Tuesday’s third Open Cup upset came when MLS Cup holder Houston Dynamo lost on penalty kicks to the short-handed Charleston Battery following a 1-1 tie. Houston is another team with three other competitions to balance in a busy schedule, but its defeat to a USL side using a number of second-string players further reflects a lack of depth on MLS rosters.
Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario and Ricardo Clark didn’t even travel, with Houston having its next MLS game just 48 hours later against Salt Lake. “Because of our game on Thursday, this is the way we approached it,” said Coach Dominic Kinnear. The Battery actually played the final 18 minutes of overtime two men down after its second red card of the evening, but nonetheless held out for PKs, with keeper Dusty Hudock making a diving save on Franco Caraccio’s kick to end the shootout on a 4-3 win.
Hudock afterwards revealed his lack of a secret strategy to stopping PKs. “I try to guess,” he said. “Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I wrong. I try to get a read off of guys and that works sometimes. It’s really kind of random. Honestly, I just try to keep the other team from scoring.” The team’s reward is a trip to Texas to face FC Dallas in the quarterfinal.