Edgewater Castle vs Chicago House AC: U.S. Open Cup 3rd Round Qualifying Preview
The magic of U.S. Open Cup qualifying returns to the Chicagoland area on Saturday night as Edgewater Castle hosts Chicago House Athletic Club at Taft High School Stadium. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m. central time.
Both sides won a local matchup in the previous round to get to this occasion.
Edgewater, who were playing in their first-ever Open Cup game, defeated Berber City at home. They went down in that contest, but a red card to the opposition gave them a big boost. Castle made the most of it, as a deflected strike tied things up before they won the tie at the death thanks to a goal from Andres Rocha.
There was a red card in the House’s game as well, but they were the ones who went down a man. Fortunately for them they were already up two goals at that stage, but it set up a tense finish, especially when they conceded early on in the 2nd half. Chicago held on, though, despite all the action and questionable refereeing at the end.
That brings us to this Saturday.
A few things jump out, but what might be the most exciting thing is how familiar the two sides are with one another. They’ve both been in the Midwest Premier League, which has led to a few matchups in league play, and there've been a pair of friendlies between the two as well.
They faced off in the summer on July 15th this past season, with the House securing a 3-1 win at home. It was a pretty dominant performance from the hosts, as a brace from Ricardo Avalos Jr and another goal from Shannon Seymour gave them a three-goal lead before Edgewater pulled one back late on.
The previous year’s meeting was even less competitive. The House ran out 5-0 winners at the CIBC Fire Pitch, the home of Edgewater.
This isn’t the same Castle side, though.
“It's a revenge game for us. We took a 3-1 loss in the MWPL in a game where we didn't think we played our best soccer. We didn't execute our game plan. We've become a better team since then,” said Edgewater defender Quentin Benedetto. “With this squad, we've really started to build a sort of college team vibe where everybody's playing for each other. We're not just a bunch of guys that are trying to get some work in anymore. We're really starting to build some comradery and play more like a team.”
“Us and Edgewater is developing into a nice rivalry,” said House managing partner, president, and CEO Peter Wilt. “They’re a quality organization, they’re a good team, and they have a couple of former House pro players in Andrew Ribeiro and David Abidor. We look forward to competing with them.”
“It will be different,” said House head coach Matt Poland. “They have brought in new players and added depth to their squad. It is also a win-or-go-home tournament game, and so the intensity will be higher compared to a league game. They are a great club and they will come ready.”
Something that’s helped Edgewater was their aforementioned debut in the Open Cup. The House learned all about the tournament last year. What it means to be in it, the difference in how the games go, and how rewarding a deep run could be for a club.
Castle has already learned about it all in their one match, and they’re going to take those lessons and apply them to this weekend’s contest.
“I think the biggest thing that we took out of that game was just the intensity of this fixture, right? It's a super intense thing, especially for that game because Berber had not played any US Open Cup games before and we hadn't either,” said defender Quentin Benedetto. “The nerves were high. One thing we took out of it was that it's just another soccer game. We need to stay composed. We need to keep playing our type of soccer. At the end of the day we just need to do what we came here to do and take care of business.”
As mentioned earlier, the House already knew about the magic of the Open Cup thanks to their dream run last year. They got to play the freaking Chicago Fire as a result of it.
“Oh, it's terrific. I hate to use the Welcome to Wrexham comparison, but just watching that recently in the FA Cup and the joy it gives the fans over there and the opportunities it gives teams to be a giant killer, it’s all really special,” said Wilt, who was wearing one of his many Open Cup championship rings. “Having some of these guys who experienced it all last year, it gives them that extra incentive this time around. They want to get back to that. Then there are the guys that weren't here last year, who have heard about it from their teammates. They’re excited.”
Chicago did have a spanner thrown into the works, though. Their head coach, the wonderful Matt Poland, is in Germany right now, and he’ll still be there this weekend.
For those of you keeping track at home, that means he won’t be at this game. It’s for a good reason, to be fair, as he’s working on obtaining his UEFA coaching licenses. However, it has led to an interesting situation.
Fortunately for the House, they’ve got very solid cover for him, and that comes in former Chicago Fire assistant Junior González. He’s got a remarkable resume even before that time, spending several years coaching the Los Angeles Galaxy II and Rio Grande Valley Toros FC (obligatory Ian Cerro shoutout) while also serving as an assistant for the U-17 U.S. Men’s National Team and others.
Before we get to how this will impact Saturday’s game, I straight up asked Peter Wilt how the hell he was able to get someone the caliber of Gonzalez on the House’s staff.
“It's terrific to have him. He's in town after leaving the Fire and he has a thirst to coach. For him, I don't think it matters at what level he’s coaching in terms of the joy he gets out of it, and we're very fortunate to have him. I mean it's good for the guys too, to have a different voice from Matt. Obviously Matt is a great coach, and he's going to be coaching soon at the levels that Junior has in the past.”
The players have made the most of Gonzalez's tenure as well.
“I think a lot of times your leaders and sometimes your coaches' voices become stale and it's nice to have an outside voice come in with a lot of street cred. Have them out here and say the same things, so now the players know that it's not just us talking, but it's also a standard across professional soccer,” said House captain AR Smith. “I kind of just picked his brain when he first came here a little bit because he brought a structural professional side of football to a group of guys who may have not necessarily seen that before. It was also taking the stuff we always do with Matt, of course. Do this the right way over and over and over again and you'll become good. It's nice to have Junior to force those principles, though.”
Gonzalez made sure it was clear that this is still Poland’s team, though. The two have been in constant communication during this time, even with the distance and difference in time zones.
“Well I was here already for about three weeks with Matt, so I already kind of understood his activities and then we would talk when he's in Germany about how he wanted the progression to go,” said Gonzalez. “He allowed me to have a couple different activities that I normally do within that, but pretty much everything has been normal. What they would do on a prep week for their games, I didn't change much other than a couple coaching points. The team already understands their roles and understands how their style of play is, so it makes it easier.”
“I am thankful for a great staff and players who have handled it all when I am away,” said Poland. “We speak daily but they have everything under control. The coaches are talented and the players know the expectations, so the balance has been easy. We speak often of the group and not the individual and this week is another example of that.”
Gonzalez is also very grateful. “It's been good during the transitional moment in my career to have a place that has embraced me and let me come in and stay sharp, work with a new set of players and work with a young quality coach that I know is going to have a big future in the game. I’ve created a relationship with Matt, the rest of the staff, and the players. So, in that respect, I'm really grateful to the House for allowing me to be here.”
While the House has had their coach in Germany, Edgewater had a key player in Mexico this past week, with David Abidor recently getting married over there. Don’t worry, though, he’ll still be more than ready for Saturday.
“I’ve been texting him all week and making sure that he's on the bike, going for a run,” said Benedetto while laughing. “I said, ‘I don't care if it's your honeymoon, you've got 30 minutes to get a little bit of work.’ So I think he's going to be ready to go. He's also one of those guys who used to play for the House, so he's one of the most motivated on the team now to take down his old squad. It's more of a grudge match for him than it is for anybody else. And he's certainly bringing the intensity, even from Punta Cana or whatever.”
(Congratulations David, by the way.)
That brings us back to Saturday. Edgewater Castle versus Chicago House for a spot in the final round of U.S. Open Cup qualifying. Everyone’s certainly excited about it.
“We're so unbelievably excited to be playing an Open Cup qualifier in Chicago against another team from Chicago,” said Edgewater club director Tom Arnison. “The talent here in the Midwest is a lot higher than the east coast and the west coast gives us credit for. I think the Midwest and the amateur teams coming out of the Midwest are going to bring a lot to offer for years to come in this cup.”
“It's away for us, but it's somewhat away for them as well, a bit of a neutral site at Taft High School. We hope our fans show up and Edgewater’s fans show up, and that we have a great dynamic in the stands of the supporters cheering on a competitive game,” said Wilt.
“We're excited. It's a bigger stage, it's a place they've been before,” said Benedetto. “We're certainly the underdogs to the public, yet we don't feel that way.”
“There’s a lot of our boys on the other team, they’re all Chicago boys,” said Smith. “We all played at high level academies, high level schools, division one schools. So yeah, we know a lot of those boys. It'll be fun.”
Let’s all have some fun, then.
