Its finally time for the Carolina Challenge Cup

By: Melissa | March 9th, 2008

Well folks, Mid-March is very quickly closing in which means its time for USL’s Charleston Battery to host the annual Carolina Challenge Cup. This year’s tournament includes the MLS sides New York, San Jose, and Toronto. While still a young event (it started in 2004), its always a good one to watch since the champion tends to win either the MLS Cup or Supporters Shield during the MLS season.

Even though its a young tournament, its still rich in tradition… um, the coffee pot tradition. It stems from a vicious 4-3 loss DC United suffered from the Battery in a 1999 US Open Cup competition. Here’s the info from the Carolina Cup Wikipedia entry:

“DC United apparently used the visitors’ locker room to vent its frustration over losing to the Charleston Battery in last Wednesday’s US Open Cup match at Blackbaud Stadium here. Members of the Major League Soccer team smashed two coffee pots and pulled off some showerheads, according to Battery officials. ‘I think a bill will be sent to them,’ Battery general manager Buckley Andrews said earlier this week. The US Soccer Federation website’s match report on Charleston’s 4-3 overtime win over the two-time MLS champion called it ‘one of the biggest upsets ever seen in American soccer history … It will surely go down as an Open Cup classic.’”

After a few years, supporters of both sides in the name of spirited competition decided to have an actual Coffee Pot played for between the sides as a friendly wager. The winner has the other team’s supporters fill the Cup with beer for the winning team’s supporters to enjoy. Supporters of both sides say that whenever the two sides play, they are playing for the Coffee Pot Cup (the two sides could meet in the U.S. Open Cup if drawn together, or in an arranged friendly). The inaugural winners of the Cup in 2004 were D.C. United after winning 2-1. In 2005 and 2006, the two teams played to a tie (2-2, 1-1), meaning no one had to pay for the beer to fill the Cup, but D.C. maintained possession.

Unfortunately, DC United were unable to participate last year (as well as this year) because of CONCACAF Champions Cup commitments.

My brother-in-blog, RBNY Dave, posted the schedule:

Saturday…. 15-Mar…. San Jose vs Toronto…. 6:00 PM
Saturday…. 15-Mar…. New York vs Charleston…. 8:15 PM
Wednesday…. 19-Mar…. New York vs Toronto…. 6:00 PM
Wednesday…. 19-Mar…. San Jose vs Charleston…. 8:15 PM
Saturday…. 22-Mar…. Toronto vs Charleston…. 6:00 PM
Saturday…. 22-Mar…. San Jose vs New York…. 8:15 PM

And while I don’t think these games are available on tv, it does look like the USL website will have internet streams here.

And to everyone heading to South Carolina for this, it should prove to be a great time because the Battery supporters have loads of fun events planned for all the teams’ supporters – including tailgates, pub nights, and raffles. Damn. I wish I could go.