United Soccer Leagues announced Tuesday the defending USL Premier Development League champion Portland Timbers U-23s and the Kitsap Pumas will decide who wins the automatic bid from the Western Conference's Northwest Division to the 40-team field for the 2011 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup tournament the old-fashioned way -- on the field.
After previously announcing a lottery would be held Tuesday at the league's headquarters to settle a rather unusual set of circumstances, USL President Tim Holt, with the approval from US Soccer to extend the qualification period for teams to make the tournament field, said both teams' planned game at JELD-WEN Field in Portland Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern time would determine who gets the bid.
As with all USL PDL teams, they each played four LHUSOC qualification matches with the best team from each conference's division getting a spot in the tournament.
Both Portland and Kitsap finished their games with records of 3-0-1, including playing each other to a scoreless draw May 21, and also identical numbers in the tiebreaking statistics of goal differential and goals scores.
USL rules state if two teams remain tied after all tiebreakers are exhausted, a lottey is held but Holt said Friday's game "provided the opportunity to determine the winner on the field, rather than in an office."
Should the game Friday end in a tie after 90 regulation minutes, penalty kicks will determine the winner.
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