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Meet the USASA: Hollywood United
Historic - and only - first-round upset earns date with Seattle Sounders
Hollywood United has a lot of soccer people buzzing about the USASA and the U.S. Open Cup.
However, what started as “more of a social club, than a full-fledged club,” according to Los Angeles Galaxy team president Alexi Lalas, is now out to win silverware, and the Dewar Trophy is one that they would like to add their name to.
To begin with, there are five teams under the Hollywood United umbrella: The Open Cup team, which pulled off the lone upset of the first-round of this year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by defeating the Portland Timbers of the USL First Division; the "Sunday team"; the Over-30 East and West teams; and the Over-40 team. The latter teams feature a number of celebrities and former professional players the club is best known for.
Those celebrities and former players include, among others, Lalas, 1998 World Cup winner Frank Leboeuf, Paul Bravo, John Harkes, Eric Wynalda, John O’Brien, Richard Gough, Allen Hopkins, Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, actor and former English Premier League player Vinnie Jones, Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard, Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury of The Cult, Ziggy Marley, actors Brandon Routh ("Superman"), Jimmy Jean-Louis and Santiagi Cabrera ("Heroes") and the man who started it all, Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia.
However, Hollywood United’s Open Cup team is stocked with younger and "more fit players."
The club started in the late 1980s by LaPaglia (“Without A Trace”), a former professional goalkeeper before he began his acting career. Lapaglia also is a part-owner of Sydney FC in the Australian professional league, the A-League. The team plays in the Coast Soccer League, a competitive adult league similar in quality to the USL’s Premier Development League. The league features a variety of talent, ranging from top college players to former professionals.
This past year, United captured the Coast Soccer League championship, and are on the brink of winning the double, with the Coast Soccer League Cup Final scheduled for early July. They also won the Galaxy Clasico tournament and the Iranian Cup.
The team is coached by former English professionals John Gerrard and Ian Carrington.
Gerrard spent the majority of his career playing with Blackpool before moving to the U.S. After his soccer career ended in England, Carrington worked as a carpenter before joining Hollywood United. The connections with the club have helped him move into a career in Hollywood, as he is a consultant for movies and commercials involving soccer. He still plays with the club, but a nagging injury has kept him on the sidelines recently.
Last year, the club, using primarily players from its Over-30 and Over-40 teams, missed out on a U.S. Open Cup berth by the slimmest of margins - on goal-differential in the group stage at the USASA Region IV tournament. The Arizona Sahuaros won the group, defeating United 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament and finishing with a 2-0-1 record. United was one point behind at 2-1. However, the top second-place team also advanced, but Hollywood United was left out based on the tiebreaker.
This year, the club rebounded, fielding a younger roster and earning three straight wins in group play at the Region IV finals.
In the Region IV championship, the Sahuaros punched their ticket to the National Cup finals in Seattle with another win over Hollywood United, this time by the score of 1-0. It was an early goal combined with some tough defense that led to the victory.
“It was their first attack of the game, and they scored,” Carrington said. “It really caught us off-guard, and we spent the rest of the time chasing the game.”
Carrington was hoping Arizona could upset the USL First Division Seattle Sounders in their first-round game, because it would have set up a rematch between the clubs in the second round. The Sahuaros put up a valiant effort, but the Sounders scored the lone goal in the 117th minute to deny United another shot at the Region IV champs.
Hollywood United opened on the road at Portland, which was in third place in the USL First Division. United was a considerable underdog playing at PGE Park, and fell behind 1-0 and 2-1.
But they earned a pair of penalty kicks, both of which were converted by former MLS player Matt Taylor, to equalize each time. And in second-half stoppage time, former Derby County youth academy player Earl Alexander scored to stun the home crowd and send his team into the second round to face the defending USL First Division champion Sounders.
"For the first 15 minutes or so, (Portland) had the better of the possession," said Hollywood United player Brian Dunseth, an MLS veteran. "But we had better chances, and I honestly think it was more of the guys getting over the awe of being on the same field as these guys, and being in a great stadium with great fans. After that, you started to see the grit and determination of guys playing with a chip on their shoulders and for a very inexperienced team to come back on two separate occasions, from a goal down on the road, is a credit to them."
The team that earned that victory is very similar to the one from the regional tournament.
One of the changes is the starting goalkeeper, Mike Littman. The former professional goalkeeper, who started the first two Region IV games, was ineligible to play against the Timbers because he had to serve a one-game suspension he earned back in 2003 when he was issued a red card as a member of the Utah Blitzz (Pro Soccer League, now known as the USL Second Division) in a 4-0 second-round loss to the Fresno Fuego of the PDL.
"The Bucks match was a fun one, because you realized quickly that everyone has a chance in a tournament like this."
Hollywood United’s Brian Dunseth, a member of MLS’ New England Revolution that lost 1-0 at home to the PDL’s Mid-Michigan Bucks in the second round of the 2000 U.S. Open Cup. |
Former Chivas USA reserves keeper Javier Barragan got the start in his place and played well, making five saves, including a crucial penalty-kick stop in the 53rd minute. Barragan’s stop on Takayuki Suzuki kept the Timbers from going ahead 3-1. His play has created a bit of a goalkeeper controversy headed into Tuesday’s match against Seattle.
Dunseth is expected to play Tuesday, along with Taylor, who in addition to his four years in MLS, also played for the Timbers last year. Taylor was one of the main reasons why the club qualified for the tournament, scoring a goal in each of the first two victories in the Region IV competition. Dunseth, a veteran of nine MLS seasons, playing for six different teams, joins the team while taking a break from his job as a television analyst for Fox Soccer Channel and Real Salt Lake.
Dunseth has had a variety of Open Cup experiences.
On the negative side, he was part of the New England Revolution team that was upset at home by the PDL’s Mid-Michigan Bucks back in 2000. He also was on the losing end of one of the more exciting Cup games of all-time, when his Real Salt Lake side was eliminated by the Minnesota Thunder (USL-1) 6-4 after extra time in the third round in 2005.
On the positive side, Dunseth was part of a special championship run when he helped the Columbus Crew win the 2002 tournament. That allowed the late Lamar Hunt to lift the trophy of the tournament that bears his name for the first time.
Like Taylor, Alex Bengard is another former Timbers who made a triumphant return to PGE Park in the first round. Bengard, who was a fifth-round pick by the Galaxy in the 2001 MLS SuperDraft, also has connections with another Open Cup team, as he is a youth coach for the Los Angeles Legends - the organization runs the PDL team.
Jason Boyce adds to the team’s MLS experience. He was a second-round pick (23rd overall) by the Colorado Rapids in the 1998 college draft, and was later traded, along with Tyrone Marshall, to the Miami Fusion for current Hollywood United Over-40 player David Vaudreuil.
Many of the players on the roster are lesser-known players, but rarely of lesser talent, many of them having spent time with various MLS reserve or USL squads.
Dunseth sums up what to expect for the remainder of Hollywood United’s Open Cup run.
"Look at a team like Cardiff City this year, who ever thought they’d make it to the FA Cup final," he said. "We’re never going to be the best team on the field, and we know that. But what Hollywood United brings to the table every second that we’re on the field together is unity and fight. This is a group that now has the ability to test themselves at the highest level they’ve ever gotten to play against. We’ll try to play our game and play to our strengths and we’ll find out after 90 minutes where we stand."
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