HexagonalBlog

The Cup specialists

Barring an intervention by Landon Donovan, the Chicago Fire were heavy favorites to win the US Open Cup final last night.  Such an intervention hasn't come this season, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Chicago came out to a 2-0 lead in the opening half hour.  Justin Mapp had a strong influence on the proceedings in the first half, and would have been my pick of Man of the Match.  Donovan did provide an assist on the lone Los Angeles goal, but Chicago were always going to win the match, and Thiago's goal near the end insured that the Dewar Trophy would stay in Chicago.

It's well deserved for the Fire, who withstood a protracted road trip to open the season and then sub-par performances to open their new stadium in order to become the hottest team in Major League Soccer at the moment.  Even though their path to MLS Cup goes through DC United at RFK, they have to like their chances of obtaining a second double.

Univision completes the MLS TV package

After keeping us in suspense for seven weeks, MLS officially announced its TV deal with Univision/Telefutura/Galavision.  The deal is a big one - starting next season and continuing to 2014 - and each year will include 25 League matches, 10 US national team games, the All-Star game and MLS Cup final, as well as a highlights package.   Most likely this will consist of a featured match of the week, which several sources say will be on Sunday night.  The League schedule will probably stay around 29-30 weeks, so there won't be a televised match every weekend.  And will playoff matches count among the 25?  If so, there could be fewer matches televised during the regular season - maybe 22-23. 

It was smart of SUM to bundle the US national team matches with the MLS games - the time frame of the deal means that the USA's qualifiers for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups will be on Univision.  So I guess Telemundo will become the "official" broadcaster of the Mexican national team, unless Univision wants to take on those games, too.  I'm not a fan of Univision's current stable of commentators, but I doubt that Andrés Cantor and/or Jorge Ramos will be coming to Univision anytime soon.  I'll try to keep an open mind, though.

Five years were way too long for MLS not to have a Spanish-language presence, so it's nice to see the league setting things right.  On to the radio deals (which if they were to happen, would probably be on satellite radio)!

UNCAF first round complete

The first round of UNCAF's Torneo Interclubes is complete, and none of the clubs from countries out of the Big Three (Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala) progressed to the final eight.  Belize is the weakest football country in the region, and both entrants suffered the most lopsided defeats in the first round.  Alajuelense-Vista Hermosa was not as close as it could have been, and la Liga made use of their greater international experience.  The two expulsions near the end of the second leg made the tie more difficult, but it was too late for Vista by then. 

Olímpia's match with Diriangen was effectively decided in the first leg when a 2-1 result was nullified because the Nicaraguan side was found to have played an ineligible player.   The Honduran champions were awarded a 3-0 forfeit victory, and finished off the tie with a 2-1 win at home.

Here are the first round results - aggregate score in bold, with first leg home team score shown first for both legs:

Alajuelense (Costa Rica) 3-1 Vista Hermosa (El Salvador) (1:0, 2:1)
Puntarenas (Costa Rica) 6-1 Hankook Verdes (Belize) (5:0, 1:1)
Marathon (Honduras) 3-1 Aguila (El Salvador) (2:0, 1:1)
Marquense (Guatemala) 3-0 Plaza Amador (Panama) (0:3, 0:0)
Real Estelí (Nicaragua) 1-2 Saprissa (Costa Rica) (1:1, 0:1)
San Francisco (Panama) 1-4 Victoria (Honduras) (0:1, 1:3)
Wagiya (Belize) 0-10 Municipal (Guatemala) (0:2,0:8)
Diriangen (Nicaragua) 1-5 Olimpia (Honduras) (0:3*, 1:2)
* originally 1-2, Olímpia awarded 3-0 victory b/c Diriangen fielded ineligible player

The pick of the quarterfinal round looks to be Guatemala's Municipal against Honduras' Olímpia.  Alajuelense-Puntarenas is also an interesting all-Costa Rican matchup.

The quarterfinal round (to be played 26-28 September/3-5 October):
Saprissa v. Victoria
Municipal v. Olímpia
Alajuelense v. Puntarenas
Marathón v. Marquense