September 3, 2008 12:04 AM
Bad day for MLS
The Revs and Chivas USA were eliminated in the CONCACAF Champions League on Tuesday -- by Joe Public of Trinidad & Tobago and Panama's Tauro FC -- and the Quakes lost to the USL's Seattle Sounders in an exhibition. Sheesh.
The Revs already had lost 2-1 on Aug. 26 in the first leg of the home-and home series, then Joe Public went nuts on Tuesday: Gregory Richardson had a hat trick as the visitors blew out New England 4-0 at Gillette Stadium.
Richardson scored four goals in the two games as Joe Public became the first Caribbean club to score three goals or more in a single match in CONCACAF competition against an American club and the first Caribbean club to eliminate a U.S. entry.
The Revolution was without Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Adam Cristman, Kheli Dube and Kenny Mansally, all because of injury.
Joe Public advances to the quarterfinal round of the Champions League series' Group C with Mexico's Atlante, Olimpia of Honduras and the winner of the Montreal-Real Esteli (Nicaragua) series. The eight preliminary round winners advance to the 16-team group stage of the tournament, which replaced the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
MLS's Houston Dynamo and D.C. United received automatic berths in the group stage, which opens Sept. 16.
At the Home Depot Center, Luis Moreno scored in the 63rd minute as Tauro FC held Chivas USA to a 1-1 draw and advanced to the CONCACAF Champions League.
Tauro FC advanced on the strength of a 3-1 aggregate score.
Chivas played the final 39 minutes with 10 men after Jonathan Bornstein was sent off after picking up his second yellow card of the match.
Tauro moves on to a group that also features Mexican club Santos Laguna and Guatemalan side Municipal.
In an exhibition in Santa Clara, Calif., Kenji Treschuk and Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar scored second-half goals to give the Sounders a 2-1 victory over the Earthquakes.
Seattle, which outshot San Jose 8-3 in the second half, kept the pressure on in the latter stages, culminating in a pretty sequence of three passes inside the Earthquakes' penalty box in the 85th minute. The final pass, from Sebastien Le Toux, led to an open 12-yard blast from Alcaraz-Cuellar that San Jose goalkeeper Michael Gustavson could only watch.
Does the Seattle franchise really need to retool to join MLS as an expansion team? Little in the past two years suggests that the USL roster couldn't simply be promoted as is. Forget the expansion draft.
In fact, promoting the Sounders could be an opportunity for MLS and the United Soccer Leagues to come together on some type of promotion-relegation agreement! American soccer fans would love it (but, alas, MLS owners would not).
The Earthquakes actually had a 1-0 lead, when former Rapids player Jovan Kirovski's perfectly curled corner kick from the left side was powered in off a header by Jamil Roberts in the 40th minute.
(Sources: NewEnglandSoccerNews.com, The Associated Press)
September 3, 2008
8:17 AM
Jim writes:
Are you really that impressed that the Sounders beat the Quakes Reserve team? Not one starter from last Saturday's game against the Kansas City Wizards started against the Sounders. The Quakes actually played their technical director, Ronnie Ekelund, and Asst. Coach Ian Russell in the second half. The Quakes first team would have demolished the Sounders.
Do your homework, and, or, tell it like it was.
September 3, 2008
3:16 PM
William writes:
Did you notice how many subs Seattle used? To be fair, Seattle played all of its reserves as well.
September 3, 2008
5:35 PM
George Tanner writes:
it's funny. earlier this season, on one of my player-of-the-week ballots for the north american soccer reporters, i listed in the comments how good the quality of play in major league soccer is and what a value it is for the american sports fan's dollar. but sometimes the teams just don't seem to be motivated to defend their own reputations and, thus, the reputation of the league.
on the other hand, there are so many of these non-fixtures, that it must be difficult for teams (especially an expansion team) to field a quality starting lineup night after night.
i didn't mean any disrespect to the earthquakes, but i did mean to praise the sounders. that is a quality organization, and i suspect it will make an impact on MLS when it joins the league. an immediate impact.
and the USL is going to suffer from not having a racehorse like the sounders in its stable.
September 4, 2008
1:38 AM
Gavin H writes:
Promotion Relegation between MLS and USL is not going to happen, until every other soccer league in North America promotes to the USL. That way the rest of the soccer community is for promotion-relegation and then, and only then will the MLS franchise owners consider it for fear of totally losing the market.
Gotta start at the bottom to get to the top!