BROOMFIELD — Standing on the sidelines, acting as coach during a Sunday recreation-league soccer game, Johnny Freeston noted the hangover potential at a 9 a.m. Sunday game with a crew of mostly 20-something players. Freeston, the owner and manager of the Harpo’s FC team, also knew that some of his key players should be resting up for a very big game. But they had shown up to play, anyway.

Although they’re amateurs — a pub team sponsored by Harpo’s sports bar in Boulder and Avery Brewing — Harpo’s FC is playing in the U.S. Open Cup, a 91-team tournament that will probably be won by a Major League Soccer team, such as the Colorado Rapids.

“Teams like that, they’re at the top of the food chain,” Freeston said. “And we’re literally at the very bottom.”

Another way Freeston likes to put it: “We are ranked 91st out of 91.”

On Wednesday evening, the men of Harpo’s FC — all of whom have day jobs, none of whom are currently paid to play — will take on the Colorado Springs Switchbacks of the United Soccer League in the second round of the tournament. It’s the equivalent of your after-work baseball league playing the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (or maybe the Rockies, this year.)

“Wednesday is next-level,” Freeston said. “Wednesday is guys who have played professionally one to 12 years.”

Harpo’s playing the Switchbacks is “a huge deal,” said Patrick Shea, who runs Current of Colorado, a website that covers all levels of men’s soccer in the state. Current has been following Harpo’s rise in the cup.

“It is the narrative of the Cinderella story,” Shea said. “It’s an amateur team that has ex-professionals on the squad that has done everything right to get this far in the tournament.

“They’ve earned it.”

The pub-team underdog story started in July, when Harpo’s won the state amateur championships, earning the right to a play-in for the 2015 Open Cup. It won that preliminary-round game in Kansas City, Mo., in late April. Last week, the team traveled to Utah to face a fourth-tier team at Brigham Young University and won in overtime, earning the game against the Switchbacks.

Like many underdogs, Harpo’s is scrappy. Before a recent Monday night practice, Freeston wondered aloud whether the field lights would be on. He has made financial sacrifices, including putting his own money into the team. (He didn’t want to reveal the amount; his wife would be upset with him, he said.) Some players are on the field injured. The team captain is on his honeymoon right now and will miss the game.

Players went to their respective jobs on little sleep (and “probably hung over,” Freeston said) the day after their midweek game in Utah. But they have a team full of players with Division I college experience and a motivated manager.

“(Johnny) got sick of just having a regular team that played in Boulder on Sundays that wasn’t any good,” said Steve Lepper, a friend and certified coach whom Freeston asked to coach the team just for the Open Cup games.

“The funny thing is, Johnny always had this in mind,” said Kyle Luetkehans, a midfielder for Harpo’s. “This was literally the plan since last summer.”

Luetkehans is one of the team’s members who has played professionally. After playing at University of Vermont, he went to Europe to try out for pro teams and landed on a team in Finland for a few seasons. He then played in Australia before coming back to the states to be closer to his family. He works for a tech startup now. It’s a common story among players: Ben Iiames, another midfielder, works two jobs and is a student. Ian Marcheschi is a math teacher.

Sure, they blow off steam at Harpo’s or Avery’s taproom after games; on Sunday, at least one player was drinking beer out of a pitcher when Freeston ordered up 20 car bombs for the table at Harpo’s. They play hard but train hard, too — after work daily, Marcheschi said, until it’s too dark to train. Then they go home, eat, sleep and do it all over again.

Marcheschi ran hard in their game against BYU. He’ll do it again Wednesday in Colorado Springs. You’ve got to, he said.

“This could be the last big game I’m going to play.”

Jenn Fields: 303-954-1599, jfields@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jennfields

Switchbacks vs. Harpo’s

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Sand Creek Stadium, Colorado Springs

Tickets: $15 and up at switchbacksfc.com