Know Your Enemy: Crystal Palace Baltimore
Taylor Twellman, Kenny Mansally, and a bunch of guys you’ve never heard of but play for our team managed to brave the monsoon conditions down in New Britain last week, handing the Richmond Kickers a 3-0 caning in front just under 4,000 folks. The offense was provided by reserve team young’uns like Joe Germanese (24) and Sam Brill (22) with one for good luck knocked in by Twellman, while Chris Tierney (22) notched two assists on the night.
The rain was apparently a serious mess according to the, oh, 10 or 15 text messages about it your faithful scribe received. Hopefully the sun will be kinder this coming Tuesday when the Revs’ return to the southernmost part of their kingdom this time to face the tournament’s Cinderella side, Crystal Palace Baltimore. Oh you read that right. The team is also known as Crystal Palace F.C. USA. They’re the American affiliate of 103 year old (and 1991 Full Members Cup champion) English team Crystal Palace. The American team was formed in 2006 by Crystal Palace and a local consortium headed by horse trainer Randall Medd.
Palace booked their first-ever trip into the Open Cup quarterfinals with an absolutely stunning 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls last week at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, MD. New York’s team featured regulars like Mike Magee, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Carlos Mendes, and Jeff Parke. Although starting Zach Thornton in net might have been a mistake. Palace started the scoring in the 17th minute with an Andrew Marshall header and Gary Brooks finished it off in the 75th. Amazingly Palace played the last 56 minutes of the game down to ten men after Ibrahim Kante was shown the door for a two-footed tackle on New York’s Puerto Rican starlet Chris Megaloudis.
Prior to beating New York Palace had defeated L.A. Legends F.C. (Premier Deveolpment League) and the Harrisburg City Islanders (Division 2), respectively, in the previous rounds. They’re the lowest ranked team still in the tournament, although they’re not the only USL team left. Charleston Battery (Division 1) again knocked out the Houston Dynamo in penalty kicks after the match ended 1-all in extra frames, despite the Battery being down to just 9 men towards the end. They’ll next face FC Dallas in Dallas. In the other deja-vu result, the Seattle Sounders (also Division 1) bounced Chivas USA out of things after a 2-0 win. The first player signed to Seattle’s 2009 MLS roster, Sebastien Le Toux, and Puerto Rican international Taylor Graham provided the goals as the Goats were sent packing for the second year running by Seattle.
Palace are currently in 3rd place in Division 2 and are coming off a 2-1 victory over in-state rivals Real Maryland F.C. Their leading scorer is the aforementioned Gary Brooks (6 goals) a lower league veteran who has also turned out for the Virginia Beach Mariners, Atlanta Silverbacks, and Vancouver Whitecaps in his 6 years in the USL. Palace’s makeup is an interesting mix of older players like Brooks, former Yokohama F. Marinos midfielder Shintaro Harada, and player/co-manager Jim Cherneski alongside younger prospects. They play their home games at UMBC Stadium on the campus of the University Of Maryland, Baltimore County. Despite never having faced each other there are two New England connections between the clubs. Older (uhm, I mean, fans with more experience) might remember Ibrahim Kante from his time with the Revs in 2003. Palace midfielder Bryan Harkin played his college soccer at Fairfield University in Connecticut and was part of the Cape Cod Crusaders’ 2002 run to the PDL title.
END HITS: Sebastien Le Toux, despite being born in France, told the Prost Amerika website (www.prostamerika.com) on July 2nd that he would be “honored” to represent the United States on the international level and it is his “only international ambition”…the winner of the regular season series between Crystal Palace Baltimore and Real Maryland takes home the DeOrsey Maryland Cup (named after Medd family friend and Maryland soccer stalwart Matt DeOrsey who passed away this year at age 31)…despite a comment to the contrary last time the Revs logo is STILL above the mayor of New Britain’s picture on the city’s website (www.new-britain.net) …nothing’s been announced yet so I’m not sure if the Revs website will again be doing an internet radio broadcast of the match…