USL Championship & CONCACAF Champions Cup round-up, April 9-11

Tuesday's game in the USL Championship between Charleston Battery and Louisville City was televised in prime-time on CBS, the second game of a new deal signed by the league for this season. In Saturday's first TV game, City had beaten Indy Eleven 5-3 in a game with plenty of incident, and with the two teams in action on Tuesday being two of the league's more accomplished outfits, there was plenty of expectation for another cracker at Patriot's Point. A decent midweek crowd were quietened early on when Jorge Gonzalez headed in from a corner to give the visitors the lead, but that lasted for only a minute before Matt Myers equalised after Chris Allan had hit the post. The state of parity lasted for just twelve minutes before the ball hit Kyle Adams's outstretched arm in the box and the referee had little choice but to award the home side a penalty, Nick Markanich dispatching the spot-kick for his second goal of the season. Louisville had played four, won four, before meeting the Battery and so it must have been a great shock when Markanich scored a second, firing into the bottom corner to give Charleston a 3-1 lead. It could have been even worse but City withstood some heavy pressure to make it to half-time with no further incident, and they came out after the break much the better side, going close through Wilson Harris before Taylor Davila restored a one-goal game seven minutes into the half. Rather than sit back, Charleston piled forward in search of a fourth and were awarded a penalty in the 84th minute when goalkeeper Damian Las was late to cut out a cross and collided with Emilio Ycaza. With Markanich having been subbed off, Aaron Molloy stepped up to take the kick but Las guessed right and turned the effort away for a corner. Davila went close towards the end, and Harris fired a free-kick over, but Battery held on to inflict City's first defeat, go top of the Eastern Conference, and give CBS exactly what they were after.

Even for a game played at Florida International University's soccer stadium rather than their cavernous football arena, the sub-1,000 crowd at The Miami FC last night for their Florida derby with Tampa Bay Rowdies has to be disappointing and you question the wisdom of playing it on a Thursday night. Still, that didn't affect the Rowdies too much, sustained early pressure resulting in an own goal by Samuel Biek to give the visitors the lead in the 21st minute, although the goal looked to result from trying to keep it away from an offside Cal Jennings and VAR probably would have ruled it out. Jennings himself found the net on 39 minutes, heading home a Blake Bodily cross, and then Bodily shot home from distance in stoppage time, a top corner thwacker giving the Rowdies a 3-0 half-time lead. Miami, who made some roster moves this week with the aim of improving their misfiring new side, grabbed one back two minutes after the break when Rocco Genzano tapped in, but Jennings scored his second from a fast breaking move to restore the three-goal advantage just five minutes later. To their credit, Miami never gave up and Allen Gavilanes scored an almost indentical goal to Bodily's effort to make it 4-2 with thirty-five minutes still to play, but a howler from home 'keeper Danny Gagliardi allowed Manny Artega in to put Rowdies 5-2 up on 62 minutes. There was still plenty of soccer to play but a second yellow card for Miami's Manuel Botta ended the home side's hopes of getting back in the game, which ended 5-2 after Gagliardi made some smart saves.

After a 4-0 home defeat in the first leg last week, New England Revolution had absolutely nothing to lose when they travelled to Club America on Tuesday but somehow still managed to trawl the depths. Sure, they weren't helped when the referee and VAR missed Diego Contreras practically catching the ball for the Liga MX's opener in the 21st minute, and were again utterly robbed by the VAR team when they adjudged Mark Anthony-Kaye to have handballed in the area in the second-half, but they conceded five goals on a night when they were playing for pride. Contreras's goal got things started, with Julian Quinones adding a second twelve minutes later, and things got worse in first-half stoppage time when Henry Martin headed America three goals - seven on aggregate - in front. Things were little better in the second-half as Alex Zendejas made it 4-0 but that finally seemed to spark the Revs into life and Giacomo Vrioni headed in from point-blank range to reduce the arrears by one after 65 minutes. Ten minutes later, Brian Rodriguez restored America's four-goal advantage with a penalty given for that dubious handball call, and he almost made it 6-1 on the night but his second was overturned by VAR for offside, perhaps a little lucky for New England on this occasion. Vrioni grabbed a second in stoppage time to make it 5-2 but there's no denying that the Revs were extremely poor across two legs and every bit deserving of their 9-2 elimination.

Columbus Crew were the only MLS side not to lose their first leg tie last week and they knew that a determined performance could give them the result they needed in Nuevo Leon against a UANL Tigres side that looked a shade behind Liga MX leaders Club America. Things got off to a dreadful start when a Patrick Schulte blunder allowed Andre-Pierre Gignac to put Tigres ahead, but Crew took the game to the home side after that, unlucky not to go in to the break on level terms, with Gignac having a second ruled out by VAR for offside. Both sides had chances in the second-half before Crew finally hit the net, Diego Rossi slotting home a cross from Mohamed Farsi, and from there it looked like a containment job was on, Schulte saving two good attempts by Tigres to finish the game. 1-1 at ninety minutes meant extra-time, which saw both 'keepers called into action, but there were no further goals and the game went to penalties. Schulte saved the first two efforts from the home side and even though Cucho Hernandez hit the post with his spot kick, Crew went through 4-3 on penalties to prevent a Mexican clean sweep.

Lionel Messi returned to the starting line-up for Inter Miami's do-or-die match with Monterrey, having lost the first leg (without Messi) 2-1, spending a third of the game with ten men. A cagey first thirty minutes saw Brandon Vasquez have a header saved by Drake Callender in the Miami goal, and Messi fire over from the edge of the box, but Miami found themselves behind on 31 minutes when Callender gave the ball to Vasquez in his own area, the American striker slotting home for a 3-1 aggregate lead. Messi put a free-kick wide two minutes later in Miami's best chance to equalise before the break but it stayed 1-0 on the night at half-time. The home side doubled their advantage thirteen minutes into the second-half when German Berterame found the top corner with a stunning strike, and Miami's night was put to bed when another defensive error allowed Berterame to cross for Jesus Gallardo to head home Monterrey's third in the 64th minute. Jordi Alba was yellow-carded for a foul on Berterame ten minutes later, a decision which proved costly just four minutes after that, a second yellow for dissent sending the Catalonian in for an early bath. To a neutral observer it looked like a case of arrogant refereeing but Alba's a veteran and should know better. Miami did finally get on the scoresheet with a well-taken headed goal from by Diego Gomez but their continental adventure ultimately ended badly.

In the final quarterfinal, Costa Rica's Herediano went to Liga MX side Pachuca on the back of a 5-0 defeat at home last week and were beaten again, this time by a more respectable 2-1 scoreline. The semi-final line-up sees Pachuca face Club America in an all-Liga MX affair, and Monterrey versus Columbus Crew, the sole MLS survivors.