How the Minnesota Thunder Rattled MLS’ Cage in 2005 U.S. Open Cup Run
It took the great state of Minnesota some time to get going in our U.S. Open Cup, but when the Division II Thunder rolled in 2005 they did so with devastating effect.
Competitive soccer in Minnesota can be traced back as far as 1888, when Thistle F.C. first engraved their name on the Shaw Cup by defeating the St. Paul Football Club two games to one, but teams from the Gopher State were late arrivals to the U.S. Open Cup party.
It wasn’t until 1961 that the St. Paul Black Hawks entered the U.S. Open Cup – then still known as the National Challenge Cup – as the state’s lone entry, only to be dispatched by the historic Milwaukee Bavarians 4-2 in double overtime in the Midwest Semifinal.
That pattern continued through the 1960s for Minnesota clubs: Enter the Open Cup, then get sent packing by a team from the Brew City of Milwaukee. It wasn’t until some 40 years later, in 2005, that a team from the Twin Cities hit the national stage with a magical Open Cup run…and it came as a total surprise.
After missing the USL playoffs only twice in their 11-season history, and making five trips to the league’s playoff final without a win, the Thunder were struggling in the USL First Division and long-time head coach Buzz Lagos was close to retiring at the end of the season.
Lagos – a Legend with a Plan
“Most people will focus on their league play and just take the tournament in stride. But after our successful 2004 Open Cup tournament [when the Thunder beat MLS’ LA Galaxy to reach the Quarterfinals] we just made the decision to put our best foot forward for the 2005 Open Cup,” said Lagos, who coached the Thunder for 16 years.
Going into their first 2005 U.S. Open Cup game against the Premier Development League’s (now USL League Two) Chicago Fire Premier, the Thunder were mired in ninth place in the 12-team USL First Division. Their most recent league outing was a 2-1 loss to the previously winless – and bottom-of-the-table – Toronto Lynx.
Johnny Menyongar and his Thunder teammates celebrate against RSL in 2005
Fire Premier had beaten the 1990 Open Cup-winning AAC Eagles of Chicago 4-1 in the First Round to set up – for the second straight year – a clash with a pro club from the top tier of the USL, which had re-branded from the A-League and represented the USA’s professional Division II.
But getting past the amateurs, who were essentially the Chicago Fire’s reserve team, was no easy task. It took 62 minutes for the Thunder to score, a goal by Johnny Menyongar that was created by Jeff Mateo’s steal near the end line and centering pass that led to the tap-in.
An own goal in the 89th minute gave the Thunder a two-goal margin, but even that was halved by Chicago in stoppage time as the game finished a tight 2-1.
Thunder Roll to Historic U.S. Open Cup Semifinal
With the amateur side now out of the way, the Thunder proceeded to go on one of the best runs ever by a lower-league team in the history of the Open Cup’s Modern Era, sending three Division I MLS clubs packing before falling to eventual Champions LA Galaxy in the Last Four.
The first MLS opponent to feel the Thunder’s heat was Real Salt Lake, and it was a game that few of the 2,188 in attendance at the James Griffin Stadium – a spartan ground lacking in modern amenities and, allegedly, according to some players, hot water in the showers – would ever forget. The teams combined for 10 goals, a wild overtime period, a hat trick by RSL icon Jason Kreis as well as heroics by Thunder ace Menyongar and a pair of super subs, Aaron Paye and Matt Schmidt.
Kreis, who a month later became the first MLS player to reach the 100-career-goal mark, opened the scoring with a ninth-minute penalty kick.
Melvin Tarley equalized for the Thunder seven minutes later on an assist by the diminutive Menyongar, known by teammates and fans as ‘the Tiny Ticket’. Minnesota took their first lead a minute later when Jeff Mateo bent a free kick into the area that Menyongar redirected into the net with his back, only to have Jamie Watson – the Minnesota native, now a beloved broadcaster known for his particular insights into the U.S. Open Cup – level matters again in the 38th minute.
Kreis, who was sitting on 97 league goals at the time of the Open Cup game, added his second in the 50th minute, collecting a pass from Seth Tremblay and again giving the Cobalt and Blue the advantage.
With his second goal of the game off another set-up by Menyongar, Tarley pulled the Thunder even again in the 66th minute. But Kreis once more gave the MLS club a lead, scoring his third of the game in the 70th minute.
Thunder fans were thrilled by their side in the 2005 Open Cup
That’s when the Thunder’s subs took over. Paye, a collegiate star at Fairleigh Dickinson, who, like Menyongar was born in Liberia, entered in the 77th minute and 12 minutes later forced the game into overtime by chasing down a loose ball and chipping it into the net. Schmidt, who entered the game in the 66th minute, gave the Thunder the lead six minutes into overtime with a 20-yard shot.
Paye added another goal for good measure in the 107th minute to seal the wild 6-4 win.
“We all definitely carried a little bit of a chip on our shoulders,” said Kevin Friedland, who went on to play for Minnesota United in their NASL days between 2011 and 2016. “At that time, MLS rosters were smaller and there were a lot fewer teams.”
Rapids, Kansas City feel the Thunder Roar
The Colorado Rapids were next up on the Thunder’s to-do list. It was a night that saw Melvin Tarley make his reputation as an MLS-slaying goalscorer (which eventually earned him a spot with the very club he ran roughshod over).
Tarley opened the scoring by sneaking a ball from Nathan Knox under the arm of Rapids goalkeeper Joe Cannon in the 38th minute. The Liberia-born Tarley then scored three goals in an eight-minute span of the second half, punctuated by the Rapids’ only marker of the contest.
The speedy striker doubled the Thunder’s lead, putting away the rebound of his own shot that was stopped by Cannon. After Alain Mkong cut the lead in half, Tarley scored an unassisted goal in the 72nd minute and then ran down a ball from current Seattle Sounders assistant coach Freddy Juarez in the 78th minute to chip in the final goal.
Melvin Tarley and Coach Buzz Lagos were crucial to the 2005 Thunder run
Obviously, when you play an MLS team you get amped up and play well against them. But that team stepped it up for the big time for the Open Cup,” said Thunder goalkeeper Joe Warren.” I think everyone was trying to prove that they were just as good as the players on the MLS teams.”
“We played well but worked really hard to get the result,” said Paye. Buzz Lagos, the man whose tactics and planning were the secret to the team’s success, was thrilled with his players: “When we started scoring goals so easily again, the Rapids were sort of shocked and it was a walk in the park.”
The next team to find a Thunder target on their backs were the defending Open Cup-Champion Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) in a game played at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. Not exactly home for the Wizards, who were then still playing at the cavernous Arrowhead Stadium, but a home game nonetheless.
This time it was another Liberian who put on the show, as Menyongar scored twice and created what was ruled an own goal in the 3-1 win.
Menyongar – who would later go on to play for the 1999 Open Cup-Champion Rochester Ragin’ Rhinos – opened the scoring with the Thunder’s only shot of the first half. Taking a throw-in from Jay Alberts near the top of the area, he sidestepped a Wizards defender and sailed a shot over goalkeeper Will Hesmer, putting the KC side behind in U.S. Open Cup play for the first time in two years.
In the 54th minute, Menyongar took a shot that deflected off a defender’s foot for a 2-0 lead and four minutes later he made it 3-0.
Star-Studded Galaxy Snuff Thunder
The Thunder’s roll came to a halt in the Semifinals against that year’s eventual Open Cup Champions, LA Galaxy, a team they’d knocked out of the competition a year earlier to plant the seeds of their further 2005 Cinderella successes.
Things actually looked good for the Thunder when they were awarded a penalty kick early in the first half, but Tarley could only send his shot over the goal. The Galaxy, quick to counter, scored through U.S. Soccer hero Landon Donovan and that year’s Open Cup co-top scorer Hercules Gomez (who scored five in the 2005 edition, same as Thunder man Tarley).
Menyongar cut the lead with a goal in the 54th minute, but three more from LA within five minutes sealed the Thunder’s fate – ending one of the most heroic underdog stories of the Open Cup’s Modern Era.
“We became giant killers that season,” Friedland reflected of the magical run, 20 years ago, that helped open the door for an MLS franchise in the Gopher State – Minnesota United FC, who reached this year’s U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals (They’ll host Chicago Fire on July 8 LIVE on Paramount+ and on air at CBS Sports Network). “Outside of the Rochester Rhinos in ‘99, no lower division team had really made a dent in that many MLS teams.”
Charles Cuttone is a writer/author, historian and three-time winner of the National Soccer Coaches Association writing award. His latest book, The Soccer Book of Why, was published by Lyons Press and is available here.