House into the 3rd Round…
CHICAGO, IL – On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, Chicago House A.C. advanced to the third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with an overtime win over USL 1 side Forward Madison by a score of 3-2. The win extended the team’s unbeaten streak to 15 matches, going back to their MWPL season opener in May of 2022. The come from behind victory marks only the second time in the modern era of the tournament that an amateur side has come back from a 2-0 disadvantage to defeat a professional club.
“As a coach, you have things you want to look better – decision making, passing, tactics or whatever else you always have a cleaner version of what the perfect game looks like, but the one thing you couldn’t find more of is heart and grit as a team. Guys that subbed off ran until they couldn’t run anymore, and they went down and had to be helped off by the trainer,” said head coach and technical director Matt Poland regarding his team’s performance. “I give them a lot of credit for fighting. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of one of my teams for the fight that they gave, that’s not to take away from any other Open Cup games and the struggle of those, but the magnitude of the energy exerted last night was at a higher capacity than any other game.”
Forward Madison controlled the ball for a majority of the game with close to 70% time of possession. With that came several opportunities, which they converted on first opening the scoring in the 19th minute on a ball slotted in on the far post by striker #10 Jayden Oden.
House was able to keep the score 1-nil heading into the half fending off six additional shots, two of which were on target. The ‘Mingos didn’t wait long into the second half to build upon their lead. In the 48th minute, after a few quick passes near the top of the box, Onen was able to slip the ball to #26 Tino Vasquez who had a wide-open look at the goal and buried it into the back of the net past House goalkeeper Tony Halterman.
With the clock winding down and facing a 2-nil deficit, striker Adam Mann breathed life back into House’s game when he put House on the board in the 75th minute. The goal was set-up when #10 Kiki Avalos picked off a pass in Forward’s defensive third and sent a cross to a wide-open Mann who finished it, putting House within striking distance of leveling the match.
In true dramatic fashion, which House fans have come to expect, the visitors found the equalizer in the 92+ minute of play off the foot of captain A.R. Smith. The goal was set up when Avalos sent a pass to Geo Spasov who advanced the ball into the box where Smith battled three defenders and was able to stick the ball into the net.
The game was knotted at two goals apiece at the end of regulation, sending the game into overtime which consists of two 15-minute sets. In the 103rd minute House took their first lead of the match when Smith notched his second goal of the game. The brace came off a goal that was set-up when defender Naz Kabbani intercepted a pass near the top of the circle sending it forward to Nico Williams who made a long run, nearly the entire half of the field, before taking a shot even with the near post that the Forward goalkeeper was able to get a mitt on deflecting it to Alejandro Mentasti who took a hard shot that deflected off a defender to Smith who finished in a flurry of activity in the box.
“I think all the veterans stepped up when called upon to do their things, whether that’s Tony (Halterman) in goal or that’s Manny (Adam Mann) scoring the first goal or that’s A.R. (Smith) scoring the second and third goal,” said Poland on his veterans making the difference in the team’s comeback.“ I think it’s been fun watching A.R. grow and develop as a captain. There are captains and there are leaders, and he’s made the move from just being captain to also being a leader. There’s all different ways that it shows up, it might be how you act in training, what you say in the locker room, but ultimately in moments like this it’s how you play. You saw it, he took advantage of it not only in the two goals but he worked extremely hard, he did a lot of defending and didn’t complain about it – even on tired legs he still finished the two chances he got. The leadership from him was instrumental to our success.”
House will face the Chicago Fire in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, April 26th at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL. The host MLS side has found a lot of success in the Open Cup having raised the trophy in their inaugural season in 1998 and then again in 2000, 2003 and 2006.
FULL POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET FROM MATT POLAND
On preparing for the match and making early adjustments: They played a different format than I’ve ever seen them play. Although, it was more similar to how we usually train, so even though it was different from what we expected it felt pretty natural to our game plan especially defensively and how we wanted to press. I think that was pretty evident in the first 15 minutes of the game, very rarely did they have possession of the ball in our half, as the game went on they did better but I don’t think they were ready for those 15 minutes for us to press them. I think they thought we’d sit back and just park the bus, but we met them with that challenge. Offensively, it changed things a little bit, they were in a flat midfield, so I think there was more space to play in the midfield than we thought there would be. We game planned a little differently and looked for balls over the top, so I think we gave up the ball a little too easily trying to play balls that didn’t make sense based on how they were set up.
On a different starting line-up than anticipated: There were probably five guys that are typically in their starting 11 that weren’t in their starting 11, which is common when you’re a higher seeded opponent in a Cup game. Cup games are known as opportunities for younger or less minute players to get more minutes. I think they went with that because it was in the middle of two games, one on each Saturday, so I think they went with that thinking it was their best call for success. I think those guys came out and played strong, I think they started to lose control of the game the more starters that they subbed in. My guess is that those guys aren’t used to coming off the bench, they’re used to starting and it’s a different role to jump into the middle of a flowing game versus starting at the beginning of the game and finding the flow as everyone else does. In my opinion, that’s probably what happened.
On playing an attack minded game: I think everyone expects the lower seeded team to sit back and go for the counter 0-0, 1-0 type game, not that that’s a wrong tactic at times, but I think you know for me a big goal is getting guys to the professional level and I don’t think for some of them is highlights their skill set to just do that. I told them that they need to be able to do this in the professional setting they are trying to go to, so what better test than against a professional club. I wanted to meet the challenge and wanted our guys to play with confidence and play our style. I don’t think they were necessarily expecting it, but they were up 2-0 with it, so clearly what they were doing at times was working against us. We made some mistakes that gave them some easier chances than they needed. I think it’s important to play with confidence and not change everything tactically just because of the opponent.
On veteran play: I think all the veterans stepped up when called upon to do their things, whether that’s Tony (Halterman) in goal or that’s Manny (Adam Mann) scoring the first goal or that’s A.R. (Smith) scoring the second and third goal. I think it’s been fun watching A.R. grow and develop as a captain. There are captains and there are leaders, and he’s made the move from just being captain to also being a leader. There’s all different ways that it shows up, it might be how you act in training, what you say in the locker room, but ultimately in moments like this it’s how you play. You saw it, he took advantage of it not only in the two goals but he worked extremely hard, he did a lot of defending and didn’t complain about – even on tired legs he still finished the two chances he got. The leadership from him was instrumental to our success.
Overall reflection on the result: As a coach, you have things you want to look better – decision making, passing, tactics or whatever else you always have a cleaner version of what the perfect game looks like, but the one thing you couldn’t find more of is heart and grit as a team. Guys that subbed off ran until they couldn’t run anymore and they went down and had to be helped off by the trainer. The credit of a team to fight that long in a game is one, the perfect representation of what we want to represent to our fans because that puts on a showing to see the heart. I think you can’t help but to cheer for a team like that. Additionally, I think the mentality we have of being able to fight for that long and being able to continue, even when you’re down 2-0, is incredible because I think a lot of teams in an atmosphere like against a professional side would just have given up and finished out the game. I give them a lot of credit for fighting. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of one of my teams for the fight that they gave, that’s not to take away from any other Open Cup games and the struggle of those, but the magnitude of energy exerted last night was at a higher capacity than any other game. You could see it on their faces and even the guys that subbed in played heavy minutes because of the overtime, so it was an incredible fight.
On the defense’s performance: The backline all had their moment that you could point to in the game and say that was the difference between a goal or not. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination, but what it was, was a gritty performance and they did the job that needed to be done in the moment they were called upon. Each one of the players on the backline made the tackle, made the slide tackle or won the header at the right moment. Tony obviously did what we’ve become accustomed to him doing – have one or two big saves in the game that keeps us in it. Against a professional team you need things to go right on the backline and for the goalkeeper to find success. It wasn’t like one of them had a stand-up performance, they each had moments during the game where they had a standout performance in that block of time.
On preparing for the next match against the Chicago Fire: They have a deep team and they have a lot of different players which can lend them to different styles of how they want to play. You don’t know what they’re going to look to do or how they are going to line up, you can have guesses but until you have the line-up sheet we won’t know for sure which way they are going. I think the biggest focus is for us to stay grounded, to focus on ourselves and to continue to worry about being the best version of ourselves. I say it to the guys all the time, if we focus on what the team crest is, what the team identity is, what our non-negotiable of what we want to do, then the result we can’t control. There are aspects of it that are out of our control, whether that’s referees or the other the team, so the best thing for us is to have success is to focus on ourselves and to do those things to the highest level possible. Obviously, it’s an MLS team and everyone knows that. I respect them and they are a great organization and there’s a reason those guys are playing in MLS, but like any game it starts 0-0 and it’s up to the 22 players on the field to show who deserves to win the game. They are many levels above us as a team and organization, but the still have to go out there and do their job ultimately and for us the biggest focus isn’t necessarily that outcome but staying grounded, focusing on ourselves and trying to perform in a way that makes the fans that have traveled, literally across the U.S. with us, make them proud of the journey we are on and them at least another 90 minutes of excitement of what Chicago House is.