CONCACAF Champions League

Good set of first leg matches for the MLS and USL.

Houston Dynamo. Was leading Atlante at home until they gave up an 82nd minute tying goal. Considering that they lost DeRo, it was impressive. Odds are a bit against them going to Mexico for the 2nd leg, but still a decent showing.

Puerto Rico Islanders. Scored 2 goals in the final 16 minutes in a come from behind 2-1 victory at home against Marathon (Honduras). They're in a pretty good position to advance, though the away leg will be tough.

Montreal Impact. I watched this game (other two are still on my DVR). It was an incredible atmosphere, played in front of over 55,000 fans in the Olympic stadium. Montreal dominated the midfield, forcing Santos to resort to long balls for their offense. While the Impact was visibly rusty, they're organization and work effort, undoubtedly helped by the ever-vocal home crowd, won the day, getting a well deserved 2-0 victory. While Santos has a good home record in this competition, including coming back from similar deficits, I don't see the Impact letting this one fall through the cracks. Rumor is Garber was at the game...if so, he must have been dumbstruck: 55,000 fans at a game with no superstars, no European super-team, and playing in a regional competition. He must wonder why Houston could only muster 8,000 fans for the same fixture, and in much warmer temperatures than the 18 degrees that the Canadians showed up in.....

 

OK, I watched the PR Islanders game. It was interesting. PR was obviously rusty, but made up for it with effort and heart. It looked like 80% of the game took place in the Marathon half of the field. With less rust/better finishing, the Islanders could have gotten 5 or 6 goals pretty easily. However, Marathon is known as a counter-attacking team, and they were effective with it - more shots on goal than the Islanders, with far fewer total shots. Still, with another week of practice, I like the Islander's chances.

 

I watched the Houston game last night. While Houston wasn't as apparantly dominant as the Islanders (above), there were a lot of similarities in the match. The Dynamo are rueing their missed chances, especially after giving up a late fluke goal (mis-hit ball bounced over keeper). It will be an uphill fight for Houston, but they certainly have a chance. Give Kamara and Ching a chance to gell and you'll see a very dangerous Houston this year in the MLS.

Overall, I've been dissapointed with the opposition. For teams in mid-season form, from more "prestigious" leagues, I was expecting much more from them than the long-ball offense and shoddy defending that I saw. Give each MLS team an extra 4 roster spots and $1 million in cap space and they'll dominate this competition.

 

Puerto Rico beat Cruz Azul 2-0 in the first (home) leg of the semi-finals. The Mexicans were having problems with the size and strength of the Islanders.