HexagonalBlog

Matchday 6 of Group Stage as it happened [Wednesday]

I apologize for missing tonight's matches.  I had a very long day at work and just got in.   And as it happened the critical matches started at 1700 local time, so no liveblogging tonight.

Anyway, the scores:

[Grp A] Saprissa 1-0 Cruz Azul F
[Grp A] DC United 2-4 Marathón F
[Grp D] Tauro 2-2 Puerto Rico F
[Grp B] UNAM 6-0 San Francisco F

So Saprissa and Marathón score big wins tonight, and will play each other next week to see who advances to the quarterfinals.  Cruz Azul will hope that the spirit of fair play prevails, as a draw will advance both teams at La Máquina's expense.  Marathón will have to decide which team they hate more.

The Tauro-Puerto Rico match will be replayed on FSC at 8pm Pacific/Arizona time, and I want to see if it was as dramatic as the scoreline indicated.  Puerto Rico jumped out to an early two-goal lead, and then Tauro clawed back into the match only to fall short at the end.  So Puerto Rico will join fellow USL club L'Impact de Montreal in the last eight.

UNAM and San Francisco are playing right now and you can follow the proceedings at Medio Tiempo.  It looks like San Francisco will join DC United as the only clubs without a win in group stage play, but the match doesn't mean anything to UNAM so maybe the Panamanian side have a chance. (UPDATE:  Or not.)

DCU's frustrating and inconsistent season is finally over, and that's the only good outcome from tonight's 4-2 defeat.

Matchday 6 of Group Stage as it happens [Tuesday]

Tonight starts a decisive week in the CONCACAF Champions League, and if results go a certain way, we may not know all of the eight quarterfinalists until late next month.  Here were tonight's matches, with the highlight being the critical match in Group B:

[Group C] Olimpia 4-0 Joe Public F
[Group B] LA Firpo 1-1 Houston Dynamo F
[Group C] Atlante 2-1 Montreal Impact F

Champions League permutations

At the end of Matchday 5, four teams have secured their places in the knockout stage of the CONCACAF Champions League.  The permutations in each group are complicated and I'm bound to get something wrong, so please bear with me.

I'm just focusing on what teams have to do to secure a top two place in their group. 

Matchday 5 of Group Stage as it happened [Thursday]

Matchday 5 of the Group Stage is now over.  Here are the results.

[Group D] Puerto Rico Islanders 0-1 Municipal F
[Group A] Marathón - Saprissa ppd

Matchday 5 of Group Stage as it happened [Wednesday]

Matchday 5 of the CONCACAF Champions League continues with three matches.  Here are the results; match commentary after the jump.

[Group B] San Francisco 2-3 LA Firpo F
[Group D] Santos Laguna 3-0 Tauro F
[Group B] Houston Dynamo 1-3 UNAM F

Marathón-Saprissa postponed

Thursday night's Group A match between Marathón and Saprissa has been canceled due to persistent heavy rain since last week.  It will be replayed next month, making it the second match to be moved to November due to poor weather. 

Matchday 5 of Group Stage as it happened [Tuesday]

The penultimate matchday of the Group Stage began today.  Here are tonight's matches and results:

[Group C] Montreal Impact 1-1 Olimpia F
[Group C] Joe Public 0-2 Atlante F
[Group A] Cruz Azul 2-0 DC United F

Commentaries after the jump.

Maradiaga out

Ramón Maradiaga has been dismissed as the national team coach of Guatemala.

He said yesterday that his future was in the hands of the national federation, and this afternoon the federation president announced his dismissal, along with the departure of his assistants.  It's the end for "El Primitivo", who played in the Honduras team that appeared in the 1982 World Cup finals and was the national team coach for Honduras (1998 and 2002 qualifying cycles) and Guatemala (2006, 2010).  He was never closer to a World Cup finals appearance than he was with Honduras in 2002, but his team lost to the poorest team in the group and then in a showdown against Mexico at Azteca.  This time his Guatemala side lost to the poorest team in the semifinal group, leaving the team in need of a away win against the USA.

With that, Maradiaga will retire from coaching a national team.  I'll miss seeing his pock-marked face on the touchlines.

 

Reflections and press roundup of Matchday 5

After reviewing my predictions for Wednesday's matches, I realized that I got the outcomes of all of the matches correct -- except for Group 1.  I should have expected Trinidad & Tobago, with an experienced lineup, to emerge victorious over a young and inexperienced American side, but I didn't know if they could pull it off.  But who could have predicted Cuba's result?

MLS expansion bids - what's missing

Wednesday was the deadline to submit bids for the 17th and 18th MLS franchises in 2011.  The potential investors include some owners of Big Four professional sports teams, a famous person or two, high-powered investment groups, and one European soccer club.  The cities represented are:

Atlanta
Miami
Montreal
Ottawa
Portland
St. Louis
Vancouver

The review by the league is to take into account the following:

• viability of the ownership group
• the plans and financing for a soccer-specific stadium, and
• the soccer infrastructure in, and overall characteristics of, the candidate city/market. 

What I find telling is that, as far as I can tell, there is nothing about the final product that will be presented on the field.  Yes I am aware that they consider the level of participation and interest in soccer, but it seems to me that MLS is interested in that as far as a pool of potential paying customers is concerned.  Where is the interest in developing young players into potential professionals? 

MLS clubs are taking a greater role in the development of youth players in this country through the Youth Development Initiative.  If we're going to announce expansion teams 18-24 months in advance, is it too much to ask that the investor groups present detailed plans for youth development schemes in their city or region?  Require them to have such a system in place, whether through an academy, an alliance with local youth clubs, or some combination of the two, for a majority of the age groups by current MLS clubs.  And then require that all age groups be represented within a year of playing the first league match in MLS.  (If what I'm proposing sounds familiar to some of you, it does.)

MLS pays a lot of attention to markets, financial viability, and soccer interest when it comes to selecting expansion cities.  It should also pay attention to the investors' interest in developing and improving the level of soccer in the areas where they live.