When you have a club like the New York Red Bulls who has a full slate of world class players and some talented youth players on their roster from the MLS Super Draft and their Academy, you would think that winning the US Open Cup is a serious thing. When you are traveling to Chicago and taking on the Fire for a spot into the Semi-Finals, you would think Backe wanted to exact some revenge in the league tie a couple of weeks ago.

But as always the four time US Open Cup Champion Chicago Fire takes this tournament seriously and the ownership showed everyone at Toyota Park why they wanted to win this domestic cup competition. It all got started early in the 7th minute when Dominic Oduro was able to rip his chance at Bouna Coundoul and it went off his gloves and inside the top part of the net.

All first half the Fire peppered the Red Bulls net and Coundoul made some big saves to keep the deficit to a single goal and at the end of the first half, New York looked to be lucky by escaping being behind by that goal. But once the second half got started, it all went downhill for good. The Fire finally showed their will to win and did it well.

Yamith Cuesta in the 48th minute headed in a great corner that was delivered by Daniel Paladini and the destruction was halfway done. Then Orr Barouch earned his first brace in US Open Cup play by converting in the 52nd minute and his second in the 69th minute. Originally it was heard that Barouch’s first goal was offsides as the flag did go up, but because it was deflected by the defender, the referee decided to waive it off and allowed it to stand.

What does this say about Hans Backe priorities when it comes to the US Open Cup? It says that he would rather care more for a pre-season friendly tournament traveling to Arsenal and allowing Thierry Henry being celebrated by that famed London club, then fighting for a chance to win a real trophy and earning one of three ways to enter the CONCACAF Champions League.

The other sad thing to hear was that Hans Backe did not travel to Chicago for this match as he allowed assistants Mike Petke & Carl Robinson earn some training time as they led a weak side to face the Chicago Fire. The supporters who traveled to Chicago were basically slapped in the face as they wanted to see their side attempt to reach their fifth semi-final match.

This club either as Metro or Red Bulls has to understand that this tournament is just as important as the league season and the MLS Cup playoffs. Right now they have lost a chance to win a cup. Backe has said that winning the Supporters shield is the most important cup to get, yet at the moment the club looks like they will miss that chance as well.

While it was a decent ride to see the baby bulls get a chance at some glory, it all falls on the lap of Hans Backe when you have failed to advance to the next round, regardless of what MLS wants you to be. The face of the league in England means sacrificing a cup. Look at Manchester City as they didn’t care which cup they wanted to win, just as long as they wanted to win one of them and got their FA Cup.

(NOTE:) This match was originally scheduled at 8:30PM EDT – 7:30PM CDT but was pushed ahead to 6:00PM EDT – 5:00PM CDT due to a Lightning storm that knocked out the lights at Toyota Park and over 800,000 customers. The Video stream was unavailable and only got audio.