Open Cup: Miami FC's Kwadwo Poku adds to his legend

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Jun 29, 2017

Two weeks after Miami FC beat Orlando City, 3-1, the NASL leader put three goals past Atlanta United to defeat a second MLS team, 3-2. The late winner came from 25-year-old Kwadwo Poku, who moved to Atlanta from Ghana as a teenager and achieved Open Cup heroics with the Georgia Revolution and Atlanta Silverbacks.

In 2013, Poku scored a hat trick to lead the Revolution to a 4-3 win in the first round of the Open Cup. The next year, he scored in stoppage time to give the Silverbacks a 2-1 win over MLS's Real Salt Lake in the fourth round,

Poku, who spent parts of two seasons with New York City FC before moving to Miami, repeated his feat against Atlanta United, breaking a 2-2 tie in the third minute of stoppage. He took a pass from Frenchman Vincenzo Rennella and dribbled into the area before firing home the winner that sets up a home date with the USL's FC Cincinnati in the quarterfinals on July 12.

"This was a very important match for everyone," said Miami FC coach Alessandro Nesta. "This is a dream for us, but dreams are earned and we will see where we can take this."

The seesaw match saw Brandon Vazquez give Atlanta the lead in the 35th minute, but goals by Stefano Pinho, who had a hat trick in the win over Orlando City, and Rhett Bernstein put Miami ahead.

In the 74th minute, U.S. U-17 star Andrew Carleton drew a penalty that rookie Julian Gressel buried tie the match at 2-2.