USL Championship & CONCACAF Champions Cup preview, April 9-11

There's a pair of midweek games in the USL Championship this week, the first of which - Charleston Battery versus Louisville City at Patriots Point - is televised on CBS tonight. The network will be hoping for another game like Saturday's Louisville versus Indy Eleven spectacular, which finished 5-3 to the home side, and if there are two teams with the firepower to do it in the USL-C Eastern Conference it's these two. Battery started quietly this season with two draws but then exploded into winning form, sweeping a decent New Mexico United aside 4-0 and then winning away at The Miami FC. They were held 0-0 by a spirited Rhode Island FC at the weekend but in Diego Gutierrez and Nick Markanich they have goal threats ready to pounce. Louisville have won four out of four this season and sit top of the Eastern Conference alongside the similarly perfect Detroit City. They've scored an average of three-and-a-half goals per game in doing so and conceded just four, three of them in that televised game on Saturday. Wilson Harris is in stunning form and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him on the scoresheet tonight.

The second midweek game is the Florida derby on Thursday night, when Tampa Bay Rowdies travel down to The Miami FC for what is sure to be a spirited affair. Miami have rebuilt their side under new head coach Antonio Nocerino, but haven't always gotten the rewards their attacking play has deserved so far this season, with just one win from five games. Rowdies also have just the one win from their four outings so far, but have looked very lively in front of goal, with the mercurial Cal Jennings always in the thick of things.


The three remaining MLS sides left in the CONCACAF Champions Cup at the quarterfinal stage all travel to Mexico this week, more in hope than in expectation after a mixed bag of poor first-leg results. The first of Tuesday's two games sees New England Revolution trying to claw back a four goal deficit against Liga MX leaders Club America, but there's at least an outside chance of Columbus Crew getting a result after a 1-1 draw with UANL Tigres last week, secured despite playing the last fifteen minutes with ten men. With Lionel Messi in the frame to start against Monterrey on Wednesday, Inter Miami will need him to be on his magical best if they are to come away with a result after their 2-1 loss at home (suffered after going down a player at 1-0 up), but it will be something of a minor miracle if they achieve it. In the final tie, Costa Rica's Herediano visit Liga MX's Pachuca, and with the first leg having finished 5-0 to the Mexicans, it's hard to see anything but an all-Mexican semi-final line-up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US weekend round-up, March 9 & 10

Image
John Herdman and Phil Neville both continued their unbeaten runs at their new clubs on Saturday, with Herdman taking charge of Toronto FC at BMO Field for the first time after a draw and a win on the road. Once again, Lorenzo Insgine scored a wonder goal to give the Reds the win over Charlotte FC with just 10 minutes left to play, and the Canadians look like a completely different side this year. As do Portland Timbers , who followed a win and a drew at home with an away win over New York City at Yankee Stadium. Santi Rodriguez had put the Pigeons ahead after 10 minutes and it looked for all the world that Nick Cushing’s side would eke out their first win of the season after 2 straight defeats. Timbers had other ideas, however, and Anthony grabbed his third of the season to level things with 5 minutes to go, before Evander – making his first start of the season – scored a pearler 7 minutes into stoppage time to give Neville’s side the points. Atlanta United played their home opener ...
Read more

USL Championship & USL League One preview, March 23 & 24

Image
Week three of the USL Championship starts early, with a 6pm (GMT) kick-off in Connecticut as  Hartford Athletic  face  Birmingham Legion . Legion won away in week one and sat out last week, so will be looking to continue that form, but Hartford are a different side this year under Brendan Burke this year and it should be an open game. There's a pair of games two hours later when the exciting youngsters of  Loudoun United  travel to  Detroit City , and perennial heavyweights  Lousville City  open their home season against Eastern Conference rivals  Pittsburgh Riverhounds . Having lost key players in the winter - one of whom, Tola Showumni, is now at Louisville - the Riverhounds looks lacklustre so far but you can never count a Bob Lilley side out. There are also two games at 11pm, with  Indy Eleven  opening their home season against the powerhouses of  Sacramento Republic , and  Tampa Bay Rowdies  visiting  North ...
Read more

US soccer 2024

Image
  US Soccer - an overview Professional soccer in the US, like everywhere else, is sorted into tiers. Unlike pretty much everywhere else, there is no promotion and relegation, although teams will occasionally move up or down a tier, depending on finance, ambition, and the whim of the gods. At the top of the tower is Major League Soccer, about to enter its 29th season and looking in rude health. Underneath that, the US Soccer Federation recognises the top division of the United Soccer League - the USL Championship - as the sole second tier league in the country. There are 3 third tier leagues - USL League One, MLS Next Pro, and the National Independent Soccer Association - and the differences between them are quite stark. Below these professional leagues - and the women have professional eagues of their own but it's not my area of expertise - there are no firm tiers. However, two "national" leagues are given preferential seeding into the US Open Cup, the USSF's equivale...
Read more