The time is finally upon us: Champions League in the Western Hemisphere. The knockout stage of the CONCACAF competition resumed this week with four matchups.
Monarcas Morelia hosted the holders Monterrey, slipping to a 1-3 loss. Morelia, who sit at the top of their domestic table, controlled most of this match and were more threatening throughout. But they gave up an early penalty when Mauricio Romero took down Reyna Martinez in the box. Humberto Suazo hit his PK straight at the keeper Federico Vilar, who jumped out of the way. Just before the half Cesar Delgado took the ball down the right side of the box to the end line, then centered for Suazo who volleyed it across the goal past Vilar. Juel Huiqui Andrade was able to pull one back for Morelia when he won a long cross from Edgar Lugo in the box and cleared Jonathan Orozco's reaching hands. But Morelia let in a crucial third away goal in stoppage time when Abraham Dario Carreno cleaned up a scrum, tapping in a rebound off the post. Here are the official highlights. The return leg is in Monterrey on Tuesday.
In this year's equivalent of 2011 RSL v Columbus, the Los Angeles Galaxy traveled to the Rogers Centre in Toronto on Wednesday to play in front of over 47k people. Ryan Johnson started things early for the Canadians, hitting the roof of the net at 11' after Mike Magee's pathetic clearance of Torsten Frings' corner fell right to him unmarked. Rookie Luis Silva doubled the lead only five minutes later when he drifted unmarked behind the central defense, found by Frings again. Mike Magee put LA on the score sheet just before the half hour when he met Sean Franklin's cross at the far post. It was fully an hour later when a Beckham corner was bouncing around in the goal and Donovan poked it in to give the Galaxy a draw. Here are the official highlights. The return leg is on Wednesday at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles.
The third MLS team in the knockout round is Seattle Sounders FC, who hosted Santos Laguna at Century Link Field. 23k fans showed up to see their horribly ugly uniformed players defeat the Mexican side, with former USL Sounder, former Sigi Schmid LA Galaxy player, and seemingly former US national team striker Herculez Gomez playing against his former side and coach as a talking point prior to the match. And the drama didn't let us down, as Herc scored an equalizer for Santos on the hour mark after he was fed into the box by Marc Crosas. David Estrada had opened the scoring for Seattle just 11' in when Fredy Montero found him at the back post with a lofted cross into the box. Flounders' were broken for only a few minutes after the equalizer, when Brad Evans connected with Mauro Rosales' free kick to give Seattle the win. Official highlights; Seattle travels to Mexico for a Wednesday showdown.
Isidro Metapan provided the upset of the round as they defeated UNAM Pumas 2-1 at home in El Salvador. Lestor Blanco netted a brace for the upstarts, putting the first past Alejandro Palacios. After receiving the ball in the box with one defender marking him, he held the ball around the six, gathering defenders until eventually putting it past six white shirts. His second came off an Alfredo Alberto Pacheco corner kick, flicking the ball into the back corner. But the Salvadorans were unable to keep a Pumas off the board, when Jose Nieto Martinez slipped Eduardo Herrera Aguirre in on goal. Here are the official highlights. The teams face off in Mexico next Thursday.
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