U.S. Open Cup | Tale Of Two Cities For Peter Wilt In Fourth Round

Photo credit: Indy Eleven/Matt Schlotzhauer

Peter Wilt is among the most recognizable and quotable soccer people in the Midwest.

There he is traipsing around rural Wisconsin, posting photos along the way, after a stop at The Highbury in Milwaukee, where he is credited with inventing a novel, locally tinged libation: Schlabst, a mixture of Schlitz beer from a bottle and Pabst from a can – the beers that (once) made Milwaukee famous. There he is at Copa América Centenario games in Chicago. There he was celebrating on the field with coaches, players, and fans in Indianapolis last Saturday night after Indy Eleven put itself in position to win the 2016 Spring Season title.

And he will be there at Toyota Park outside the Windy City on Wednesday night when two of the soccer teams most near and dear to his heart – the Chicago Fire and Indy Eleven – face each other in a fourth-round game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

“It’s apprehension and anxiety,” Wilt told NASL.com. “Everyone is saying how excited I should be and I suppose in some ways I am. I love this tournament. It’s the only way for some of these rivals to actually play against each other. Indy is Chicago’s closest pro soccer team and this is the first time they’ve ever played in an official match.”

Wilt is hardly a stranger to soccer fans in that pocket of the Midwest. He was the first president and general manager of the Fire, the MLS club that began play in 1998, and won a unique expansion team double – the league title and the Open Cup – under Coach Bob Bradley. After leaving the Fire, Wilt was involved with indoor and outdoor clubs in Milwaukee and Chicago before signing on as the top executive when owner Ersal Ozdemir was awarded an NASL club, which began play in 2014.

“Having two of the teams I started play each other provides an interesting emotional response, but it’s about the players and fans,” Wilt said.

Asked who he would be cheering for at the game in Bridgeview, Ill., Wilt related an anecdote from a past Open Cup pairing between the Fire and the Colorado Rapids: “I asked Nancy Anschutz, Phil’s wife, who she would root for because Phil owned both teams. She said she would ‘cheer for the team that had the ball.’ All she wanted was more offense. I thought it was brilliant. What I’m cheering for on Wednesday is lots of goals.”

One day after downing the visiting Carolina RailHawks, Indy Eleven claimed the mantle as the Spring Season Champion when FC Edmonton defeated Fort Lauderdale on the season’s final day. Indy advanced to the fourth round of the Open Cup, which is when the 17 U.S.-based MLS clubs enter the competition, after a 2-1 victory over Louisville City FC of the USL on June 1. In all, seven of nine NASL clubs in the tournament advanced and all seven will be in action on Wednesday.

“When I was in Chicago we took this tourney very seriously, maybe more seriously than most of the other clubs because we viewed it as an important, historic trophy,” Wilt said. “It’s an opportunity for lower division teams to prove their worth.”

He added: “History implies that all teams should take it seriously. In Chicago, we have four U.S. Open Cup trophies to show how seriously we take it. There I go using the word ‘WE.’ The Fire is just one championship short of tying the Open Cup record (Maccabi Los Angeles and Bethlehem Steel have each won five times). They have not had a good start to the season, and this is a second opportunity for a team not doing well in league competition to have some success. Also, for NASL teams, this is the only route to the CONCACAF Champions League.”

The Eleven will have to shift gears quickly only days after the euphoric ending to the Spring Season, when the players were mobbed on the field at Carroll Stadium by ecstatic fans.

Wilt’s prediction?

“It’s going to be a tense game, it’s another way of saying it will be a close game,” he said. “I don’t believe it will be wide open. I believe it will be low scoring and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if we get bonus soccer on Wednesday – 30 additional minutes and 10 kicks from the spot.”

In another tribute to a man with his heart in two places, fans created the Schlabst Cup, which was created when the Fire and the Eleven played a friendly match at Purdue University in 2014. Money raised from the sale of Schlabst Cup T-shirts goes to charity.

“I will roam among both teams’ fans during the game,” Wilt said. “I will not celebrate the outcome, but will feel for both teams and the people I know.”