Third Round USOC Qualifier House to Face Edgewater Castle F.C. On Saturday
This Saturday, October 21, Chicago House will face host and Midwest Premier League rival Edgewater Castle F.C. on Taft High School’s turf field (6530 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago) at 7:00 PM. This will be the second time the two sides will meet in 2023, the first being on July 15th in the first installation of the North Branch Derby, won by House 3-1 with two goals by MWPL Golden Boot winner, Kikis Avalos, and a goal from Shannon Seymour. Overall, House is 2-0 versus the Rooks in the MWPL, earning their first victory in league play over them in May of 2022 by a score of 5-0.
For the second time in as many seasons, House has advanced to the third round of Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup qualifying. Last season, House was the only team in Illinois that entered the competition, forcing the team to host a side from Fort Wayne Indiana in the second round, after a first-round bye, followed by a third-round match played in Jeffersonville, IN to play a team from Louisville and closing out qualifying with a trip to Randolph, MA on a very cold and dark December day. The 2024 qualifying rounds have more teams than ever entering the competition across the U.S., including the Chicago area, making local matchups a possibility.
“When you go on a run like we did last year it piques the interest of other clubs around here and what you see is other clubs wanting to get involved in the tournament and that’s good for growing the brand of soccer in the U.S. We want more and more teams in close regions playing each other because the storylines are better than teams that have never faced each other and will never face each other again,” said head coach and technical director, Matt Poland. “I think it’s great that more teams in Illinois are wanting to be involved in the Open Cup, and obviously it’s better for our supporters to get to the games when it’s more regional. For us being back in the third round it’s great,” Poland continued.
House closed out the league season on July 22 with an 8-0 victory in Rockford but has continued to train four mornings a week to keep the side’s play and skills sharp and will continue to train until mid-November. The extended training has allowed new players to learn the system and become comfortable with players who’ve been with the team.
“We’ve been training for seven months now, and it’s not any grand new idea we’re working on, it’s just really becoming sharper in our principles and how we want to defend as a group, work on our reaction time, where we want to go when we win the ball, passes and finishing in front of goal. It’s more of a review of everything we’ve been doing to maintain sharpness,” Poland said on their preparations. “We had a lot of success last game, especially when it was 11 v. 11. With Open Cup games certain things change just based on players’ availability, but I think Chicago House has a pretty clear brand, so the most important thing for us is making sure that we’re the best version of that,” he elaborated.
The idea of facing an opponent in tournament play that’s also in your league holds some appeal, as the sides are familiar with each other’s players and style, but as Poland said, in off-season play there’s always player turnover and availability issues to factor into the strategy.
“There are players we’ll recognize, parts of their style of play that will stay the same, but obviously they have a bunch of new players so that will be different faces and different styles those players will bring. In a lot of ways, it’s a very different team than what we faced this summer,” commented Poland. “We’re going to have to be more disciplined, obviously they brought in some strong players for the Open Cup so being disciplined without the ball is going to have to be high and we’re going to have to take advantage of the opportunities we create.”
The match will be live streamed on the Edgewater Castle F.C. YouTube channel and tickets are available for purchase here.