After a tie with first-place Richmond Saturday, Crystal Palace USA is starting to get the results the club management had longed for through the first four games of the season.
Having started off 0-4, Palace has rebounded to 1-4-1, and with a little help around the league, qualified for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a 1-1 tie Saturday night.
“We?re very excited about that,” Palace sporting director/co-coach Jim Cherneski said. “That?s a competition we definitely wanted to be in and do well in. Now we feel like we can go out and get some results in the knockout stages and progress into some big games.”
The bracket for the U.S. Open Cup will be announced Tuesday, and Palace is likely to see another USL team, or an amateur team in a first round game to be played June 12. MLS clubs enter the mix in the tournament?s third round.
Next up for Palace, however, is a two-game home stand, starting with a June 2 game with the New Hampshire Phantoms. Qualifying for the Open Cup has put the five-game-old club on the USL map.
“I think it would be hard for people to deny that at this point,” Cherneski said. “Even with some of the early results ? I think people saw that quality was on the field. Now that?s starting to turn into results.”
After trailing 1-0 in the first half, Palace closed the gap in the second half ? showing a propensity to finish out games that had escaped the club through its first month of play.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Palace general manager/co-coach Pete Medd said. “We made a couple of halftime adjustments which created a lot of chances.”
Matthew Mbuta, who recorded two assists a week earlier, scored his first goal of the season on what Cherneski called an “intelligent run” in the 76th minute of play.
His goal was assisted by Charlie Sheringham, who made his second straight start up front and earned his first points stateside.
“He?s done excellent for us the past two games that we?ve played. He?s played the role as the target forward and he?s done excellent.”
