“I played in it as an amateur, with the Cape Cod Crusaders,” Hartford Athletic head coach and general manager Brendan Burke recalled, looking back on his first time in contact with this country’s most historic soccer tournament. “We ended up losing to the Richmond Kickers by a goal, I think, down in Virginia.
“I was still playing in college at that time and to progress to that level where you're playing against what was at that point one of the top lower-division pro teams in the country was just a special memory,” Burke added about his formative memories of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – in the 2004 edition of the tournament and the 0-1 extra-time loss to the Kickers. “It was something that allowed us to test ourselves against guys that were making money playing the game we loved.”
Burke’s time playing for Cape Cod — a USL Premier Development League (now USL League Two) summer league side until 2008 — in 2004 and 2005 overlapped with his days as a defender at Boston College. In the 2004 Open Cup, the Crusaders, then defending PDL-champions, earned a 4-1 First Round win over a NY Greek American side that boasted a 33-year-old Giovani Savarese in the final year of his playing career. In the Second Round, the Crusaders beat the Ludlow-based Western Mass Pioneers 3-2.
His pro career took him briefly overseas, with Sligo Rovers in Ireland, before he finished his playing days at USL League Two outfit Reading United AC — then known as the Reading Rage — where he’d go on to begin his coaching career.
There, with the PA-based summer leaguers, his path crossed with the Open Cup once again. “In Reading, I always had a top group of amateur college players that we had hand-selected from all over the country,” said Burke. “So I knew they were capable of competing with pro clubs on a regular basis each year.”
In 2013, Burke’s final year as the head coach in Reading, the club reched the Third Round of the Open Cup, before losing to top-division pros the New York Red Bulls (Major League Soccer) in a tense match at Red Bull Arena.
Burke was also part of the Philadelphia Union (MLS) coaching staff at the time, which took him all way to the 2012 Open Cup Semifinals. “I think my first time reaching the Semifinal I was an assistant for John Hackworth [at the Union],” he said of those early days with Philadelphia’s MLS franchise – who would later go on to reach three Open Cup Finals (2014, 2015 and 2018) and are back in the 2025 tournament, entering in the Round of 32 with 15 other Division One Major League Soccer sides. “That's a special memory as well.”
It was in his last job before moving to Hartford’s USL Championship side that Burke was part of a Cup-winning effort, as a member of Ben Olsen’s coaching staff at the outstanding 2023 Houston Dynamo. “We got all the way that year,” he said.
“I was Ben's top assistant in Houston when we won the whole thing,” Burke added. “So it wasn’t that long ago that I was able to hold that trophy.”
Burke is not a man to elaborate unduly on his achievements – but that 2023 Open Cup Final had the most eyes on it of any game in the Modern Era of the Open Cup. Played in Fort Lauderdale against Inter Miami, in Lionel Messi’s first year in MLS, the build-up to the game was a virtual waiting game to see if Messi would recover from a muscle injury in time to play. In the end, he didn’t. But Sergio Busquets did – and Messi watched on from the stands alongside a slew of celebrities like Zinedine Zidane and NBA star James Harden – as Mexico legend Hector Herrera led the Dynamo to a second Open Cup crown.
The experience of lifting the Cup is something he’s conveyed, over and over, to his players in Hartford. In an interview last year, he stressed the importance of the tournament to the club. “I just told our guys this, we can rotate, we can chop and change our lineup,” Burke said. “But my expectation is to have a serious run at this thing.”
Due to a tough season in the USL Championship last season, with Burke and his Hartford side missing the playoffs, the Athletic began life in this year’s Open Cup early. They were one of eight USL Championship sides to enter in the all amateur-vs-pro First Round. There, they had little trouble turning over the Albany-based NY Shockers of the National Premier Soccer League (NSPL).
To date, Hartford Athletic has yet to make it past the third round of the tournament of the Open Cup — something Burke’s players surely have their sights on rectifying this season. In their way is a Second Round road date on April 2 against the new USL League One (Div. III) pro side from Maine – Portland Hearts of Pine. Hartford will be the favorites in that contest, by virtue of hailing from the higher sanctioned pro league (Div. II USL Championship) but the Hearts drew approximately 4000 fans to their First Round contest up in Lewiston – and the ambitious debutants will be no pushovers as they endevor to make a big mark in their first year as a club.
While on the road for the Second Round, the First Round win had Burke and his boys playing in front a home crowd at Trinity Health Stadium, a field right off the highway in Central Connecticut with most of its deep Open Cup history coming when it was known by its old name of Dillon Stadium. (Dillon is now the name of the club’s goofy mascot, for those keeping score)
“I was so impressed with how committed the fan base is,” he said, speaking generally about the boost he and the team get from playing at home in his second year with the club. “Everyone is willing to do whatever they need to do for their part to help put the energy behind this thing.”
Burke also points to his time as head coach of Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC as a template for his role here in Connecticut as he looks to build revived league form and ally that with a first-ever noteworthy run in the Open Cup. “I think I was very well prepared for this role, and that my staff were as well, because we experienced it in Colorado Springs,” he said. “We went into a club that were dead last in the league and Hartford were dead last in the league [in 2023, and third-from-last in 2024] so I've kind of lived through turning a club around already.”
Burke’s first season in charge of Hartford (2024) saw the club reach their highest points total in a single season since entering USL, with 44 (just four away from a place in the post-season playoffs). It’s certainly something for the organization to build on in the current season.
Despite only playing their first game in 2019, Hartford are beginning to looking like a stalwart in the northeastern part of the U.S. With Westchester SC and Portland Hearts of Pine debuting in USL League One this season – and Rhode Island FC, their USL Championship league mates, earning a surprise berth in the league final last year, the area is rife for natural rivalries to take root.
For Burke, the growth of local rivalries is a good thing. “You already have some serious franchises involved in USL Championship. Clubs like Tampa Bay Rowdies, Louisville City, and [2008 Open Cup Runners-up] Charleston Battery come to mind right off the bat,” he said.
“There’s great infrastructure at those clubs and good youth development; they're real pro clubs at this point. I've spent a lot of time in MLS and a little bit less time in USL — but enough where I've gotten a feel for both leagues,” added Burke, who could be in line for a meeting with second-year neighbors Rhode Island FC in the Open Cup Third Round. “I think the introduction of regional rivalries is really the only thing that's missing, that MLS has that USL doesn’t have — from just a pure fan engagement standpoint.”
As someone who’s held the Open Cup in his hands, Burke speaks glowingly about the tournament – and its possibilities. “I think that this competition demands huge respect,” said the coach. “Holding that trophy in 2023 — being able to pick that thing up physically the day after we flew home — was probably the coolest feeling I've had in sports.”
Having had that feeling once, it’s not surprising that Burke’s hoping to revisit that experience this year. With a talented team on the pitch, and a tough test ahead up in the northern wilds of Maine, Hartford Athletic have ambitious goals on two fronts in 2025.
Tobias Carroll is a Brooklyn-based writer and the author of four books, most recently the novel Ex-Members. He's on X/Twitter and Instagram at @tobiascarroll.