The Des Moines Menace have a rich history of knocking off their betters in the U.S. Open Cup. It’s safe to say these Iowans simply don’t know their place.
The myth of the giant-killing Menace, a club founded in 1994 and well-suited to amateur successes with a pipeline from the strong collegiate programs at Creighton (in nearby Nebraska) and Des Moines’ own Drake University, began back at the 2005 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The first of the Menace’s six overall wins against professional opponents came in June of 2005, when they were still a part of the old Premier Development League (PDL), against the then-USL Second Division’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Giant-slaying roots sunk in ‘05
“In 2005 we were a really good team,” Tomas Boltnar, a Menace legend who played at the club for seven seasons and even had his number-21 jersey retired, told usopencup.com. “We got past Pittsburgh and we didn’t have any trouble with the [Charleston] Battery [USL First Division] at home [A 3-2 win in which Boltnar scored the opener after eight minutes] and then we drew the Atlanta Silverbacks in the next round – and we just smoked them.
“I remember the Atlanta coach wanted to sign three or four of our guys up right after the game,” Boltnar, who scored from the spot that day, added of the 5-1 thrashing of the D2 Silverbacks. The result set the stage for a Fourth-Round date with the defending Open Cup-champion Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) of Major League Soccer – the top professional league in the land.
