There’s nothing better than knockout soccer, and the Jagermeister Cup’s quarterfinal round brought the goods. Between late drama, a slew of impact subs, and multiple penalty shootouts, Wednesday night showed why the USL wanted to add an in-season tournament in the first place.
Rhode Island, Greenville, Sacramento, and Hartford are advancing to the semis after all that action – but how’d they get there? Let’s take a look at the big theme that defined all four winning results.
Rhode Island find their tempo
Rhode Island FC (1) - Birmingham Legion (0)
Matches against Birmingham always mean more for Khano Smith, who spent the better part of five years on the Legion staff. We saw these teams battle to a draw barely a month ago, but transfer moves (i.e., Matthew Corcoran to Rhode Island, Danny Trejo out of Birmingham) made this a fundamentally different game.
Right away, it was clear that Corcoran gave RIFC the edge in the midfield. Birmingham went with an all-defense pivot composed of Edwin Laszo and Sam McIlhatton, but neither player had the lateral speed to stop Rhode Island from carving through their lines, hence why the Nashville SC loanee – and one-time Legion prospect – completed a game-high 15 passes into the final third.
