Both the Chicago Fire and Richmond Kickers both are likely
to play the biggest match of their seasons to date when they meet in the
semifinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday at Toyota Park. Both
sides though have important league fixtures to attend to Saturday night
(kicking off just an hour apart), begging the question of how managers Frank
Klopas and Leigh Cowlishaw will manage the two-games in four-days scenario.
“Our main focus is on Colorado on Saturday,” said Klopas. “That’s
the game in front of us, we’re going to put the best group available to us out
there to win that and we have more than enough time to recover. Playing both
games at home, we don’t have to travel and will be ready for Tuesday vs.
Richmond.”
Believe it or not, managing this situation hasn’t been the
top of Cowlishaw’s (pictured right) priorities as a few unmanageable things have hit central
Virginia this week.
“I’m more concerned about natural disasters right now with
the earthquake and the hurricane headed our way,” joked earlier this week. “Those
things aren’t making logistics very interesting right now.”
Short turnaround time is something the Kickers head man, now
in his 11th season at the helm of the side, is used to as he leads
his club into the USL Pro playoff semifinals Saturday night at Orlando City.
“For our league
this is a normal day at the office. It’s more of a situation where its going to
be quite easy for us to handle.
Playing in USL-Pro, teams jam a 26-game season into the span
of five months. Necessitated by travel expense, clubs will often play each
other twice or two different teams over the course of two-four days. Add a deep
Open Cup run, and your already thin squad is stretched even more – in June
Richmond played six matches in the span of 16 days (three league, three in the Open
Cup).
When the third division side takes to the field at Toyota
Park for Tuesday’s semifinal, it will mark their sixth match in 20 days, with
coastal travel to boot.
“We’re just coming off four games in 10 days, playing Wilmington on the
Wednesday before going to LA for a Friday/Sunday adventure and then came back
again last Friday to play Wilmington in the playoffs,” said Cowlishaw. “To get
through that stretch with all away travel was a tough one. The guys had three
days off this week and now were focusing in on trying to make it an historic
week with two semifinals and hopefully a USL championship appearance. Playing
Saturday/Tuesday hopefully will not be a problem for us.”
With the compacted season though, USL clubs are allowed five
substitutions in league games, compared to three in the Open Cup, where teams
are also limited to dressing only five international players.
“That makes it a little trickier to handle but I’m sure it
does for Chicago as well,” the manager confidently proclaimed.
A long-time servant of the club, Cowlishaw has been in
Richmond since 1993, first as a player, then player manager, before becoming
full-time head coach in 2009. A USL Hall of Fame inductee, the Englishman was a
member of the Kickers side that won the 1995 U.S. Open Cup title (the last
tournament before MLS teams began competing) and has helped the club to three
league championships (1995, 2006, 2009) as well as four regular season titles
(1998, 2001, 2006-07) in that time.
Though on the roster, the current Kickers head man didn’t find himself in the
only other meeting with Chicago, a 1-0 Fire win at Richmond in the 2004 Lamar
Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals. Then in his second season current Fire
captain Logan Pause played and went the full 90 minutes in the win while
current Kickers goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale (pictured right) and striker Matthew Delicate played a
part in the match.
Importance
No stranger to success in either competition, given the
ironic set of circumstances having to play two knockout games in four days, the
questions of ‘which is more important, which competition gives you the best
opportunity to win hardware,’ comes into play.
“They’re both equally important,” said Cowlishaw. “This is
where we want to be. It’s the sign of a good season to be in this position but
if we don’t win either of these matches then no one’s going to remember much of
this year. We’ve had a good season so far but this isn’t a special occasion for
us by any means, its just another match and the ability to show against another
quality opponent.”
The Fire, who sit eight points back of a playoff spot
heading into their match with defending MLS Cup champions Colorado Saturday
night will certainly be disappointed if they come away without a win Tuesday
but taking their third division opponents lightly would be a mistake.
After negotiating through two easy wins against fellow
USL-Pro opposition, the Kickers dispatched the Columbus 2-1 in the Round of 16
on June 28 before downing Sporting KC 2-0 on July 12. Both wins came away from
the Virginia capital, marking the first lower-league side to defeat MLS clubs
back-to-back on the road.
“We obviously don’t have a huge squad like in MLS but we
have 20 dedicated professionals that can pretty much interchange positions,
that’s how you have to build a team in this league.”
Getting set for just the club’s second Open Cup semifinal
appearance (and first since 1995), the question that remained to be asked,
“Where does this season rank among Cowlishaw’s years with the Kickers?”
“Right now it ranks nowhere. Hopefully in a couple weeks if
we’re able to perform to our ability then maybe it can rank up there as one of
our best seasons. Right now it could easily rank outside the top 10 because we
haven’t won anything yet. The most important thing is picking up a trophy, at
this stage if we don’t it’ll be a major disappointment for the whole squad.”
As for Saturday night, Fire fans should keep a watchful eye
on the happenings at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL where Cowlishaw’s side will
visit 2011 USL-Pro regular season champions Orlando City Lions (USLlive.com at
6:30pm CT) in the league’s second semifinal. The winner will advance to take on
the Harrisburg City Islanders in the league championship match next weekend.
Jeff Crandall is the
Team Writer for the Chicago Fire. Follow him on Twitter @JefeCrandall.
Tickets are still available for Tuesday's USOC semifinal. Visit Ticketmaster or call 888.MLS.FIRE for more information.
