CONCACAF held the draw for the knockout stages of the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League today, and that picture you see above is the result.
The two MLS teams will be facing off against each other, with the winner going against whichever Central American power survives the Olimpia/Saprissa matchup. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, all four Mexican teams will have to fight it out for a shot at the title.
There are a couple good things going on here.
The first knockout leg is the worst one for MLS teams. It takes place about 1 month before the season starts again, so teams haven't really even had time to train together yet. By putting two MLS teams together, yes it guarantees one will get knocked out, but it also guarantees that one will be able to get in better form and hopefully compete in the next stage.
No Mexican teams until the final. MLS teams have performed much better against the Mexican competition this year, but it's still abundantly clear which is the superior league. I'm not saying an MLS team couldn't beat a Mexican team in a home-and-away series, but now they don't even have to worry about that until the finals
The schedule for the knockout stages is below.
First Leg (February 22-24)
Toluca (MEX) vs. Monterrey (MEX)
Cruz Azul (MEX) vs. Santos Laguna (MEX)
Columbus Crew (USA) vs. Real Salt Lake (USA)
Saprissa (CRC) vs. Olimpia (HON)
Second Leg (March 1-3)
Monterrey (MEX) vs. Toluca (MEX)
Santos Laguna (MEX) vs. Cruz Azul (MEX)
Real Salt Lake (USA) vs. Columbus Crew (USA)
Olimpia (HON) vs. Saprissa (CRC)
And yes, I am writing up my thoughts on the other two games this weekend (for all 4 of you out there who care) but suffice to say they can be summarized by "OMGWTFNYRB" and "Let's not start sucking each other's *popsicles* quite yet FC Dallas."
There are 4 more matches to be played today and tomorrow, but all of the MLS teams in CONCACAF Champions League now know their respective fates.
In Group A action, a very, VERY reserve-heavy Real Salt Lake squad held court (again) at home beating Cruz Azul 3-1 behind a brace from Paulo and a third from Collen Warner, just for good measure. Cruz Azul notched one late from Cesar Villaluz, but it was nowhere near enough.
Now look, I'm admittedly not very good with Mexican league teams. I'm sure the Cruz Azul was rolling out a b-team as well given they had clinched passage through. What I do know though, is that Real Salt Lake only had two starters (defenders Nat Borchers and Tony Beltran) in this CCL game who also started in their last league game against FC Dallas. In a welcome surprise, 16 year old Arsenal target Luis Gil got the start and 45 minutes of action for RSL.
Toronto FC ended their tournament on a high note, beating poor, defenseless Arabe Unido 1-0. I hesitate to go too far in giving them credit against an over-matched opponent, but TFC played a good game. Hopefully that's high praise coming from me because I have been pretty hard on them lately even when they do manage to get a result. Maybe this and their final game this weekend at DC United can be building blocks for next season.
Finishing only 2 points out of 2nd place though, you know Toronto is kicking itself for a poor showing down in Panama and a draw at home against RSL.
A quick jump to Group C and sees Seattle Sounders lose at home to Saprissa in the team's final CCL game. Seattle had been eliminated a while ago, but continued to fight hard with reserve lineups and almost pulled off a result except for a goal by Josue Martinez in the 89th minute. Seattle does get the pleasure of knowing they will be back next year though, thanks to their second straight US Open Cup championship.
Finally we move to Group B where, even though they didn't play, Columbus Crew are now guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages thanks to Santos Laguna pounding out Municipal 6-1. Columbus will finish their group stage tomorrow against Joe Public in Trinidad, but will probably put out the most reserve-laden squad they can manage. It is impossible for them to improve their position in the group and they are just 1 point back of New York for first place in the East.
Like Toronto, Columbus may end up kicking themselves, however. Had they sent out a real lineup last game against Municipal and won, they would be in position to win their group rather than finish second.
As it stands, two MLS squads, RSL and Crew, will face off in the knockout stages in late February/early March.
There's one more match left for the CONCACAF Champions League competitors, but it's pretty clear what's going to happen. Real Salt Lake is guaranteed to go through and will be playing Cruz Azul at home for the right to see who finishes first in Group A. Columbus Crew would need a TON of bad luck in order to not get through Group B, but will likely finish second. Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders will be playing their last CCL games October 19th as both sides have been eliminated.
Toronto FC 1 - 1 Real Salt Lake
Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake started the week with a contest at BMO Field. Both teams rolled out strong lineups as RSL was fighting to clinch a spot in the knockout stages and TFC was just trying to stay alive. There were a few first teamers missing (Chad Barrett, Javi Morales, Stefan Frei) but you could tell each team was going for it.
TFC actually looked good this game, a big improvement from their first few games under Nick Dasovic, almost (dare I say) dominating the first half. Jacob Peterson scored a goal off a Howard-to-Landon type distribution from Toronto keeper Jon Conway to give the Reds a 1-0 lead at the break.
Javi Morales, who was subbed in at halftime, would get that goal back though with a beautiful free kick. The rest of the game was mostly RSL attacking and TFC defending, but Jon Conway almost gave Salt Lake the win in the 94th minute with what would have been one of the most embarrassing own goals of all time
Municipal 2 - 1 Columbus Crew
I'm not sure I understand Robert Warzycha's strategy here. He had a chance to clinch a spot in the knockout stages with a tie, but left starters William Hesmer, Chad Marshall, Brian Carroll, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Emmanuel Ekpo, Danny O'Rourke, Frankie Hejduk and Emilio Renteria at home. Municipal took advantage and won the game, moving only 1 point back of Columbus in the standings.
Now yes, Municipal does have to travel to Santos Laguna (the group leader) next while Columbus goes to Joe Public (the bottom of the group), but why even put yourself in that position? Why risk not going through by keeping 8 of your best players out of the lineup? Resting them for a match against a San Jose Earthquakes that also played a midweek game seems like an iffy excuse at best.
Seattle Sounders 2 - 0 Marathon
The Sounders, on the other hand, had all the reason in the world to send out a young lineup and they did. And, for the second straight game, the kids played really well when given the chance.
Seattle started
G: Kevin Boss
D: Taylor Graham, Tyrone Marshall, Tyson Wahl, Zach Scott
M: David Estrada, Alvaro Fernandez, Miguel Montano, Michael Seamon
F: Roger Levesque (ugh), Mike Fucito
and looked like they had always played with them. Fucito scored both goals, giving him 3 in 178 minutes of CCL play. Good work by the Harvard man who was injured all of last season. Seattle can't go through, but they played with pride and may have knocked Marathon out of the quarterfinals.
The only weird part was seeing Qwest Field with only 12,000 fans in it. Hopefully that doesn't become a regular occurrence.
Another pair of CONCACAF Champion League games for MLS teams tonight (and a pair of league games, but we'll get to those in a later post). This time both were on the road as Seattle Sounders went down to play at Monterrey and Real Salt Lake looked to move to the top of group A on their trip down to Arabe Unido.
Seattle showed up to their game as most of us expected; starting players like Miguel Montano, Michael Fucito, Terry Boss, etc. They are focused on their MLS and US Open Cup campaigns, as they should be. The only issue: no one told these subs they weren't supposed to be good enough.
Seattle came out strong, scoring 2 goals in the first half including one by Michael Fucito in the 44th that seemed to really take the spirit out of Monterrey heading in to halftime. However, if we've learned anything about MLS teams in Mexico it's that no 2-0 lead is safe.
The Sounders did well through the first 30 minutes of the second half, playing strong defense and attacking when they got the chance. It was a 4 minute spell of awful that doomed them. When I say awful, I mean AWFUL. Like, Awful Plastic Surgery awful.
If you were flipping back and forth between the game and some other channel it wouldn't have taken more than a commercial break. Seriously, you could've left Modern Family, watched Seattle squander their lead and fall behind, and then get back without missing a second of Sofia Vergara.
The collapse was highlighted by a trio of awful plays. First Zach Scott was about as lazy as possible, standing on the endline 20 yards from the action and allowing Aldo De Nigris to stay onside and tap in a rebound off of Terry Boss for the first goal. Chilean striker Humberto Suazo scored the second goal in what can only be described as "a total defensive breakdown."
Then came the real coup-de-grace. It started with an unbelievably poor decision by a midfielder (David Estrada, I believe) to head the ball 25 yards backwards under no pressure. That godawful "pass" allowed Suazo to run on and take the ball with Tyrone Marshall a step behind. Marshall actually managed to close him down and start pushing him out wide, but then Terry Boss came sliding in out of nowhere and took out Suazo with a stupid and reckless challenge that earned the hosts a penalty.
And that was that. 4 minutes, 3 goals, and 0 points for the Sounders.
Real Salt Lake did better, taking advantage of a weaker opponent and coming out 3-2 victors. With this win they move to first place in Group A and I would consider them the odds-on favorite to win the group. Well done, RSL. Thank you for playing 90 minutes of soccer to win a game.
Two very strong results for MLS teams tonight in CONCACAF Champions League play tonight. It's always nice to play against the top 2 teams in the current Mexican Apertura and come away with a win and a tie.
The early game saw Columbus Crew beat Santos Laguna 1-0 at home to move to the top of Group B with 9 points. A goal by Andres Mendoza in the 87th minute was exactly what the Crew needed. Four games in and Columbus has done what they needed to do at home, hold serve and earn 9 points. They still have games @ Municipal and @ Joe Public to go, but they control their destiny to get through this competition in first.
The Crew didn't put out their best lineup possible, resting Hesmer, Duka, Lenhart, Garey, and Schelotto, but still managed to create a lot of dangerous chances and really take the game to a Santos team currently sitting second in the Mexican Apertura. It was a far cry from their last two league matches which saw them beaten by a combined score of 7-1.
In the late game Toronto FC traveled down to Mexico City and tied Cruz Azul 0-0. Like I said in the weekend wrap-up though, don't get too excited TFC fans. Cruz Azul controlled most of the match but Toronto defended well enough to not allow a goal even though they didn't create a whole lot on the attack themselves.
Truthfully, this result is probably better for Real Salt Lake than for Toronto FC though. Unfortunately I think their 2-0 loss in Panama is going to doom TFC to missing out on the knock-out stage, even if they win out and get to 10 points. They're 9 goals behind Cruz Azul on goal differential right now, and I just don't see how they can make that up. This result does appear to make RSL the favorite to win the group, assuming they take care of business against Arabe Unido tomorrow night.
On a separate note, Cruz Azul hasn't looked that good in either home match against MLS teams. They did beat RSL 5-4 in an incredibly fun game to watch, but I think 3 (maybe 4) of their 5 goals took deflections off of RSL defenders to beat Nick Rimando. That's a lot of luck to eke out 3 points. This time around they outplayed Toronto, but couldn't find the back of the net, or really get great chances despite the possession advantage.
It would be pretty awesome if they lost to Arabe Unido at home since that would open the door for 2 MLS teams getting out of the group, but even with their so-so play I don't think that happens.
EDIT: Not shockingly, I'm an idiot. So it turns out first tie-breaker is head-to-head so Toronto actually has a decent chance of getting through if they can get to 10 points. They'll still need to beat RSL at BMO Field and have RSL to win at home (something their very good at lately) against Cruz Azul. But if Toronto and Cruz Azul both end on 10 points, Toronto gets the nod.
MLSsoccer.com has an article up where Garth Lagerwey, Real Salt Lake's vice president and general manager, talks about how teams with designated players are not designed for success in the CONCACAF Champions League.
The arguments are twofold. First is the obvious point that spending so much of your salary cap on a small number of players damages a team's depth, which is critical when MLS does not seem to think it necessary to schedule around these games. A team like New York with 3 DPs is locking up 40% of their salary cap on 12% of their roster. RSL's top three paid players account for 27% of the salary cap, giving the team about $400,000 more to spend on filling out the roster.
The second point is a little less obvious, but makes a lot of sense after you hear it. Designated players are much more likely to be older guys; the average ages of the 8 new DPs brought in this season is 30 years old. It's a lot tougher on older players to play 3 games in 8 days with a few thousand miles of travel between games like you'll get traveling to Central America to play.
When you look at the two most successful MLS teams in CCL play so far this year, the Columbus Crew and Real Salt Lake, it sure seems possible that while DPs can get your team deep in the MLS Cup Playoffs, they may not be the way to go for CCL glory.
First, it takes a special kind of person to work dual alliteration into a 5 word title. That's just the kind of quality (read: kitsch) you get out of me.
Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders each played their third CCL game last night to very different results. Columbus hosted Joe Public and rolled to a 3-0 win, while Seattle went down to the monster's lair to play at Saprissa and came away 2-0 losers. There was one similarlity between these sides though: they both played a lot of reserves.
I've been very critical of MLS teams rolling out poor lineups for CCL games and US Open Cup games in the past but I am 100% behind both of these clubs.
Columbus was coming off a huge game against LA Galaxy last weekend with another tough contest against Seattle this Saturday looming ahead of them. Also, being at home against Joe Public was the easiest chance for Columbus to get 3 points they will see all tournament. If their reserves couldn't earn a win at home against a club that is already 11 points behind TT Pro League leaders Defense Force after only 10 games then they don't deserve to move forward in this competition.
Even as they played stifling defense on the Trinidadian team, the game was a little tense after the first half as Columbus failed to put away any of the chances they had created. You began to wonder how long Robert Warzycha would wait to bring in his offensive stars like Schelotto, Gaven, and Lenhart. Leandre Griffit took care of those worries two minutes into the second half though, and Columbus was able to give their stars a rest and still enjoy a comfortable victory.
Seattle didn't go quite as deep into their bench, mostly because there was still a very small outside chance they could make it through the group. But it was clearly not a first team squad, as you can see by that bum Roger Levesque making an appearance.
My reasoning for liking Seattle's lineup is a bit different than Columbus. Seattle is sitting in the 8th and final playoff spot for MLS Cup with one of the easiest remaining schedules. Given that they had earned 0 points through two CCL games, it would be short-sighted to try and maximize points in a competition you have little-to-no chance of progressing in at the expense of potentially making a deep run in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
First happy birthday to my sister Katie who turned 24 yesterday. You can blame her for the lack of updates. And now, on to the pain.
Week 2 of the CONCACAF Champions League was not nearly as good for the MLS participants. Overall the teams went 0-4, including 2 stoppage time defeats in Mexico. Yikes.
Arabe Unido 1 - 0 Toronto FC
The refs did Toronto no favors in this game. Granted, the goal Arabe Unido scored was very well taken and deserved and Toronto didn't have any valid goals taken away (don't worry, we'll get to some of those later) but Salvadoran referee Marlon Mejia was still terrible. He handed out two awful red cards to Toronto players Nick LaBrocca and Faud Ibrahim that greatly influenced the game.
This is not to absolve Toronto of any blame for this loss. I'm pretty disappointed with the lineup that TFC rolled out down there. I was really hoping that they would take their best chance at road points seriously, but they were obviously playing to win this weekend and get in to the MLS Cup Playoffs. Oh well, to each their own. I can't find reliable number for how much advancing in CCL play is worth to teams, but I'm going to have to assume it's not enough to make Toronto focus on CCL instead of MLS playoffs.
Highlights:
Santos Laguna 1 - 0 Columbus Crew
Columbus Crew left 3 of their best players at home to prepare for a match this weekend against FC Dallas. Santos Laguna rolled out a mostly reserve squad. Really nice to see squads taking it seriously.
Still though, Columbus went ahead in the 22nd minute off a goal by Andy Iro. Or so it seemed. The referee waved off the goal because Edgar Renteria, who delivered the cross in, was wearing a shirt with no number.
Let's go over the series of events leading up to this:
1) Juan Pablo Santiago elbows Renteria in the head, drawing blood
2) Renteria goes over to the sideline, gets stitched and bandaged, changes shirts
3) Renteria is allowed back into the game
4) Renteria points out to the 4th official that he has no number
5) The 4th official tells Renteria it is okay and to go back to playing.
6) Renteria's assist is disallowed and he received a yellow card.
A-plus work CONCACAF referees.
Columbus was trying desperately to hold on in the last 15 minutes of the game but Santos eventually broke through. Watching the game you could see it was only a matter of "when" not "if" given the pressure Santos was able to provide and the trouble Columbus was having marking men in the box.
Highlights:
Cruz Azul 5 - 4 Real Salt Lake
Un. Buh. Leave. Able. As much as it hurts to lose, this was one of the most entertaining games you could ever see. RSL went us 3-1 in the 64th minute on a goal by Fabian Espindola. However, in the 67th minute Espindola was subbed out for Robbie Findley and then in the 74th minute Javi Morales was subbed out for Andy Williams. At that point, the floodgates opened.
RSL gave up 4 goals in the final 15 minutes of the game to give away the best chance any MLS team has had to win in Mexico. Jason Kreis needs to do some serious re-evaluation of which players are capable of contributing in continental play as clearly losing the Latin influence in attack devestated Real. Still though, it took a goal in the final minute of stoppage time to guarantee Cruz Azul 3 points.
Again in this game, there was a legitimate goal for the MLS team pulled back by the referee. Will Johnson clearly ran from an onside position to tap home a rebound in the 1st minute that was disallowed. To worsen matters, the goal Cruz Azul scored in the 5th minute should've been stopped because Cruz Azul never brought the ball to a stop after a foul was called to restart play.
You can see both of these in the first 30 seconds of the highlights below, but remember that RSL has only themselves to blame for what happened last night.
Highlights:
Seattle Sounders 0 - 2 Monterrey
Well, I guess we can go ahead and expect Seattle to pack it in for the rest of CCL. I hope they show up well for the home fans, because those guys are so loyal they don't deserve to be spited for the team's struggles, but they should be focusing on securing a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs now.
CONCACAF Champions League group play opened up this Tuesday and so far MLS teams have earned the full nine points in their three games played. Sure it involved three home games, but who are we to complain?
Every team ran out a first-team lineup, allowing for injuries and suspensions, which is great to see. I really want to see teams take this competition seriously and perform well. The UEFA Champions League is the second best tournament to watch in the world (behind the World Cup, obviously) and I would love to see something similar here.
Toronto FC 2 - 1 Cruz Azul
By far the most impressive result, Toronto defeated Mexican giants Cruz Azul behind goals from Marco Saric and Mista. Cruz Azul was able to pull one back late off a free kick by former Pachuca star (and known enemy for anyone who was way into previous CCLs or Superligas) Christian Gimenez, who seems to have put on about 94 pounds.
The best part of the result is, TFC deserved every bit of it. They went out there and played their collective asses off up and down the field and could've won by more if it wasn't for a shockingly bad DeRo pass meant for US U-20 striker Fuad Ibrahim late in the game. In this extremely tough group, getting 3 points against Cruz Azul is HUGE. Like, Precious huge.
Touching on the DP theme from last post, Mista looked really dangerous on the attack and this is the first time I can remember thinking "Holy crap, this guy is good!" basically every time De Guzman was on the ball. Hopefully he can keep up that run of form because it's missing from his play in league matches too often.
Columbus 1 - 0 Municipal
Emmanuel Ekpo put in an early contender for goal of the tournament to give Columbus the 1-nil victory. The highlights linked below don't quite do it justice but you can still see just how gorgeous the whole thing was from his cutting through 3 defenders to lining up a perfect curling shot to the inside of the back post.
Schelotto had at least 3 chances that he buries on a better day, or this scoreline could've gotten out of control. As it stands, the Crew took their first step towards what should be a pretty easy qualification from the weak Group B.
Real Salt Lake 2 - 1 Arabe Unido
Group A is the group of death, and right now the two teams sitting on top are Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake. That's a pretty welcome sight for MLS fans.
It wasn't easy for RSL though. They went down early on a deflected goal in the 13th minute. Not long afterward, Arabe Unido defender Nahill Caroll was sent off for an awful two-footed challenge on Dreads Beckerman and the game was on. Saborio pulled a goal back in the 45th minute off a gorgeous cross by Chris Wingert and then tallied again five minutes into stoppage time on a penalty.
"Wait, what?! Five minutes!" you say? Yes. And actually there were eight minutes of stoppage time total.
You see, desperate for a 1-1 draw down a man and away from home, Arabe Unido found it possible to suffer life threatening injuries from any and all contact. Referee Paul Ward did an amazing job handling the situation, getting writhing Panamanians off the pitch as quickly as possible and issuing yellow cards for obvious time wasting. He also made the right call when Nelson Gonzalez was body checked away from a header he put past defender Jose Justavino (aka the short dude with giant-Super-Monkey-Ball-esque ears) in the box.
Another good outcome for MLS is that Arabe lose two players for their match next week at home against TFC: Caroll for the straight red and Andres Santamaria for two yellows for dissent. That was going to be their best chance all stage of getting 3 points and they'll be missing two starting defenders. If TFC can go down to Panama and win, Arabe is all but eliminated and at least one MLS team is guaranteed to move forward.
