Breaking news: EVERY game in 2010 Open Cup to be played in D.C.!

OK, that headline isn’t true. Not exactly.

Only a significant portion of next year’s U.S. Open Cup matches are likely to be played in our nation’s capital.

Today’s topic is the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a little humdinger of a tournament that I talk up whenever I get the chance.

All good domestic soccer fans know about the granddaddy of team tournaments in the United States, named for soccer lover, sports pioneer and general all-around sweetheart Lamar Hunt.

The Open Cup is like that little hamburger joint or dive bar that you and a few friends know about. You like sharing it with it outsiders because you feel worldly and vaguely, if only momentarily, superior. Tipping folks to really swell things is like sitting at the cool kid’s table in high school.

But, like that awesome little dive bar or burger joint, the tournament has its dirty little secrets. Allow me to be the Anthony Bourdain of soccer and pull back the curtain on a couple of them.

Foremost on my mind today is the Sept. 2 final, set to be held … wait for it … yup, at RFK Stadium just beyond the Stadium Armory stop on D.C.’s Metro.

If you’re getting that soap opera feeling – ya know, like you’ve seen this story before – you’re probably recalling last year’s final. That one was … wait for it … at RFK Stadium.

Anyone else spotting a trend?

In fact, D.C. United is playing its 10^th consecutive home match in the Open Cup. Ten! What, did they ban soccer teams from Dulles and Reagan National?

Last time United had to pack an overnight was back in 2007 during a third round match at possibly storied Hempfield High School in Landisville, Penn. How’d that work out United? Not so well. The Harrisburg City Islanders of domestic soccer’s third tier successfully ambushed the MLS Goliaths.

Well, look at the big brain on the United officials! They figured it out. Just outbid everybody for the right to host games and never lose again! Who cares if Ben Olsen is missing out on all those frequent flier miles?

U.S. Soccer is way behind the curve on this one. The Open Cup needs some modernization. This bidding process used to award home matches is a relic of another day and needs to be altered. Period. What’s wrong with the FA Cup method, where teams are drawn randomly, one home side and one visitor? Simple enough, eh?

I’m not opposed to the regional scheduling that U.S. Open Cup officials advocate. It saves everybody money, and that’s important. But the sites can still be randomly selected.

Ask the Rochester Rhinos how they feel about it after Tuesday’s semifinal, played in suburban Maryland just outside D.C.  Ask how they feel about seeing a player’s ankle broken without so much as a foul whistled on the D.C. United player.

Even if home cooking didn’t affect the referee’s actions in that particular sequence, in the bigger picture it’s safe to say that United would face drastically decreased odds of landing in a second consecutive final without the benefit of four home games. Need evidence?

This year, from the third round forward (when most of the MLS sides wade into the bracket), 9 of 14 home teams have prevailed. Last year the advantage was even more pronounced, with 13 of 15 homes teams advancing. The year before that, 11 of 15 home teams triumphed. So, no surprise here, home teams have a decided edge.

Besides, what makes this tournament special (and what provides any media juice that it manages to muster) is when the lightweights kick the heavyweights right square in the taint. Charleston gave D.C. United all it could handle in last year’s outstanding final. And the Battery had knocked out Dallas and Houston en route to the final at RFK.

How cool was it when an amateur team from Dallas, Roma FC, knocked out Chivas USA back in 2006 before falling to the Galaxy in the quarterfinals?

Every year, amateur sides, USL-1 or USL-2 sides beat the odds and the stretched MLS lineups to advance. And everybody loves when it happens.

This year, United gets the Seattle Sounders at their place. Seattle is an MLS side, of course, but an expansion outfit. So Sigi Schmid’s team must travel across country to play at United’s home ground. Yes, I know this year’s MLS final is in Seattle, but that’s different. MLS Cup sights are set well in advance because of all the peripheral hoo-ha that must be planned well in advance.

For the U.S. Open Cup, in the name of simple fairness, the suits at U.S. Soccer need to get this sorted out.

And while they are at it … $100,000 for the winners and $50,000 for the runner-up? That’s a serious case of squeezing the green off the dollar. In other words, it’s being cheap. If they want more MLS clubs to take the competition seriously and try harder to gin up fan interest, they’ll need to dig a little deeper into Sunil Gulati’s pockets and up the shares.
At that rate, after the club takes its share and the players divvy up the rest, they might have enough for a bulk package of Sockeye Salmon and a couple of iTunes gift cards at the nearby Costco, but that’s about it.

Well, they might also have a little left for a cheeseburger (one of my top 5 favorite burgers) at their favorite local dive.