“It feels great. To get a final at home is a nice feeling. But I think we’re a squad. It’s difficult to win the Open Cup, but we did it with everybody, which is really what you need to do,” said the man always looking to pass on praise. “This is just a kind of team that doesn’t rattle. They’re [Minnesota United] a really good team but it’s just tough to come in here and beat us. We proved that tonight. But I’ll admit that they put a lot of pressure on us. We did well to hold up to it.”
Larentowicz isn’t the kind of guy not to note the opponents’ fight on the night – which was formidable. Minnesota United, who were also playing their first Open Cup Final, pushed Atlanta all the way in the second half. But there just wasn’t enough in the tank to overturn an early two-goal deficit.
If you squinted hard enough, you could see into the past out on that pitch where the winners embraced and the losers scowled at their silver medals. There’s Manny Lagos – an MLS champion from 1998 and now Sporting Director with Minnesota United – and Carlos Bocanegra, the Atlanta United Technical Director and Vice President who was twice an MLS Cup winner and stalwart with the U.S. National Team. There’s a continuum to the Open Cup and it goes all the way back, unbroken, to 1914.
A Trophy in Pieces
The Open Cup Trophy had a rough night. It must be said. Shortly after it got to the locker-room, with plastic sheets draping the floor and walls, the trophy somehow ended up in three pieces. But in the spirit of the night, there was only more to share. Michael Parkhurst had the lid, Guzan a supporting rod and Julian Gressel the body – it was now a true cup and in went a sticky mix of champagne and beer. Thankfully, the original Open Cup trophy – the Dewar Cup – is safe behind glass back in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas. Soon it will be taken out (carefully with white gloves) and the name Atlanta United FC will be engraved onto its base, alongside the old ghosts like 1914 winner Brooklyn Field Club and Morgan Strasser and Maccabi LA and Bethlehem Steel and the Fall River Marskmen – a full and fair accounting of American soccer history.
