Inter Miami hopes to avoid ‘banana skin’ against Charleston in U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday

Inter Miami players had little time to rest after their dramatic 2-1 home win over Atlanta on Saturday night. They return to DRV PNK Stadium on Tuesday for a U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 game against the Charleston Battery.

The Battery plays in the USL Championship, a rung below MLS in the U.S. league hierarchy, but it has a history of slaying MLS opponents in Open Cup play. The Battery made the final of the 2008 Open Cup, defeating Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas along the way and has also pulled cup upsets against the Chicago Fire, Chivas USA and San Jose Earthquakes.

“Any time we put the badge on, we represent something special,” said Charleston coach Ben Pirmann, a Detroit native and former Michigan State University player. “We’ve gone 2 for 2 in the Cup, now we’ll play an even tougher opponent.

“Any time you play against a team in [MLS], they’re geared up. We know that we’ll have extra motivation because we want to prove to them that we belong. But we’re also going to have to be mature and be able to perform.”

Charleston, which sits atop its league with a 5-1-3 record, advanced to the Round of 32 by defeating USL League One team Charlotte Independence, 1-0 in extra time two weeks ago. Inter Miami was forced to go to penalties against Miami FC in the previous round.

“We’re not going to take anything for granted,” said Inter Miami coach Phil Neville. “Charleston is on top of that league, they are in better form than Miami FC and we know what a difficult game that was. They took us to penalties. So, we know they’re a good team, well-coached, good style. We played Tormenta last year and nearly got embarrassed.”

The U.S. Open Cup is a 109-year-old single-elimination tournament that is open to professional, semi-pro and amateur sides from all over the country. It is the American version of England’s FA Cup. The winner earns $300,000 and a berth in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League.

Despite its long history, the U.S. Open Cup is not well known to mainstream fans.

MLS commissioner Don Garber last week criticized the cup during a U.S. Soccer Federation board meeting in response to the USSF chief commercial officer David Wright saying they were “bullish” on the event. Garber said the fields and the broadcast deal need upgrading.

“I would say that they’re not games that we would want our product to be shown to a large audience,” Garber said. “So frankly, I’m not all that disappointed that the audience is small. So, I appreciate the enthusiasm about it, but we need to get better with the U.S. Open Cup. It’s just not the proper reflection of what soccer in America at the professional level needs to be.”

“I can understand the commissioner’s point of view,” Neville said. “We went to a stadium in the last round [FIU Stadium] that I thought the pitch wasn’t great for football. But it actually made the cup tie even more special. It made it more difficult for us. It was a leveler. Back in the UK, the FA Cup brings the top teams down to earth. It means there can be upsets, banana skins, embarrassments at times. That’s what the U.S. Open Cup can bring. I love the U.S. Open Cup.”

Neville agreed, though, that the cup needs more financial backing and T.V. coverage.

As for Tuesday’s game (7 p.m. Bleacher Report Livestream), Neville said he hopes his team will build on its three-game win streak after six losses in a row. Josef Martinez, who had not scored all season, scored both goals against Atlanta, his former team, on Saturday, and is expected to play a major role.

“He was so emotional after the game, you knew what it meant to him,” Neville said of Martinez. “It was a great script written. What we want to see in the next couple of matches is performance level, consistency, work rate. It’s now his moment where he’s got to shine and grow and have more belief.”

Sergiy Krystsov will miss the game with a calf injury. The Ukrainian center back was having a scan on Monday. Neville said he did not think it was a serious injury and suspected Krystsov would be back for the Saturday home game against New England or the road game Wednesday against Nashville. Midfielder Rodolfo Pizarro will also be out with a hamstring injury and is expected to miss a month.

Tickets start at $23 on Ticketmaster.