After RIFC’s 2-0 win over Hartford Athletic last night in the second round of the US Open Cup, fans were eagerly awaiting the draw for the next round.  Lucky for us, it came at 9am this morning and was even televised on CBS Sports Golazo.  Here’s a quick recap of how RIFC’s draw went and what it means.

Group of Four

The round of 32 is where 16 MLS teams enter the competition.  8 of those MLS teams get “seeded” as host teams and 8 as away teams.  The 16 teams that advanced out of the second round each get drawn against one of the 16 MLS teams. 

Before drawing the matchups, groups of 4 teams are made based on geography (somewhat).  The purpose of these groups is to help set the matchups for this round as well as the round of 16.  RIFC’s group consists of the New England Revolution and Orlando City SC of MLS and FC Naples of USL League One.  Orlando was designated as an away team and New England as a home team.

So Who Do We Play?!

RIFC drew the Revolution and FC Naples drew Orlando.  This means that FC Naples get to host Orlando and the Revolution are the home team against RIFC.  Note that I said “home team” and not “host” for the Revs.  Because in a strange turn of events, as you have to come to expect with US Soccer, the game is going to be played at Centreville Bank Stadium.  The Revs can’t and/or don’t want to play at Gillette Stadium despite being designated as a home team for this round.  The official reason has something to do with the World Cup being at Gillette, despite the game taking place in a couple weeks.  In any event, I’m thrilled that I don’t have to go to Gillette and I can watch RIFC at Tidewater again.  As for what the Revs being the “home team” at Tidewater means, it’s anyone’s guess.  Maybe they get to use the home locker room and wear home jerseys.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Hosting Priority

In addition to the matchups, the four teams in the group get drawn in order for hosting priority for the round of 16.  FC Naples were drawn first and RIFC second, with the MLS teams third and fourth.  This means that if RIFC advance past the Revolution, they will either play at FC Naples or at home against Orlando in the round of 16 depending on who wins that matchup.  This gives RIFC a potential for four straight open cup games at Tidewater.  But we can’t look ahead.  It’s one game at a time, always.  We’ll discuss the matchup against the Revs when the time comes.

Final Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about drawing the Revs.  On the one hand, it’s awesome to play our local MLS team.  Especially at Tidewater.  But on the other hand, it would’ve been cool to host Orlando or really any other MLS team.  We had every chance of beating the Revs last year though so I’m cautiously optimistic.  They’ll likely play a handful of MLS Next Pro guys.  But we’ll have to wait and see where I’m at in a couple weeks for an actual prediction.  Speaking of, we don’t yet know if the game will be on April 14th or 15th.  So we’ll have to stay tuned.  More info about time and tickets should be out soon.  Until next time though, as always, UP THE TIDE!