Jägermeister Cup Round 1 Wrap-Up

It's deer season

The second edition of the USL Jägermeister Cup kicked off this weekend with Championship clubs added in for the first time. All told the end result was that there is not a great deal of difference in quality between the Championship and League One, certainly not as far as the top teams in the latter are concerned at least. In the southeast three of four games involving a Championship and a League One team ended in a cupset of sorts. Here’s a quick roundup of the weekend’s action.

North Carolina FC 1-2 Charlotte Independence

All the scoring was done by the 27th minute in this one. Charlotte jumped out to an early 2-goal lead. Christian Chaney took advantage of poor North Carolina defending in the 10th minute and Luis Alvarez sank a PK in the 25th after Luis Alvarez brought down Bachir Ndiaye in the box. North Carolina responded just two minutes thanks to Oalex Anderson. After that North Carolina heavily outshot Charlotte but couldn't penetrate Matt Levy’s goal.

One Knoxville 2(4)-2(2) FC Tulsa

One Knox’s first game at the new Covenant Health Park was a sellout and the nearly 6,400 on hand were treated to a goalfest. However, the home team were down a goal in barely 80 seconds. Mikkel Gøling evened the score in the 34th minute. One Knox generally dominated after that and finally got the lead in the 72nd minute on a Kempes Tekiela PK after earning it himself. The home team looked good until Tulsa equalized with just seconds left in the game. One Knox went on to win the shootout 4-2.

FC Naples 1-0 Charleston Battery

FC Naples have burst onto the USL scene in a big way; the expansion team currently leads League One. They continued that with an impressive win over Championship stalwarts Charleston Battery. League One scoring co-leader Karsen Henderlong (he has 5 in league play in 7 games) got the game’s only goal in the 18th minute but probably should have had two more as the home side completely outplayed the visitors.

South Georgia Tormenta 2-1 Greenville Triumph

The two teams are 6th and 7th in League One and the slight edge to Tormenta in this game reflects that. It was fairly close though. Tormenta’s Mason Tunbridge opened the scoring in the 22nd minute on a PK but Greenville had a golden opportunity to even the score on their own PK (somewhat dubiously awarded) but Evan Lee hooked it wide left. Mason Tunbrdige made it a brace deep in first-half stoppage time. Greenville’s Rodrigo Robles finally got on the board in the 86th minute but it wasn’t enough.

Tampa Bay Rowdies 3(3)-3(4) The Miami FC

In what was the wildest game of the weekend the two teams proved Bill Shankly’s famous quote that it’s a game of two halves. The Rowdies were all over Miami in the first half, Woobens Pacius, Robert Castellanos and Manuel Arteaga all bagging goals. They then took the foot off the gas and Miami scored on a Sebastian Blanco PK and direct from a free kick by Tobias Zarate, finally evening the score with an open play goal by sub Lucas Melano. Miami then took the shootout on a 4-3 score in the 6th round thanks to heroics by GK Bill Hamid. This was also the 50th anniversary of the Rowdies; not the best celebration.

Birmingham Legion 3-1 Chattanooga Red Wolves

In pretty much the only southeast game that went according to form, the Legion totally dominated the Red Wolves. Danny Trejo scored early and the home team could have been up by 2 or more by half-time. Chattanooga’s Michael Knapp was ejected in the 65th minute for a studs-up tackle on Kobe Hernandez-Foster and the rout was on. Preston Tabort Etaka and Ronaldo Damus both scored but the clean sheet was taken away by Eric Kinzner on virtually the last play of the game.

(Quick note: we don’t have any coverage north of Tennessee and the Carolinas yet, but Lexington SC lost 0-1 to Loudoun United and Louisville City whipped Richmond Kickers 4-1.)