Round 3 of the US Open Cup kicked off last night and day one did not disappoint. Three of the matchups most looked forward to from this round happened on Tuesday night and all went chalk.

Michigan Stars traveled to Keyworth to take on old foe Detroit City. Detroit made the jump to USL Championship several years ago, but that didn’t cool any of the bad blood between these two clubs. The NISA visitors played the match pretty evenly for almost 90 minutes, regardless of the gap between the two leagues. The first half yielded little but yellow cards as the chippy-ness began to ramp up. Those yellow cards would add up in the second half when Stars’ Hunter Olsen was sent off after his second booking in the 78th minute. And while Michigan remained stalwart in the match, the quality of DCFC combined with the man advantage would be the difference. In the third minute of stoppage time, veteran center back Stephen Carroll slipped Maxi Rodriguez past several defenders with a perfectly struck pass. Rodriguez would do the rest, beating Mukruva for the winner.

Maxi Rodriguez, Certified Open Cup Hero 🤩#USOC2024 // @DetroitCityFC pic.twitter.com/Y5eAARnOiz
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) April 17, 2024

The two amateur sides that played in the first day of Round 3 both fell against professional clubs. El Farolito, former Open Cup champion and this year’s cinderella story, traveled to Oakland Roots and actually went up early in the match. Dembor Benson opened the scoring just 11 minutes into the match and the match screamed cupset. Guillermo Diaz would find the equalizer for Roots just before halftime. A red card would put the amateur side into a hole early in the second half and Oakland would find the winner in stoppage time. The other amateur side, NPSL’s Lubbock Matadors were handily eliminated by New Mexico United, 3-1.

But the most exciting of the day one matches might have been USL League One’s Charlotte Independence beating USL Championship debutant Rhode Island FC. The match featured 8 goals and penalties to decide the match. It’s the second consecutive match that Independence have won on penalties. It was a cupset, but maybe a minor one.

Round 3 continues tonight with 11 more matches, including the final amateur club, Miami United FC. That’s a $25,000 payday on the line, if you’re counting at home!

- Dan Vaughn