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Ocean City pre-game notes

Ocean City takes on Major League Soccer's DC United on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. We're going to have a live blog where you can chat with me, Susan Lulgjuraj, during the game.

First thing to note is D.C. United is hurting. United is going to be missing a few of its starters. According to Soccer Insider, D.C. will be without Luciano Emilio (likely with a knee injury), Jaime Moreneo (hamstring), Fred (adductor ??), Santino Quaranta (Gold Cup) and Dejan Jakovic (Gold Cup).

Ocean City's PR staff also provided us with loads of pre-game notes.

- Average age of the roster is a little less than 21 years old.

- Byron Carmichael is tied for third all-time with 10 goals scored in the Professional Era of the U.S. Open Cup. He is tied with former MLS player Dante Washington and current Seattle Sounder Sebastien Le Toux. He only trails Jamie Moreno (11) and Rochester's Johnny Menyonger (12).

- Carmichael is the club's all-time leading scorer with 44 goals, 19 assists (107 points) in 80 regular season games.

- Defender Joe Banks and Forward Carmichael are both in their sixth season with the club. Both are coaches in the Barons youth academy and both broke the club record for career minutes on the same day, finishing with the same number of minutes at the end of the game. After Saturday's game, Banks leads Carmichael by six minutes with 5,813 minutes played.

- Ocean City is 7-4-0 in Open Cup play (5-2 home, 2-2 away) and has qualified for the tournament five times in franchise history (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009). The Barons have qualified four times in the last six years. None of the 68 teams in the PDL have qualified that many times during that span.

- With back-to-back upsets of professional clubs in this year's tournament, they are one of six franchises to ever accomplish that feat.

- The Barons have defeated four professional teams in Open Cup play (all of them USL-2 teams). Only the Michigan Bucks have more with seven.

- The Barons have won a number of awards from the USL:

2005 USL Progress Award

2006 USL Hall of Fame Inductee (10+ club)

2007 PDL Executive of the Year

2007 PDL Communications Award

2008 PDL Organization of the Year

- The Barons have produced 16 professional players, including Jeremiah White (AGF Aarhus - Danish Superliga) who became the first Baron to earn a cap for the U.S. National Team last year. Some of the active pros include: Tony Donatelli (Montreal Impact), Ryan Heins (Rochester Rhinos), Jamie Franks (Chivas USA), Pat Hannigan (Miami FC), Chris Williams (Miami FC) and Brian Devlin (Harrisburg City Islanders). New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero played for the Barons briefly in 2006, playing in only one game and earning a shutout in a scoreless draw at the West Virginia Chaos on 5/19/06.

- GoalieTunde Ogunbiyi and his older brother Jide were a part of the (Silver medal-winning) Nigerian Olympic team training camp. Both failed to make the final roster, but considering Tunde, outside of the PDL, hasn't played a competitive game since high school (0 games played in two years of college at the University of New Hampshire), it's an impressive feat and a tribute to Tunde's skill and potential. Tunde is currently attending Boston College.

- J.T. Noone joins the Barons as the first Division I All-American to ever suit up for the club. He became the first Temple Owl to be named an All-American in 22 years. He also continues a streak of seven consecutive seasons where the Barons have had at least one member of the Temple University program on the roster. Noone has two goals and two assists in 10 games played this year, including a pair of goals in Open Cup play. He scored the third goal in the team's 3-0 win over Crystal Palace Baltimore, and scored the game-winning penalty kick in extra time against Real Maryland in the Second Round.

- Head Coach/General Manager Neil Holloway and Assistant Coach John Thompson were teammates with the Barons from 2002-06. They helped lead the team to their greatest season in 2004 when they completed a rare undefeated PDL season (14-0-4). Thompson was named the 2004 PDL Defender of the Year and joined Holloway on the All-PDL team. Thompson was also an All-PDL selection in 2005. Thompson and Holloway met as opponents on the playing field when Thompson led Lewis University to a victory over Holloway's undefeated Wheeling Jesuit University in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II tournament.

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