Real advances; Chivas-Pachuca tied after first leg
Real Salt Lake got their first meaningful victory of the year last night as they downed the Kansas City Wizards 2-1 in their US Open Cup qualifier. I'm sure the fan that was in attendance went wild.
Please don't take this as a knock against the Real faithful because it's not their fault that US Open matches mean so little that their club scheduled a 5pm kickoff time for the match. Then again, who can blame Real's front office for the choice when all you get for winning the oldest cup competition in America is three been and cheese burritos and a two week old gallon of warm milk.
I really like the US Open Cup, but US Soccer needs to figure out if they actually want to support this thing or not. Find a corporate sponsor or come up with some way of making it worth the time. It doesn't have to be much, think if there was a $750,000 prize for the winner with at least half of it promised to the players. I think we would start to see a bit more excitement during these games.
Anyway, enough ranting, Real was able to pull off this victory despite continuing their trend of giving up late, late goals. Jeff Cunningham put them on top in the 12th minute on a penalty kick, but Sash Victorine tied it up in the 88th, sending the match into overtime where Andy Williams had a 15-yard blast smack a post and find its way into goal. The news reports of the game sound like it was a decent 120-minutes of play, but few will ever know.
Real advances to play the Colorado Rapids on May 28th.
Next up for MLS qualifiers sees LA travel to Columbus next Tuesday. Although LA has a strong history in the Cup, I find it hard to believe the club is overly interested in cramming more games into their already overflowing schedule. Proof of that might be their recently added friendly against the Vancouver Whitecaps which will take place on October 3rd or the day after the October 2nd US Open Cup final.
In a completely different tournament, Pachuca CF and CD Guadalajara socked out a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup final last night. Omar Bravo was the man of the night for Guadalajara has he notched both goals including an equalizer right before halftime. But Pachuca would not be denied. Down 2-1 in the closing minutes of the match, Marvin Cabrera was able to give his side the much-needed second goal sending the series back to Pachuca all tied up.
The second leg takes place next Wednesday and if you are a Pachuca fan, you must like the position your club is in.
Please don't take this as a knock against the Real faithful because it's not their fault that US Open matches mean so little that their club scheduled a 5pm kickoff time for the match. Then again, who can blame Real's front office for the choice when all you get for winning the oldest cup competition in America is three been and cheese burritos and a two week old gallon of warm milk.
I really like the US Open Cup, but US Soccer needs to figure out if they actually want to support this thing or not. Find a corporate sponsor or come up with some way of making it worth the time. It doesn't have to be much, think if there was a $750,000 prize for the winner with at least half of it promised to the players. I think we would start to see a bit more excitement during these games.
Anyway, enough ranting, Real was able to pull off this victory despite continuing their trend of giving up late, late goals. Jeff Cunningham put them on top in the 12th minute on a penalty kick, but Sash Victorine tied it up in the 88th, sending the match into overtime where Andy Williams had a 15-yard blast smack a post and find its way into goal. The news reports of the game sound like it was a decent 120-minutes of play, but few will ever know.
Real advances to play the Colorado Rapids on May 28th.
Next up for MLS qualifiers sees LA travel to Columbus next Tuesday. Although LA has a strong history in the Cup, I find it hard to believe the club is overly interested in cramming more games into their already overflowing schedule. Proof of that might be their recently added friendly against the Vancouver Whitecaps which will take place on October 3rd or the day after the October 2nd US Open Cup final.
In a completely different tournament, Pachuca CF and CD Guadalajara socked out a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup final last night. Omar Bravo was the man of the night for Guadalajara has he notched both goals including an equalizer right before halftime. But Pachuca would not be denied. Down 2-1 in the closing minutes of the match, Marvin Cabrera was able to give his side the much-needed second goal sending the series back to Pachuca all tied up.
The second leg takes place next Wednesday and if you are a Pachuca fan, you must like the position your club is in.
Labels: Chivas Guadalajara, CONCACAF Champions' Cup, Kansas City Wizards, Pachuca CF, Real Salt Lake, US Open Cup
posted by Mike H at 9:26 AM
3 Comments:
This is an ignorant report and almost doesn’t deserve my comment. RSL started at 5:00 pm because there was an international exhibition match at 7:30 pm with the reserves.
This comment has been removed by the author.
That is true, but who set the international exhibition against mighty Fiji at that time? If Real cared more about the Open Cup, that would have been the main draw, not a reserve international game.
Thanks for thinking me ignorant.
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