A packed Detroit City FC crowd show off their “Le Rouge” and “Detroit City FC” scarfs to the opposing teams stands at a scrimmage match against Saginaw Valley on April 19, 2014 at Hurley Field. Brian Quintos / The Pit: SE
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he 101st Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup will see its field expand to 80 teams this year, and among the 11 National Premier Soccer League clubs, Detroit City FC will be one.
City will host Chicago-based RWB Adria, an entry from the United States Adult Soccer Association, May 7 at Stevenson High School in Livonia, Michigan.
“Most importantly, I think it’s a testament to the players from our teams last year and our ownership group,” City coach Ben Pirmann said. “Adria is going to be a very, very tough team. They’re a very mature and successful team, so I think we’re going to have our hands full.”
“I think the biggest thing is, we’re going to be the home team, so we’ve got the best fans in the country, and I think that’s hopefully going to provide an advantage.”
With DCFC’s NPSL opener set for May 10, the addition of potentially multiple fixtures from the get-go is likely to test the stamina and depth of the club.
“We’re going to have three practices before we play Adria, and then we’re going to turnaround three days later and play an important league game, then play a reserve friendly the next day; three days after we hopefully play another Open Cup game, and two days later it’s our second league game,” Pirmann said. “Basically, five games in a span of nine, 10 days. There’s not much time to get better…it’ll be more like getting better on the fly.”
Captain and veteran DCFC defender Josh Rogers also expressed fitness as something of a point of emphasis.
“I think it’ll be a testing point,” Rogers said. “Last weekend against SVSU, we got a rude awakening to where we were at this point. I think it’ll help when we get a lot of the college guys back, but I think we’ll be there by the time the game rolls around.”
USASA, awarded two of the 12 additional spots in the 2014 competition, elected to award one of its spots to last year’s USASA National Champion RWB Adria. According to the club’s website and TheCup.US, Adria have partaken in the competition four times, including a run to the semifinals in 1991, the only club in the 2014 opening round to have advanced as far. Most recently, Adria fell to USL Pro’s Rochester (NY) Rhinos in 2008 in the first round, 2-1.
Pirmann said he’s using his resources to acclimate himself and the team with some of Adria’s tendencies, but it’ll be a blind date to a certain degree for both parties.
“I’ve got a good base of information, but I don’t know what team I’m going to put out there, so obviously Adria aren’t going to know,” Pirmann said. “They might know 60 or 70 percent of what they’re going to put out, but they’re probably in a similar boat where they’re going to put new guys out and put the best 11-to-14 guys on the field.”
Surely, the match with the 2013 USASA Amateur Cup champions is set to draw fervor from Le Rouge faithful – last Saturday’s scrimmage brought roughly 1,500 fans alone to watch the team — but if victorious, it’s a potential second-round pairing between DCFC and Michigan Bucks that has supporters buzzing.
“If we’re fortunate enough to get through that first round, we’ll worry about playing the Bucks,” Pirmann said. “We know them well, they know us well, and there’s a great relationship between the two sides. If that game were to happen, I think it’d be phenomenal for the community and for the city of Detroit. Our fans deserve a game like that.”
Rogers also echoed the sentiment of a game that would surely draw many fans within the community.
“I think from the minute Detroit City FC became a club, people in the area were looking for that big matchup, and will hopefully get what they want,” Rogers said.
Tickets for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match against RWB Adria, starting at 7 p.m. ET, are $10 and available by clicking here.
Thanks to TheCup.US senior editor Josh Hakala for contributing information to this article. Originally reported by Press Row Sports.
