Spokane Velocity FC wins first U.S. Open Cup match in dramatic fashion

SPOKANE — Ecstasy for Spokane Velocity FC, heartbreak for Ballard FC in the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as midfielder Andre Lewis scores with seconds remaining in extra time to claim a 1-0 victory on Wednesday.

In the 97th minute of the game and in what was certain to be the last action before an additional 30 minutes would be needed to decide the outcome, Romain Metanire’s long throw-in from near the corner flag was cleared by Ballard but fell directly in the path of Andre Lewis toward the top of the box. Lewis, a right footed player, shot the ball with his left foot and chose power, blasting the ball into the roof of the net to win the game for Spokane. After the restart, head official Jaclyn Metz waited mere seconds before blowing the final whistle.

“Whenever I score with my left foot, it's a banger,” Lewis said after the game. “With my left foot, I shoot with power. I tell the guys – with the left, it's like watch out. Watch out.”

In a game that saw 22 fouls and 6 yellow cards handed out by Metz, five of them to Velocity players, it always felt like a game where one goal would win it.

Velocity head coach Leigh Veidman made seven changes from the team that defeated the Richmond Kickers 2-1 last weekend in Spokane. Midfielder Michael Rojas and defenders Elijah Amadin, Camron Miller and Javier Martin Gil received their first starts as professional players. Miller and Ahmed Longmire played the full game and were called on repeatedly in a very physical match to keep the clean sheet.

“It was a lot of direct play tonight and the surface wasn't great, so we had to kind of play with what we had,” Miller said. “Sometimes soccer is like that and you’ve just gotta go out there and win a game.”

Veidman started the game with several key players on the bench but brought them on in the second half in an effort to snatch the game. Metanire in particular absorbed a lot of the pressure from Ballard’s overlapping runs down the left.

“That was a real Open Cup game. Let's just say it was a difficult environment with the fans they had here and a difficult surface to play on,” Veidman said. “Really scrappy, really direct, big game about duels and defending and ultimately, just finding a way to win. And that's what we did tonight.”

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States, crowning a champion since 1914 in every year except 2020 and 2021 (due to the COVID pandemic). The single-game knockout tournament, renamed in 1999 to honor American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt, is open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer.

The 2024 U.S. Open Cup winner will earn $300,000 in prize money, a berth in the 2025 Concacaf Champions League and have its name engraved on the Dewar Challenge Trophy – one of the oldest nationally contested trophies in American team sports. Houston Dynamo FC are the defending Open Cup champions, having earned the club's second tournament title thanks to a 2-1 victory over Inter Miami last September in front of a capacity crowd at Fort Lauderdale’s DRV PNK Stadium. usopencup.com is the official website of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Fans can also follow the competition on Twitter and Instagram @OpenCup and Facebook @OfficialOpenCup.

Velocity FC will hope to host a second round Open Cup game but their focus now shifts to this Saturday at 7 p.m. as Velocity takes on Northern Colorado Hailstorm at ONE Spokane Stadium.