The Great Eight (Round Two): Sunshine for El Farolito & Miami United as Michigan Stars Twinkle

Fans of the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup live by its magic moments. And the Second Round of the 2024 competition tossed up a good few of those between April 3 and 4. Join usopencup.com for a look back at eight moments of note from the 16 games in which 50 goals were scored, El Farolito and Miami United FC’s part-timers joined Lubbock Matadors on the altar of elevated amateurs – and Vermont Green entered the garden of our dear departed. 

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Espinal & the Fickle Fates

To know him is to love him. He finds spaces in crowded midfields. He slows the game when needed, injects pace and adrenaline when that is. Darwin Espinal has been popping up in the Open Cup – and through the lower-leagues of soccer in the U.S. for the last decade. “It feels like another lifetime ago,” he said recently, of his first run in the Cup in 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. This year, nearly a decade on, we were blessed to see him again. His two goals in the First Round saw NISA pros Maryland Bobcats into the Second – and a date with the Richmond Kickers at City Stadium. There, he was the best player on the field, as he often is, in a losing effort. With a chance to bring his side within striking distance at 2-3, his penalty kick – an audacious panenka – gently scuffed the bottom of the crossbar and stayed out. Then, as if in a fight with the fates themselves, the former Honduras youth international scored the best goal of the round – even ratified by a place in the morning’s Sports Center Top Ten. It came in a losing effort, sure. But the arc, the bounce off the bottom of that same crossbar that doomed his evening 12 minutes earlier, was followed by a quiet, almost mournful, celebration. The streets won’t ever forget Darwin Espinal, and neither will we.

My Stars, Michigan

Say what you will about NISA and the league’s perpetual struggles to achieve steady cruising altitude. Say, too, what you will about their Michigan Stars, the Metro-Detroit club with a quite literal Us against Everybody attitude that can ruffle feathers. They’re two games deep into the Open Cup and on the cusp of forcing all those everybodies to pay attention. They signed up Justin Meram, the talented former MLS midfielder and Open Cup winner with Atlanta United, to add a little swagger. And their 2-0 win over MNUFC2 at a snowy Allianz in St Paul means the Stars are now heading back to the dread Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck to take on Detroit City FC, their old enemy, in the Third Round. The club’s response on twitter to that draw was an eloquent and concise Ugh. That’s it, that was the whole tweet. Some context: last time there, sabotaged by “smoke, smell and darkness” was in the 2022 Open Cup. The Stars lost 3-0 and sparked a new chapter in a heated derby between two clubs that exist on polar opposite sides of, well, everything. The political spectrum, branding, general attitude. What’s that they say about proximity breeding contempt? You get it. 

Party in Pembroke Pines

The party in Miami might not be all-pink. And just like last year’s Open Cup runners-up Inter Miami who are based in Fort Lauderdale, it might not even be in Miami-Miami. Is Miami even real? The action in SoFla in the Second round of the Open Cup was 20 miles north in Pembroke Pines, with a giant mournful willow tree of UPSL Stadium behind the south goal swaying in the high winds. There, the part-timers of Miami United FC – stars among the American amateur scene for the last ten years – scored two against NISA pros Club de Lyon before, in the 73rd minute, facing up to a twist of fate. A red card was shown to Frank Fraggetti for a tactical last-man foul on Malik Thom. And the penalty spot was pointed too. You know the script from there – goal, momentum switch and predictable come-from-behind win for the pro side. Nah, Miami (whatever) likes to party and so Cristian Blanco saved the spot kick, then he saved the follow-up to the spot kick and Miami stayed United to roll out 2-0 winners in the end. You can bet there was a party after, and an after-party after that too.

The Numbers

We don’t give much of our attention to stats at the Open Cup. When you’re 111 years-old, come tell us about how much store you put in such things. But we do know the kids like ‘em – so we carved out a few of our favorites. We had 50 goals in 16 games. That’s over three per contest. Now that’s a number we can get with. We also only had one game finish scoreless and go to penalties (you know who you are). Miami United’s Jhon Pajoy made it two goals in two games and two amateur teams beat two pro teams in the Open Cup for the first time since 2019. So let’s all look forward to our next big number – 16. It’s how many games we’ll have in the Round of 32 (April 16-17) and how many USL Championship big boys will walk out onto the field to kill some dreams. What numbers will come from all that? Is infinity a number?

Sunset Dawns on Farolito

A technicolor sunset over the University of California campus in Merced seemed to signal the death of Cinderellas El Farolito in the 19th minute of their Second Rounder. On the road against pro outfit iCentral Valley Fuego – coached by former USMNT star Jermaine Jones – the club affiliated with a chain of Bay Area Mexican restaurants were down 1-0 after a penalty from the hosts. But that sunset hung on in purples and pinks, as if concerned, somehow, with the outcome. And these Farolito boys – bold in yellow and blue – summoned the power of their Burrito-themed traveling fans to change a sad day to a glad day near Fresno. Dembor Benson scored twice – and celebrated the first with a baby – as El Farolito, the Open Cup winners from 1993 and a throwback to something essential and essentially weird about soccer in the U.S, turned those tables and handed the Fuegos a heaped serving of humble guacamole.

All Hail Charlie Bails

If you’ve ever needed anything from the Des Moines Menace in the last decade, you’ve dealt with Charlie Bales. And you should consider that your pleasure. We do. Not to say there are many Charlie Bales in this soccer world of ours, but they keep the lights on and the standards high. They hold the line in complicated situations. From patchworking a team together in the off-season, to promotion, to charming retired MLS All-Stars and trophy-raisers like Sacha Kljestan and Roger Espinoza to joining up with a bunch of Iowa amateurs on an unlikely run in the Open Cup, it’s all Charlie. It was also our pleasure too to see him run out on the field, late in a losing effort to the outstanding Union Omaha in the Second Round, to put an end to a nine-year Open Cup suspension (he received a red card in his last Open Cup game in 2015 and served it out as a registered player in this year’s First Round). The Des Moines Menace is a treasure of American soccer, and has been since 1994. So everyone say thank you to GM and general problem-solver Charlie Bales – the pride of Cedar Rapids, Iowa – who lives by one of the simplest premises in the game. Don’t leave the club worse than you found it.

Lukic’s Long Road to Chattanooga

You never know the route your life will take. Ask 27-year-old Stefan Lukic, who began in the Partizan Belgrade youth system and Serbia’s youth national teams alongside current Juventus star Dušan Vlahović and former Fulham ace Aleksandar Mitrović. He was tipped for stardom on those biggest stages himself, nearly securing a move to the Premier League and Everton. But life has a way of throwing obstacles in the mix – and the so-close stories heavily outnumber the success stories. He ended up an Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagle instead of center-stage under Europe’s brightest lights – and he averaged a goal every other game in his five years there. The game never left Lukic’s blood stream and so, now, he finds himself in another unlikely destination: Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the Red Wolves of USL League One. And when he scored the only goal in their Second Rounder against amateurs Apotheos FC in Georgia, his celebration was pure ecstasy. Wembley or Silverbacks Park, no matter. It’s the game, folks, and it’s always the same.

A Fond Farewell

If you think it’s not hard, you’re wrong. Every year, every round we watch on as our favorites – our dreamweavers and beloved strivers of the so-called lower leagues – go down fighting. And tiny tributes are the least we can do. So, Des Moines Menace – and your band of aging and well-meaning mercenaries – we thank you. For the buzz you provided and the reminder that the things that matter aren’t always pretty or shiny or new. And Vermont Green FC, up north, you gave us history and something to ponder and we know you’ll be back soon too. SCU Heat and FORO SC, we know it’s not easy, and there are many challenges, but you brought eyes to your cause – and we salute you. Same as we do our favorite flamingoes from Wisconsin and all those who fell at this hurdle with style and vigor.

So that’s that. Let’s take a breath, gather ourselves and go again – for a Third Round between April 16 and 17 when we’ll welcome our pals from the USL Championship.

See you soon, friends.