yards.  Apparently due to Dearborn's struggles to get players to Kansas City for the originally planned Saturday date, the Athletics agreed to move the game to Sunday, but that this was the only field that they were able to get access to.  If the protest is upheld, the game would likely be replayed at a neutral site. So now a waiting game gets to take place to see if the result will hold up or not.

Athletics Play "Win and You're In" Qualifier Tomorrow

The Kansas City Athletics amateur side will attempt to qualify for their 2nd straight US Open Cup and 3rd in the last 4 years when they take the field tomorrow afternoon against the Dearborn Stars out of Michigan.  The game tomorrow at noon at Olathe North high school is one of two Region II semifinals (the other taking place today in Chicago between RWB Adria and FC Indiana).  The winners of the two games will qualify for the US Open Cup proper along with earning themselves a birth in the Region II finals.

The Athletics advanced to the semifinals with a win over FC Indiana a few weeks ago by a 3-1 score line (the 1 goal scored by Indiana was enough to see them through to the semifinals as the "best loser").  Goals by Brian Williams, Matt Kuhn, and Garrett Webb helped the Athletics to a win over an Indiana side that was looking to be the "best loser" by the way they came out to play.  For Dearborn, they easily dispatched the Cincy Saints 5-0 to advance in their game.

So get out to Olathe North tomorrow and cheer on a local side looking to qualify for the 100th edition of the US Open Cup.