Tomorrow night Starfire will be a-rockin as the Seattle Sounders take on the Atlanta Silverbacks, but the 3rd round of the US Open Cup actually starts tonight with 28 of the 32 remaining teams in action. All of (US-based) MLS will be entering this round, thanks the the elimination of the weird play-in bracket for the top pro division. So the night is pregnant with delightful upset possibilities. Many teams will be without their best players, including the LA Galaxy, who are losing almost an entire squad worth to injury and international duty, and who will be traveling for the match despite attempting to buy hosting rights.
The best rundown of the matches and available media coverage is at thecup.us. The first matches are at 4pm, when DC United kicks off against the Richmond Kickers and the New England Revolution takes on the Harrisburg City Islanders.
In the Pickem contest, bmvaughn and Dizzo are tied for the lead at 10 and yours truly and mrbs are a point back at 9. Derek R's spreadsheet is here for checking your scores. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account USSoccer's preference for regional brackets and I picked the Timbers, the Sounders, and Cal FC, who are all in the same 4-team region. On the plus side, I've got a pretty good chance of getting two points out of the deal...