CONCACAF Champions Cup round-up, February 27-29 (plus US Open Cup news)

MLS clubs made a full sweep of the round-of-32 ties this week, with only St Louis City knocked out as they lost 1-0 away at Houston Dynamo, Erik Sviatchenko's strike enough to see the Texans through on the away goals rule. Orlando City accounted for Canada's last surviving entrant, Cavalry of Calgary, winning 3-1 at Inter&Co Stadium thanks to goals from Nicolas Lodeiro (his first for his new club), Ramon Enrique, and Kyle Smith, with Myer Bevan grabbing one back for the visitors, who put in a good show against a much-changed Lions side. Philadelphia Union made hard work of their home tie with Saprissa of Costa Rica, having to come back in time added on to draw 3-3 and sneak through on aggregate; Julian Carranza, Quinn Sullivan, and Mikael Uhre were on target for Union. Wednesday saw both FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC win 4-0 at home to dispatch Jamaica's Cavalier and Moca of the Dominican Republic, respectively. Alvas Powell, Aaron Boupendza, Isaiah Foster, and a goal on his first start for Gerardo Valenzuela secured the result for Cincinnati in front of a decent crowd of over fifteen thousand at TQL Stadium, with Nashville's goals in front of a less impressive six thousand at Geodis Park coming from Orrin Gaines, Jacob Shaffelburg, and two from Forster Ajago, all in the first half. New England Revolution completed the job on Thursday, seeing off Independiente of Panama 3-0 at Gillette Stadium, thanks to Nacho Gil, Tomas Chancalay, and Mark-Anthony Kaye, setting up a clash with Costa Rica's Alajuense in the next round. Philadelphia play Pachuca of Mexico, Cincinnati meet Monterrey, Orlando clash with UANL Tigres, and there are two all-MLS ties as Houston face Columbus, and Nashville play Inter Miami.


The dispute between MLS and US Soccer was settled to nobody's satisfaction this week as weak management at the governing body allowed MLS to enter just eight first teams into this year's US Open Cup. Reigning champions Houston Dynamo are joined by Atlanta United, FC Dallas, Los Angeles FC, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, and Sporting Kansas City​, with nine other MLS clubs - Austin FC, Charlotte FC (Crown Legacy), Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, LA Galaxy II, Minnesota United, New York City, New York Red Bulls, and Portland Timbers - represented by their MLS Next Pro sides. There will be zero US Open Cup involvement for FC Cincinnati, Columbus Crew, Inter Miami, Nashville SC, New England Revolution, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union, and St Louis City (who are all in the Champions Cup), or DC United (who no longer have an MLS Next Pro affiliate). NISA and the USL were offered a similar deal by US Soccer but both chose to enter their full quota of clubs for this year's competition, and you have to hope that a stronger arm will be taken with MLS next time around. The first round begins on March 19th.

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