Starting midfielder Ichabod Crane.
by Taylor Sorrels (@taylorsorrels)
WHO: Lansing United
WHAT: Louisville City FC’s first ever U.S. Open Cup match!
WHEN: Tonight! 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Archer Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.
WHY: The U.S. Open Cup draw put LCFC in this matchup. NPSL, USL, NASL, and MLS clubs don’t have to go through qualifying, but their American clubs are each introduced in progressing rounds of the competition. Non-professional clubs have been playing in qualifying rounds to get to Round 1 of the big tournament, then in Round 2, USL clubs are in, then NASL in Round 3 and MLS in Round 4.
HOW (TO WATCH): No YouTube stream for this game as it’s away from a USL ground and, despite its history and general awesomeness, US Soccer dedicates next to nothing toward marketing this tournament. A couple of guys who just love it and are not affiliated with US Soccer in any way run TheCup.us for FREE, a great website that keeps up with the Open Cup.
If you keep an eye on @loucoopers‘s Twitter feed today, though, we hear through some folks that there might be a periscope stream of the match, and if/when we get eyes on that we’ll let you know how to find it.
WHO, AGAIN? Lansing United. NPSL, Midwest Region, Great Lakes Conference. Haven’t played a league game yet this season, but beat RWB Adria in the first round of the U.S. Open Cup on penalty kicks. They won their conference and region last year in NPSL, and made it to the national semifinals before losing to eventual champs New York Red Bulls U23, so they’re a pretty good team.
Who’s actually in the team? Just about all of their players are currently in college, per the roster on their website. I don’t know anything about these guys, but I will say their kit is totally boss. I’m a little jealous. A couple of their players, Marcelo Petit and Ross Lindsay, actually play at Campbellsville University, which I thought was random until I looked up their roster and saw that it’s crazy how many kids are on that team and how they’re from all over the place. Pretty cool!
SUPPORTERS: They have some! They’re called the Sons of Ransom, which sounds edgy. No idea why they’re called that, but they support an NPSL team, so we’ll let it slide. Look how nice we’re being today!
STATISTICAL COMPARISONS OF DUBIOUS VALIDITY: None, really, given these dudes haven’t really played a game yet this season against league competition. I considered digging around for stats from friendlies and their first round USOC game, but nah.
PRE-GAME TWEET GAME: Again, not much here. These guys seem nice. BUT, if you want to follow the match on Twitter, our own Patrick Blanton is going with a GoPro, some bourbon, and a great attitude, so follow him and Louisville City FC’s gameday handle.
GO CITY.
