Sunday football brought about one of the most brilliant displays or soccer in The FA Cup Semi-finals when 1x winner and second division club Coventry City Football Club took on the mighty Red Devils of Manchester United Football Club, 12x winners.
Coventry City entered the match in 8th place in the EFL Championship (#28 in England) while Manchester United were 7th in the Premier League (#7).
To put into greater context just how remarkable Coventry City’s rise was, The Sky Blues were relegated to the second level after the 2000-2001 season, and then entered the third division after the 2011-2012 season. That would be like if the New York Mets were moved down to Triple-A and then Double-A.
And from there, it got worse.
The 2013-2014 season saw Coventry City drop from a healthy 10,000+ average attendance to just around 2,000 as the owners moved the club’s home matches to Northampton Town FC’s stadium in East Midlands nearly 40 minutes away, angering the supporters based out of West Midlands. This policy remained in place until 21 August of the next season. The move back to Coventry part way through the 2014-2015 season led to a 9,332 average attendance which was respectable for the third level.
But, the play was still not high enough with Coventry City falling to the fourth division for the 2017-2018 season in EFL League 2, or in other words, the New York Mets falling to Single-A.
Luckily, The Sky Blues earned promotion to the third division for the next season, but it was not until the final season of last decade that Coventry City made it back to the second level for the 2020-2021 season.
In the meantime, Coventry City fans had to travel to West Midlands neighbors Birmingham City FC to play at their stadium for the 2019-2020 and the 2020-2021 seasons, meaning the club could not even enjoy their promotion at their home ground, and average attendance fell to between 6,000 and 7,000 while having to play at one of their rivals.
For Covetry, the big football team playing in their arena was now the Wasps Rugby Football Club in Premiership rugby union. This team never fully felt Coventry and always felt wrong to havr as they existed since the 1860s in Greater London, spending most of their existance in the London Borough of Brent back in 1996 before moving to QPR’s stadium in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and then to the Wyocombe Wanderers’ stadium outside of Greater London in 2002. The 2014 move up north nominally made this newly nomadic club Coventry’s main team during this time, but in reality Coventry remained a soccer-city desperate for the return at times and the rise of The Sky Blues.
Thus, this era of Coventry as a rugby union town was short-lived.
Coventry City moved back to their arena for the 2021-2022 season bringing back their larger attendances often in the high 10,000s to 20,000+!
In the meantime, the historic Wasps went into administration and stopped playing in Coventry and altogether.
Coventry’s Ricoh Arena was renamed to Conventry Building Society Arena making the stadium more Coventry-themed.
Coventry City football was trending up and was back in its home city.
The Sky Blues continued these high attendance numbers into last season when Coventry City found itself at Wembly Stadium for the EFL Championship Promotion Playoff Final. A win would have meant Premier League football once again for the first time since the 2000-2001 season. Unfortunately, Luton Town dominated the penalty kick shootouts keeping Coventry City in the second level.
While Coventry City will finish below the playoffs this year and are currently in 8th, the West Midlands club’s historic run to The FA Cup Semi-finals matched their closest taste of a top level trophy since their 1989-1990 League Cup run to the Semi-finals.
And it came on the back of American forward Haji Wright.
In their Quarter-final match with Premier League side and West Midlands rival, Wolverhapton Wanderers, Conventry City found themselves down 1-2 going into the second half of stoppage time. Ellis Simms scored in the 90+7 minute for The Sky Blues before Haji Wright scored in the 90+10 minute to send Conventry City to Wembly Stadium and the Semi-finals!
The comeback brought back the memories of their only top tier national trophy at the 1986-1987 FA Cup.
But, the West Midlands club found themselves down 0-3 in the second half of the Semi-final match with England’s record 20x league champions.
The Contrians were not done yet though as Ellis Simms scored in the 71st Minute before a lucky deflection in 79th Minute led to a Callum O’Hare goal.
Could Coventry City pull off a historic upset over the Mighty Reds of Manchester?
Haji Wright answered that question deep into stoppage time scoring in the 90+5 minute from a penalty kick!
3-3 and the match headed into extra time!
Coventry City held their own and then scored what was the goal of this year’s FA Cup with an assist from Haji Wright at the very end of the second half of extra time. 4-3, but only just as VAR officials overturned the call on the slightest of offsides calls leaving many viewers stunned by the decision.
Penalty kicks came and Haji Wright once again scored! While his side was not able to win, they showed that Coventry football is back and can compete with the elite clubs of England.
Yet, it was the man from Los Angeles that kept the team alive through it all until the very end.
His numbers have made many US Soccer fans happy as the former LA Galaxy youth and former NY Cosmos player has brought his experience from two legendary American clubs to Europe. Wright has been a journeyman with FC Schalke 04 (Germany), SV Sandhausen (Germany), VVV-Venlo (Netherlands), Sønderjyske (Norway), and Antalyaspor (Turkey).
His last two stints in Turkey and England have been his most impressive as he scored 15 and 16 goals in Antalya and has 18 goals with 4 matches remaining in Coventry this season.
He currently leads The Sky Blues in scoring for the EFL Championship with 15 goals, but it has been his goals in The FA Cup which has drawn worldwide applause because he did so against Premier League opposition, and not just against the Triple-A of English soccer.
But, if this were the USA and MLS got their way, Haji Wright would have never gotten the chance to prove to the world against England’s record 20x national champion club that he belongs on the big stage.
And Coventry City would have not had the chance to play an internationally televised match that brought in hundreds of millions of viewers and millions of dollars to the club!
The reason for this is that the MLS seeks to end the US’s version of The FA Cup called the US Open Cup.
Like The FA Cup, the US Open Cup allows for each club in the US Soccer pyramid (all divisions affiliated with US Soccer from professional to amateur) to compete for this historic top tier trophy.
You may be wondering the logistics of these nationwide cups and how they provide for a tournament with all these different levels represented. The cups tend to operate on single-elimination matchups with home teams randomly selected to ensure fairness. The early rounds often act as play-in rounds for lower division teams that qualified, while the top level teams across the first division or sometimes multiple top divisions automatically qualify for a specified future round. The lower your division and the worse you are doing, the sooner you enter the tournament. Lower division clubs also have to compete in pre-qualifiers to get to these play-in rounds to show they have the level to compete with professionals.
This randomness and series of qialifications has provided entertaining finishes across the world such as when then defending English Champions and holders of the most FA Cup trophies, Arsenal FC, went away to the then bottom fourth division Wrexham AFC and lost in 1992.
But, in the US, the domestic cup is even more important for the lower tier clubs because the American soccer pyramid does not allow for promotion and relegation. In addition, since 1888, The FA Cup is no longer what awards the national champions of England rather the top tier national league champions do (currently the champions of the Premier League). Due to the USA’s socccer history, vast geography, and lack of promotion and relegation, the USA has retained their domestic cup as their national champion. Therefore, the US Open Cup champions get an invite to the CONCACAF Champions Cup to win North America and a chance to qualify for the Club World Cup.
The FA Cup Champions also earn a place to contentinental football, but in the UEFA Europa League which is the second division for European competition. This competition’s chsmpion earns a place to the top level UEFA Champions League whose champions then earns a place to the Club World Cup.
Due to these two competitions’ nature of including teams from multiple divisions and the rewards of advancing to continental and potential worldwide football, stakes are very high supplying high revenues with spectacular upsets often termed “cupsets”.
Imagine the Columbus Clippers (Triple-A) defeating the New York Yankees in an actual competitive match for a top level trophy?
This is what both the US Open Cup and The FA Cup has provided soccer for well over a century.
For example, we saw the second division Rochester Rhinos defeat the MLS’s Colorado Rapids in the 1999 Open Cup Final. And in 2022, second division side Sacremento Republic FC made it all the way to the Final only for MLS’s Orlando City SC to win.
These results may be unique in the MLS-era for non-MLS sides reaching the Final, but the cupsets are quite regular. Just last season, two second division sides made it to the quarterfinal: Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and Birmingham Legion FC.
The Riverhounds even beat that season’s MLS Cup Champions which would be like the Oklahoma City Baseball Club (Triple-A) defeating the Texas Rangers last season.
In 2022, third division side Union Omaha SC defeated two MLS sides on their way to a Quarterfinal berth. That would be equavelent to the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Double-A) defeating the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves in a competive NCAA-like tournament and be three wins away from winning the trophy over the likes of Shohei Ohtani and the LA Dodgers.
This is the opportunity we find in the domestic cup competitions soccer and many other sports including basketball and even baseball has in other countries.
But, the MLS has been trying to get their teams out of the competition because they say their clubs play too many matches, despite having played the US Open Cup every season of the MLS thus far, and despite being able to rotate their roster.
Earlier in this past off-season, MLS declared all their clubs would not be participating, but they then rescinded and have reduced the number of clubs competing to 8.
These clubs were not chosen on merit either, as 2023 MLS Cup Champions Columbus Crew are not included, and nor are the record 5x MLS Cup Champions and 2x US Open Cup Champions LA Galaxy.
While the US Open Cup will remain the highest level national championship in name, and the champions will continue to receive a CONCACAF Champions Cup spot, the competition will now likely be devalued in reality because critics will be quick to point out that any clubs who win will not have played others like the Galaxy, the Crew, or any other club that has a successful season similar to if the Salt Lake City Bees (Triple-A) won a competition that featured teams like the Angels, Athletics, Tigers, Padres, Phillies, and Braves, but did not include the Yankees, Dodgers, and Rangers.
Furthermore, the opportunity for lower division clubs to make money and for their players to prove their worth in the top level will decrease thus lowering revenues to develop local talent in the many regions with no MLS team and lowering opporunity for up-coming players.
Lastly, it takes away from the closest America has to promotion and relegation in soccer which limits the liklihood of investors investing to own the teams across America that introduce local kids to the sport. Elsewhere, we see investors investing into lower division clubs like Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney investing into then 5th division club Wrexham AFC, allowing for professional and semi-professional football opportunities to exist even into Division 11 and beyond in England where 23 divisions exist for investors to dream of their club earning 23 promotions to the Premier League.
In the US however, investors must compete with a monopoly at the top that they have no ability of getting into short of invite. And noe with the new US Open Cup, they have far less opportunities to show on the field what their clubs are about.
Sunday showed the world that the club known for their famous elephant on their badge was a top class team. They suprised many by advancing to this year’s FA Cup Semi-final, but their accomplishment and the anticipation across the world and the opportunity provided for their players only existed due to the fact that the Premier League clubs with all their best players like Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford were involved.
This was a proper top level trophy like the US Open in golf or Wimbledon in tennis where the best players and teams were playing.
It means that when American Haji Wright scored two huge goals in back to back games against Premier League opposition, he was able to show on the field to scouts that he can play against the very best, despite his only English opportunity having been at a second division club. It also means that the City of Coventry got to experience top level football despite being a second division team, and it also meant that their football club got to experience high ticket sales solving the many economic problems associated with lower division clubs.
The money earned from these cups help keep local teams solvent so they can establish academies to train the local youth and fans to keep the sport popular across all cities no matter their luck of having a top level team.
Imagine a world in American basketball where a Seattle ABA team could compete for the NBA Cup despite not having an NBA team? Or imagine if the minor league baseball and ice hockey clubs across the US got to compete against the likes of the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Bruins?
That is what US Soccer has now which has been a huge contributor toward the growth of lower level soccer where clubs like Detroit City FC were able to get 5,000+ average attendance as a fourth level club, while the Michigan Panthers of the second level UFL struggle to get an 8,000 average with far fewer games in a much more popular sport.
In fact, Louisville City FC and FC Cincinatti became well-known for their high attendance in the second division, which has contributed to national prominence. FC Cincinatti were drawing 20,000 plus and over 30,000 for US Open Cup games forcing the MLS to take notice and bring up the second division side, while Louisville City FC’s successes and high attendance led to a new 15,000 seat state of the art soccer stadium being built, raising average attendances to over 10,000 as a second division side.
The USL Championship (second division) now features once a week on CBS, showing how popular soccer is in the US when the only other second level professional sport playing on the major networks is American football.
In the recent US National Soccer Team squad that won the CONCACAF Nations League in March, all but two players had played for lower division sides and eight had done so in the USA. Many of the best players around the world only got to that level through stints in the lower tiers that offered them possibilities of showing out against the top teams. Former English national team striker, Jamie Vardy, displayed this best in his career in the 5th and 6th divisions. He had started off his professional career in the 6th division as part of a reserve team earning 30 pounds a week in 2006. After going up to the first team, he quickly made his name scoring goals. These results sent him around England in these lower tiers until his 2011-2012 FA Cup run with 5th division side Fleetwood Town FC that showed England who Jamie Vardy was. The next season, he was bought for 1 million pounds by Leicester City FC and would earn promotion with them after the 2013-2014 season. This led to Leicester City’s 2015-2016 Premier League Champions season, their 2020-2021 FA Cup Champions season, and their 2021-2022 FA Community Shield trophy. Jamie Vardy would become a household name winning the 2015-2016 Premier League Player of the Season, the 2019-2020 Premier League Golden Boot (most goals), and plenty of other awards, as well as earning a spot on the England national football team in major tournaments like their FIFA World Cup Semi-finals team in 2018.
This opennesss is what has made soccer so popular around the world because it makes every city, every fan, and every nation have stakes in the quest for ultimate glory while other sports only provide these opportunities to the presumed very best and the populous places.
For the health of the game and for the opportunity to the many players, fans, and cities, it is imperative US Open Cup remains as it extends the opportunity of top level soccer to every city that has an amatuer to professional club.
KTH 