It was a beautiful night for soccer at Macpherson Stadium on Wednesday night as the Carolina Dynamo continued on their quest to capture the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup. The USL’s First Division Seattle Sounders made the cross country trip to the Gate City to face off with the Dynamo with the winner heading to the Lone Star State to meet the MLS’s Houston Dynamo in a fourth round Cup match-up. Wednesday night’s game was the first U.S. Open Cup game for Seattle, who earned a bye into the third round due to the fact that the Sounders are the defending First Division Champions. The Dynamo made it into the third round after defeating Richmond 1-0.
From the opening whistle, Carolina seemed in complete control of the action. Chance, after chance came so close for the Dynamo yet after one half of play, Carolina found themselves in a scoreless tie.
In the second half, the game remained scoreless until the 76th minute when Seattle’s Cam Weaver put the Sounders ahead after Seattle was awarded a somewhat questionable corner kick. The Seattle goal seemed to give the Dynamo a new sense of urgency. Only 2 minutes later, Carolina scored the equalizer when Michael Lahoud, who moments earlier had entered the game, put the ball in the back of the net.
With the game tied at 1 after regulation, the game moved to overtime (2-15 minutes periods, no golden goal). In the first overtime period, Seattle once again scored first, this time on a controversial penalty shot. Just as in regulation, Carolina responded quickly. Carolina’s Ben Hunter tied the score at 2 apiece about a minute later.
In the second overtime, Carolina took its first lead of the night when Liberty University alum Daryl Roberts scored on a beautiful header off a corner kicker about seven minutes in. After the Dynamo got the lead, Carolina “took the air of the ball” and held off Seattle for the 3-2 win.
The Dynamo head to Houston on August 2 but before that, they have some business to finish in their own division. On Friday, Carolina hosts Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. at the Mac and can wrap up the South Atlantic Division title with a win. Carolina is now 12-0-1 in league play and 15-0-1 overall.
GreensboroSports.com will continue to cover the Dynamo as the continue their stellar season.
Dynamo Pictures Courtesy of Christan Lewis – Opens in New Window.
Good work on Dynamo Doug, I spoke with the coach of the ‘Mo Joe Brown and with Dynamo owner Neil Macpherson after the game and Mr. Mac told me that the upcoming game with Houston could involve a major dispute. Houston has been using the Dynamo name in Major League Soccer since March of ’06 and Mr. Macpherson trademarked the Dynamo name back in 1992 so the Carolina Dynamo own the right to that name in all of Soccer. This could get ugly or it might get to be a finacial boon for Mr. Mac. I agree with what Dave Goren(of TV 12 Sports) said the other day at the luncheon. The Dynamo might just be the Most Successful Team in Triad Sports History.
Christan….the pictures from Wednesday night’s match look great and our readers should really enjoy them. Welcome to the GreenbsoroSports.com team and we look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.
Great pictures of the soccer.