Duluth FC Exits U.S. Open Cup after Loss to Pro Side Forward Madison
By Joe Chatz/NPSL.com
Forward Madison defeated NPSL side Duluth FC 5-1 in the first round of the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, Wisconsin.
Duluth qualified for the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup after winning the NPSL’s North Conference during the 2024 NPSL season.
Duluth tied the match in the second half but they weren’t able to overcome Aleksandar Mihov’s 35th minute red card as Madison took the lead for good less than ten minutes after the NPSL side tied things up.
Duluth FC had a few great opportunities early on that developed from their counterattack, but they weren’t able to connect that final pass to create a goal-scoring chance from them.
Alejandro Garcia made a great run down the left wing in the 10th minute and brought the ball into Madinson’s penalty area before hitting a cross into the center of the 18. Garcia’s cross harmlessly bounced through Madison’s penalty area and the hosts were able to clear the ball easily.
Duluth’s Mario Fernandez created another chance for his side in the 19th minute, but his looping corner went untouched at the far post and bounced out for a goal kick.
Duluth went down to ten men in the 35th minute after an off-the-ball incident in their attacking half of the pitch. While the ball was near midfield, Aleksandar Mihov made contact with Nico Brown’s face near Madison’s penalty area. The referee stopped play and, after an initial delay, assessed a red card to Mihov and left Duluth down a man for the remainder of the contest in Wisconsin.
Madison pounced quickly on the extra-man situation.
The hosts had the ball in Duluth’s penalty area, and Juan Galindrez did well to pop the ball up to Garretty McLaughlin a yard to his right in the 39th minute. McLaughlin headed the ball over to Ferrety Sousa, whose shot went across the face of goal before sliding into the far corner of the net to put Madison up a goal.
Madison nearly doubled their lead in the 42nd minute but Duluth goalkeeper Adam Braman did well to maintain the one-goal margin entering halftime. Garrett McLaughlin headed the ball over to Juan Galindrez, and the striker hit a great on-target shot but Braman was there to deny the close-range effort.
Madison went into the break up 1-0 and had all of the match’s four shots on goal while outshooting Duluth seven-two overall.
Madison came close to scoring again after halftime after a poor pass from Duluth’s Adam Braman. Garrett McLaughlin collected the poor pass, but Braman was able to slide in before the Madison forward could get a shot off.
Ten-man Duluth tied the match in the 64th minute on the same sequence that they collected their first and second shots on goal of the match.
Madison played a horrible pass into their own half of the pitch that Duluth’s Dylan Sumner collected in-stride as he made his way towards the hosts’ goal. Sumner’s shot was saved by Madison goalkeeper Wallis Lapsley but the rebound fell perfectly to Duluth’s Mario Fernandez, who passed the ball into the wide-open net to tie the match at one.
Duluth’s fun didn’t last long as Madison re-gained the lead less than ten minutes later. Devin Boyce played a perfect centering pass for Eddie Munjoma in the 73rd minute and the substitute knocked his shot into the far corner of the net to restore the USL League One’s side lead for good.
Madison Juan Galindrez celebrated his side’s place in the Open Cup’s second round by scoring a lovely left-footed goal in the 86th minute to extend Madison’s lead to 3-1 moments before stoppage. Three wasn’t enough for Madison as John Murphy scored in the third minute of second half stoppage time and Galindrez added his second goal on the match’s final kick, tapping in a rebound after Adam Braman to give the match its final 5-1 scoreline.
Duluth FC head coach Thomás Pazo was encouraged by his side’s performance despite the lopsided scoreline.
“It’s a frustrating way to end the game, of course, right?” Pazo said moments after the match ended. “I think for most of the game, for a team that trained for a week, that had boys fly in the day before, that had guys driving the day of the match because they got stuck in a snowstorm and played with a man down from the second half and 15-20 minutes of the first half. Hey, I think we did, all right.”
“When we equalized, we thought we could hang on,” Pazo continued. “Whenever we went to one down we said, ‘hey it’s a Cup game if we lose, losing one by one goal or by 20 is the same. So let’s try to take some risks and try to press them.’ And of course, it didn’t play out very well for us. We, unfortunately, you know, couldn’t work a lot during the week on playing down a man or being able to defend the spacing behind. But I’m very proud of a lot of the guys.”
Photo Credit: Joe Chatz/NPSL.com
