From Ocean City With Love; Back Home Soon
What it Means
2023 play for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC) began on March 21st. The Open Cup is a men’s soccer knock-out style tournament, most commonly adjacent to England’s FA cup. Amateurs, hungry for an opportunity, have the ability to clash with pros that are equally as eager to showcase their talent and grasp the glory. As it stands, The USOC is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. One would have to venture back to the 1913–1914 season of competitive footy in America, where the Cup began as the National Challenge Cup. In that inaugural year, Brooklyn Field Club took home the title.
When the pandemic stuck, the cup went away. 106 years of consecutive play and an opportunity at American soccer royalty dissipated in a matter of moments only to return two years later during the 2022 season.
It is now 2023 and 100 teams from the MLS to the NISA are competing for one trophy, among a bevy of additional return. The winning team is awarded $300,000 in prize money and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League, while the runner-up receives $100,000, and the furthest-advancing team from each lower-division league receives $25,000. In the land of opportunity, true to this country’s mantra, there is such.
A team from the lower-divisions has not won the competition since 1999, when the Rochester Rhinos took home glory. And perhaps, for lower-division teams that watched Sacramento Republic advance to the final in 2022 there is far more than just an inkling of hope, there is a genuine air of confidence.
The Forecasting
Dylan Evande, center back for the Ocean City Nor’Easters, exudes confidence. Soccer has been ingrained in him. Both of his parents played and the game is rooted in his Cameroonian culture. Dylan says, “it was inevitable.” The Thanos to anyone on the front foot takes a unique pride in how far he’s come, because no one in his family has made it as far as he has. He proudly wears a metaphorical badge of having played professionally for some time. However, all things — in due time — come to an end.
Storybooks often end in the glory of victory, in fact, Dylan and I discussed the possibility of holding this story all the way through the finals.
“Wouldn’t it be great if I just kept pushing this back,” I said. Dylan Agreed.
In his first match against West Chester United, Dylan commanded the game and lead his team to victory. For Nor’Easters, a team mostly made up of amateurs, Dylan (one of few pros on the roster) was voted Man of the Match for his stonewall defense coupled with his performance as a maestro with the ball at his feet and top-shelf finishing. He amassed an impressive 8.7 match rating on the back of a goal as well as an assist.
However, stories on a page are finite in nature. The next match, facing Maryland Bobcats FC, would be Dylan’s last trip galloping the blades of grass competitively. Every last bit of life was squeezed out of that game. Ocean City found themselves defending a corner in the 123rd minute.
“All she wrote, the very last play of the game,” Dylan said to me.
3–2. Bobcats, at the death. For the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, an instant classic, for Maryland F.C., a memorable chapter in a story they hope to continue, but for Dylan and Ocean City, deflation and heartbreak. While the mood shifted toward gray in the following days, there was nothing to find disappointment or pain in. For many amateurs on that roster, the story continues — they will try to become pro. For the pros on that roster, they will continue to climb the ranks, but for Dylan this is where he shifts his competitive focus.
From then to Now
At a time, Dylan was just an eager child — carried by bruised and scratched legs — to a field behind his house in under 10 minutes to play with his friends. Across the street, now MLS Club, Montreal Impact would practice and Dylan — in shock and awe I’d imagine — would watch them dreaming, perhaps maybe even aspiring to be good enough to surpass the talent level of every player on the field.
It’s quite poetic that we fall in love with games as children. We kick a ball and we’re enamored, perplexed, inspired, hurt, and moved by it. For the better part of this portion of our lives, “youth” as it were, we rely on this round ball to bring us clarity, joy, and understanding more so than the world’s best paid therapists.
All at once this game — that until it is no longer, is truly just a game — can become a test more than anything else. Dylan recalls just a season ago, his adult version of saying “look Mom I can fly!” For the first time in almost five years his mother got the opportunity to watch him play. He and Flower City lost 0–5.
Still moments are never linear, they are full circle. And the young boy who watched professionals from across the street would soon have “Evande” across the back of his very own jersey and whether he won or lost, his family, overcome with emotion, would get to see this and relay through such emotion that the purpose this game has given him is much bigger than the result of any match.
They say you die two deaths, the first in this physical and the second, when someone utters your name for the last time. With his name on a jersey, the Evandes’ legacy can live on, because of Dylan. On the pitch Dylan leaves a play style juxtaposed in both intimidation and respect. “I want to impose fear and doubt,” he says. But that fear and doubt ultimately leads to respect in the end. His competitive nature will never cease. As such, Dylan “the player’s” retirement means nothing to Dylan the athlete, Dylan the trainer, or Dylan the coach. The approach remains the same. In such an approach Dylan hopes to mold better people and players that can exceed their predecessor. The “bigger mission” according to Dylan is for his clients of UltraFooty to learn from his story.
Why?
“Because seeing is believing,” he says.
