The Richmond Kickers will be forced to play their third round US Open Cup match tomorrow at 11 AM due to the fact that the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, their NASL opponent, double booked their home stadium with an international friendly. The game will be moved to Broward College South Campus and played in the morning, rather than at the typical 7PM; also, it is not yet known whether or not they will be able to stream the game for the rest of us to watch. How did this mishap occur? Let us trace what happened.
On February 5, 2016, US Soccer announced the schedule for the US Open Cup, including the schedule for the third round, which says
Third Round – June 1
Participants: Winners of 21 Second Round games are joined by nine NASL sides.
Unlike in previous years, all of the games in this round are held on the same day, not in a window of two or three days.
Fast forward to one week ago, when news was announced that Guatemala and Venezuela would play an international friendly in Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium at 7PM (which they describe in their own statement as a "business decision"), already knowing that they had a US Open Cup scheduled for that same day.
The Strikers then attempted to convince Richmond to move the game either a day forward or a day back; the Kickers declined Fort Lauderdale's attempts to move the game. This makes sense for the Kickers: they have league games on each of the surrounding Saturdays, so it is not in their interest to move the game to accommodate the Strikers.
If you are in the area of Broward College South Campus tomorrow morning, you can get into the game for $5 and enjoy free food and drinks; if not, you'll have to follow along on Twitter and hopefully watch the Kickers (and D.C. United goalkeeper Charlie Horton) beat the Strikers.