The best named competition in American soccer, the USL Jägermeister Cup, kicked off last night with plenty of fireworks across the country. Three of the four evening’s matches ended in penalty kicks, a quirk of the tournament which the league explains as “non-traditional modifications to encourage attacking soccer, such as penalty shootouts to determine match winners during the group stage.” Oddly enough, all four road dogs won their matches.

Spokane Velocity 1-1 Central Valley Fuego (2-4)

In front of 4,000 fans, Spokane delivered an early goal to make them stand up and cheer. Pierre Reedy hit a beautiful shot from just outside the box that found the bottom left-hand corner and put the home side up in the 20th minute. CVF would take the rest of the match (and some) to find the equalizer, but both sides were victims to a barrage of yellow cards from the referees. The match featured 10 yellows between the clubs, but both 11’s stayed full as no one double dipped. But the referee wasn’t done with influencing the match, giving Fuego a highly questionable penalty call in the dying moments of the match. Coronado converted the penalty and sent the match to more of the same. Spokane missed twice and that was enough for Fuego to take the match.

Greenville Triumph 1-1 Richmond Kickers (3-5)

Another eight yellows in this match, because…why not?

Richmond earned a penalty in the first 20 minutes when Greenville’s keeper Christian Garner made heavy contact with Ryan Sierakowski. Nil Vinyals stepped up to the spot but Garner made the save and the match remained level. That would last through the rest of the first half and well into the second. In the 70th minute, Richmond was moving up the field and sent the ball into the box, Sierakowski headed it off a defender and the ball beat Garner, putting the visiting side on top. But 20 minutes later, Greenville would score on a scramble in the box, after a corner kick wasn’t cleared. Evan Lee scored and forced penalties with minutes to spare. Richmond converted all five while Greenville went three for five.

South Georgia Tormenta 1 - 1 Charlotte Independence (4-5)

While this match only featured a single yellow card, it matched the drama of the first two matches. The opening goal would come on an absolute beauty of a corner kick that Juan Carlos Obregón Jr. would head with authority into the net. Couldn’t have been executed more perfectly. And that score would hold for the next hour and a half until Tormenta would match the first goal with a perfectly execute corner to the back post. Sebastián Vivas headed the ball off the keeper’s shoulder to equalize in extra time. Both clubs would get corners to find the winner before penalties, but neither could convert. In PKs, both clubs went four for four, but the final penalty proved to be the difference. While Charlotte converted, Tormenta’s Joshua Ramos took one of the most awkward penalties I’ve seen in a long time. It was easily saved by Independence keeper Austin Pack, who took the win home to Charlotte.

Chattanooga Red Wolves 0-1 One Knoxville

While the first three matches of USL Jägermeister Cup were full of drama, this one was decided in regulation, the old fashioned way without all the thrills (the way one might enough a shot of Jägermeister?). While the first half saw both teams create chances, Knox was clearly the better of the two sides, having multiple quality chances without conversion. That would change in the second half, when Knoxville defender Jordan Skelton rose in the box to meet a free kick and power it into the back of the net. Spectacular goal and it would be enough for visiting One Knox to win the match.