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 are tonight's matches, with the highlight being the critical match in Group B:[Group C] Olimpia - Joe Public 1700[Group B] LA Firpo - Houston Dynamo 1900[Group C] Atlante - Montreal Impact 1900 Come back later today for live commentary of the Firpo-Dynamo match. Click to continue reading...

Daniel Gúzman hoy si alineó a sus estrellas y ni así pudo ganar al Tauro de Panamá, que le ganaron en su casa al Santos por dos goles a cero. Y con éste marcador peligran su estancia en la Concachampions. Las anotaciones del equipo panameño fueron obra de Brunett Hay al minuto 43 y de Rolando [. Click to continue reading...

Daniel Gúzman hoy si alineó a sus estrellas y ni así pudo ganar al Tauro de Panamá, que le ganaron en su casa al Santos por dos goles a cero. Y con éste marcador peligran su estancia en la Concachampions. Las anotaciones del equipo panameño fueron obra de Brunett Hay al minuto 43 y de Rolando [. Click to continue reading...

LA coach Bruce Arena: "In the last five years of this league the L.A. Galaxy have the least amount of points of any team." See Nick Green's article in the Los Angeles Galaxy section.

~and~

Contributing more fuel to my theory that soccer is the Sport Of The Internet in America, Jack Bell of the New York Times sites this stat in his Extra Time column today: "According to an analysis of more than 100 million blogs, message boards, and postings on social Web sites performed with Zeta Interactive's RelevantNoise software technology, MLS was third worldwide in the total volume of soccer posts, at 16 percent. Click to continue reading...

A new week of CONCACAF Champions League play starts today. In United's group, Deportivo Saprissa hosts current Group A leaders CD Marathon. Group B leaders UNAM will take on the Houston Dynamo at 10 p.m. ET and this game can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel.

Here is this week's TV schedule (all times EST): Tuesday, September 30Group B: Pumas UNAM vs. Click to continue reading...

Ah, September. We hardly knew ye.

It was a month filled with pressure (two must win-matches), promise (CONCACAF Champions League), and putrid performances. It opened with a stunning 4-0 Revolution loss to Joe Public FC, which was duly followed by another 4-0 loss to the Columbus Crew. Within five days, the Revs gave up a total of eight goals. Click to continue reading...

With all of this week's CONCACAF Champions League matches played, several teams established themselves as early front-runners to advance to the next round of the region's most important tournament.

In D.C. United's group, Marathon took the top spot with the 2-0 win against the Black-and-Red. Click to continue reading...

Here are the updated group standings, following last night's matches:

Group AMarathon (HON) 2-0-0, 6 pts.Cruz Azul (MEX) 1-0-1, 3 pts.Saprissa (CRC) 1-0-1, 3 pts.D.C. United 0-0-2, 0 pts.

In Group B, UNAM defeated Firpo to take the top spot. Group C saw Impact de Montreal and Atlante play to a scoreless tie and put themselves atop the group, while Olimpia topped Joe Public 3-1.

Click to continue reading...

Time for tonight's Matchday 2 action in the CONCACAF Champions LeagueMarathón 0-0 DC United 23'UNAM 1-0 LA Firpo 25'Joe Public 1-3 OlimpiaMontreal Impact 0-0 Atlante 1936: Marathón should be up 2-0. Chávez on the right plays in Martínez with a beautiful pass, Martínez rounds Crayton, but his shot is deflected by Burch's toe onto the near post. Click to continue reading...

Watch live video from joe public vs cd Olimpia on Justin.tv Click to continue reading...

Watch live video from joe public vs cd Olimpia on Justin.tv Click to continue reading...

Champions League play resumed yesterday with three goups in action. In United's Group A, Cruz Azul thrashed Saprissa 4-0. The Black-and-Red will look to earn points tonight on the road against Honduran side Marathon. The game will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel at 10 p.m. ET.

The other MLS representative, the Houston Dynamo, played a scoreless draw with Panama's San Francisco to earn a road point.

Click to continue reading...

Cruz Azul hosts Saprissa in what is probably the best game of this round tonight. The other Group A game is tomorrow night as DC travels to Honduras to face Marathon. I hope their defense learns how to stop a counterattack between now and then, otherwise the Green Monster is going to kill them...

Houston makes their debut in the group stage, traveling to Panama to face San Francisco. Click to continue reading...

I'm going to start this post with a quote from one of my favorite songs - Don Henley's "Boys of Summer."

Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach*

(*I admit that the first time I heard this song was the Ataris version of it, which came out in 2003. Click to continue reading...

Champions League play continued last night when Honduras' CD Olimpia visited Mexico's Atlante. Playing only four of their regular starters, the home team defeated the visitors 1-0 to put themselves atop Group C along with Impact de Montreal. Read the full report over at concacaf.com.

All teams will play their second matchup of the tournament between Sept 23-25.

Click to continue reading...

More of Matchday One in the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League was played last night...

• Montreal continued the USL's domination of this competition. Okay, that's overblown, but what you're hearing out of some of the USL supporters after both Puerto Rico and Montreal won their opening matches over teams that dispatched MLS teams in the qualifying round.

Click to continue reading...

Busy day for me -- some behind-the-scenes work and Friday's story on the Galaxy.

COMING TODAY (all times p.m. ET, home teams listed first)

- UEFA Cup on TV, with a big game for Americans on FSC (all times p.m. ET):

Besiktas-Metalist, 1:30, Setanta
Tottenham-Wisla Krakow, 3, FSC
Napoli-Benfica, 3, Setanta Premium
Lorraine-Motherwell, 3:30, Setanta
Everton-Standard Liege, 5, FSC (delay -- yes, that's Tim Howard vs.

Click to continue reading...

Last night, the two other teams in United's CONCACAF Champions League Group A got their tournaments underway as Cruz Azul (Mexico) traveled to Honduras to take on CD Marathon. The home team came out with a 2-0 victory on the strength of goals from Carlos Mejia (34th minute) and Mario Beata (56th).

Click to continue reading...

Crew 4, Revs 0 Schelotto(unassisted) 40, Iro(Schelotto) 45, Garey(Schelotto) 67, Garey(Noonan) 90 This was the Revolution's second 4-0 pasting in one week, having lost to Trinidad's Joe Public in CONCACAF Champions' League play on Tuesday. New England was missing several starters and fielded a makeshift side. Click to continue reading...

Virtually unknown CFR Cluj beat Roma 1-2 on the road in the UEFA Champions League yesterday! Wow!


CONCACAF Champions League News

Official CONCACAF website
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All televised games shown on FSC.
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Matches & Scores:
-Tue Sep 16
DC United 0-2 Saprissa - Sap goals by Walter Centeno & Jairo Arrieta. Click to continue reading...

It says a lot about the UEFA Champions League and a lot more about the global stature of Manchester United that for many in Los Angeles the most important game of the week does not involve the Galaxy or Chivas USA, but today's 11:30 a.m. game on ESPN2 that has the Red Devils facing Jozy Altidore's Spanish team Villareal.

Click to continue reading...

So many headlines today -- time to get back in morning roundup mode:

COMING TODAY

- I'm talking later with Bruce Arena and Landon Donovan, so if you have a question, drop me a note. Du Nord notes the Galaxy have the worst record in MLS since Aug.

Click to continue reading...

I was wrong when I suggested earlier that DCU would probably be taking the CCL seriously, since they had rested Emilio and Fred for the Dallas match. Instead we sent out an even weaker team tonight, that included the reappearance of Zach Wells! Goff says it's because Crayton had a sore knee, I'm not so sure. Click to continue reading...

Most Points In MLS Since August 1st:
16 Houston - 5-1-1
14 San Jose - 4-1-2
14 DC - 4-3-2
13 Columbus - 4-1-1
13 New York - 4-2-1
12 Chicago - 4-4-0
9 Colorado - 3-4-0
8 Dallas - 2-3-2
8 New England - 2-3-2
8 Chivas - 2-4-2
7 KC - 2-4-1
5 Toronto - 1-4-2
4 Salt Lake - 1-3-1
3 Los Angeles - 0-3-3

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From reader Jeremy: I'm looking at your list of MLS Attendance from this past weekend and I would just like to point out for the record that last Thursday in a game that was essentially meaningless (the Timbers were all but out of it) we drew 13,500 – more than three of the matches and almost the same as a fourth! Click to continue reading...

Well as I sit here watching both Chelsea and Liverpool beating on their French opponents in the UEFA Champions League, I must point out that over here in North America the group stage of our own Champions League is starting tonight. After both the New England Revolution and Chivas USA were eliminated in qualifying the only MLS teams left are DC United and the Houston Dynamo. Click to continue reading...

The qualifying rounds sure were fun (oops, sorry New England and Goats USA fans). The group stages begin tonight for the first CONCACAF Champions League. Here's a quick preview of the groups, along with some predictions...

GROUP A
1- Cruz Azul (MEX)
2- Saprissa (CRC)
3- DC United (USA)
4- Marathon (HON)

This is definitely the group of death. Click to continue reading...

0-4.

That's not the type of score you want to see on a Saturday night, nevermind a Saturday night in which you were holding down the fort at home while braving the remnants of Tropical Storm Hannah. The sound of branches snapping off the trees and rain pelting the windows only added to the sense of portentousness that pervaded through the flickering television screen as it struggled mightily to carry the Revolution-Crew match into the living room. Click to continue reading...

After being upset on Tuesday at Gillette Stadium by an embarrassing 4-0 score line to Joe Public F.C. -- the fifth place team in Trinidad and Tobago's Pro League -- and missing out on the Group Stage of the CONCACAF Champions League as a result, the New England Revolution have a chance to regain some respect and first place with a much needed win in Columbus Saturday.

Click to continue reading...

Hard to know what to make of one of the best clubs in Major League Soccer being beaten—make that thrashed—by mighty mighty Joe Public Football Club. Then again, maybe it's not. Click to continue reading...

  After scoring a  hat trick against the New England Revolution in CONCACAF Champions League action, Joe Public striker Gregory Richardson told Goal.com he would like to play in Major League Soccer. Richardson indicated that Columbus has expressed interest in his services. Richardson who is Guyanese had scored last week in the first leg of the [. Click to continue reading...

Congrats to DC United - 2008 US Open Cup Champions!


US Open Cup

Final
Match & Score:
-Wed Sep 3
DC United 2-1 Charleston Battery - DCU goals by Luciano Emilio & Fred. CG goal by Ian Fuller.
Attendance: 8,212
Venue: RFK Stadium, Washington DC
Match report from the Washington Post. Click to continue reading...

Put a pair of Vulcan ears on New York sporting director Jeff Agoos. He uses relentless Spock-like logic to describe the Red Bulls' approach toward shaping up the roster this season.

When Jozy (Altidore) left, we knew we had a big hole up front, but we knew we needed to get someone to get Juan (Pablo Angel) the ball.

Click to continue reading...

Did you see what happened in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Embarrassing.

New England got beat 6-1 (!) aggregate to Joe Public, a team from Trinidad and Tobago. Chivas USA lost too.

I'm almost thinking the teams threw the games to focus on MLS play. Especially the Revs, one of the best. Click to continue reading...

Following last night's second leg of preliminary round games in CONCACAF Champions League play, United's three opponents in Group A are now set.

CD Marathon (Honduras) came from behind to defeat El Salvador's AD Isidro Metapan 2-1 last night to advance to group play 4-3 on aggregate, while Cruz Azul of Mexico handed Hakook Verdes (Belize) its second seconsecutive 6-0 walloping to advance 12-0 on aggregate.

Click to continue reading...

D.C. United won the MLS-USL showdown over Charleston in the U.S. Open Cup last night on a goal of true professional quality -- Clyde Simms slipped a long pass through a dummy to Fred, who finished into the sliver of space that Dusty Hudock allowed. (Check the highlights in MLSNET's recap.

Click to continue reading...