Byron Carmichael, the Ocean City Barons’ all-time leading scorer (43 goals, 19 assists in 77 regular season games), says he would be open to a return to playing pro soccer if a team approached him. Photo by Ocean City Barons

Ocean City Barons forward Byron Carmichael has been named the USOpenCup.com Player of the Round for the First Round of the tournament. Carmichael, in his sixth season with the Premier Development League side, scored a pair of goals in a 3-0 upset win against Crystal Palace Baltimore to earn the award. He edged Sonoma County Sol’s Shawn Percell, who also scored two goals in their First Round win over the PDL’s Orange County Blue Star.

The Player of the Round is selected by the staff of USOpenCup.com and members of the North American Soccer Reporters, a group that consists of members of print, television, radio and online media. More information and membership information can be found at www.soccerreporters.com.

Carmichael, a teacher at Luis Munoz-Rivera Elementary School in Trenton, New Jersey, is participating in his fifth U.S. Open Cup and is one of the Professional Era’s leading scorers. After this year’s opening round, his 10 goals in 11 Cup matches puts him in a tie for third with Dante Washington and Sebastien Le Toux since professional teams joined the tournament in 1995. One would assume that his brightest moment in the tournament was when he helped the Wilmington Hammerheads upset Major League Soccer’s Dallas Burn (now F.C. Dallas) in 2003, but rather than assuming, we asked him for USOpenCup.com’s Player of the Round Q&A.

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup First Round - June 10 Real Maryland Monarchs 1:0 Aegean Hawks F.C.  Ocean City Barons 3:0 CP Baltimore Highlights on NBC40

It just wouldn’t be the opening round of the U.S. Open Cup without weather problems. In two games postponed by the wet stuff on Tuesday, the Ocean City Barons knocked off Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division 3-0, behind two goals from Byron Carmichael.

In Maryland, lightning was yet again an issue as the match between Real Maryland and the Sportsplex Aegean Hawks was stopped after 74 minutes with the Monarchs leading 1-0.

If seeing the underdogs prevail is your thing, then you went to sleep disappointed last night.

Of the fourteen matches first round U.S. Open Cup matches last night, only one was won by a team from the lower division, and even that wasn’t much of an upset.

The evening began with the lone “upset” of the day, as the NPSL’s Sonoma County Sol, perhaps the hottest team of the 32 set to play in the first round, defeated the PDL’s Orange County Blue Star 5-2. Shawn Percell scored twice and Trevor Hurst, Eric Lafon, Eric Larson added the others for the Sol. The Sol are 12-0-1 in all matches played in 2009.

Postponed to June 10

Real Maryland Monarchs vs. Aegean Hawks - 7:00 pm
Match originally scheduled for 6:30

Ocean City Barons vs. CP Baltimore - 7:00 pm

USOpenCup.com First round preview | Scoreboard | Tuesday’s Live Blog

Meet the USASA: Class of 2009 | Twitter Feed Blog | USOpenCup.com Staff Predictions 

USOpenCup.com hosted a live blog during the U.S. Open Cup First Round on Tuesday, June 9. Relive all of the discussion of 14 opening round games beginning with Orange County Blue Star hosting the Sonoma County Sol at 5 p.m. and wrapping up with a pair of 10 p.m. kickoffs later in the evening.

USOpenCup.com takes a look at each of the 16 first round matches in the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, with our "Tale of the Tape" feature for each game.

Aldo Benni extended his lead to four points this round, as he was the only one to correctly guess all four quarterfinal winners, as well as two of the four correct scores.

After a day of speculation and leaked matches, U.S. Soccer has formally announced the pairings for the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. As stated before, the major change in the early rounds is that teams were grouped geographically without regard to their level of play. Last year, the teams were placed in groups of four teams, with a team for each level (USL-1, USL-2, PDL and USASA) in each group. Where the MLS club will be placed in the third round will be announced at a later date.

2008 - Hollywood United (USASA) 3, Portland Timbers (USL-1) 2 
The Professional Era’s greatest first round upset came in 2008 when Hollywood United, the USASA Region IV qualifier from California, traveled to PGE Park in Portland Ore. and knocked out the Portland Timbers 3-2. Hollywood United trailed twice during the match, but each time they trailed, Matt Taylor would convert a penalty kick to tie the game back up. With the score level at 2-2, Earl Alexander scored a 90th minute goal to send United to the second round and leave the Portland fans stunned. It was only the second time in the Professional Era that a USASA team has defeated a USL First Division team, and the first time that a USASA team had upset a USL-1 team on the road.

Click continue for more First Round upsets...

A total of 76 clubs took part in the first Open Cup tournament in 1914, a majority of whom came from the Northeast region of the country.

In 2008, the Seattle Sounders became the first club in the Professional Era to advance to the semifinals in consecutive seasons after beginning play in the first round.

Since 1996, only five teams have advanced to the semifinals after beginning play in the first round. The Charleston Battery (2008), Carolina RailHawks (2007), San Francisco Bay Seals (1997) and the Seattle Sounders who did it twice in 2007 and 2008. San Francisco remain as the only "third division" club (now the USL Second Division) to advance to the final four during that span.