It's like the 800 pound gorilla in the room for every MLS team that played in the MLS Cup, won the supporter's shield, or won the Open Cup. The recently expanded CONCACAF Champions Cup League has brought on a new host of challenges for MLS clubs. The expanded tournament takes place right at the tail end of the season and goes into the beginning of the next season. Last year was a poor showing for MLS teams with New England losing 6-1 on aggregate to Joe Public FC, and Chivas USA losing 3-1 on aggregate to Tauro. In the group stages Houston Dynamo was the only MLS team to advance to the knockout stage with D.C. United only managing one draw and 5 losses. It was a poor showing to say the least.
This year MLS "lightened" the schedule toward the end of the season, and even excluded the Champions League teams from competing in the Superliga. That almost ensures that MLS will be more successful this time around, right? Well, maybe not.
D.C. United vs. C.D. Luis Angel Firpo
D.C. United was trying to shake the humiliating performance last year. They brought in Danny Szetela to give them added depth to an already fairly deep team. They were playing at home against an El Salvador team in the middle of pre-season training. D.C. trotted out what can be best described as a reserve lineup. They even rested starting goal keeper Josh Wicks and started reserve keeper Milos Kocic.
With the reserve lineup, things did not start out well for D.C. United. Greg Janicki had a had a bad give away in his defensive third, that resulted in a breakaway goal for Firpo. D.C. United tied up with a penalty kick goal by Jamie Moreno coming late in the first half. D.C. United was very unlucky not to win the game, however. The most striking opportunity came late in the second half, when McTavish ran down the touch line and slotted a ball to Christian Gomez who had an entire goal to shoot at. He fired a shot that deflected off a defender and out of play. Other highlights of the game included Danny Szetela, who made his first start in a United uniform. He impressed for the most part, showing his superior ability on the ball. He is of course still in pre-season, but I think he will be a good fit for the team. D.C. United now enter a much win situation on the road, against Firpo. They have been bad on the road, but against Firpo, who knows? They will have their friendly against Real Madrid five days after the game, but Sohen may through his starters out there in hopes that they will play relaxed on the 9th. Not likely.
Toronto FC vs. Puerto Rico Islanders
Toronto finally got the monkey off their back and made it into Champions League Preliminaries, only to be embarrassed at home against the Islanders. Like Firpo the Islanders got lucky after a bad mistake by the Toronto keeper Stefan Freij, which allowed Islanders forward Kendall Jadeosingh to strike at an open net. Toronto tried to salvage, and were like DC, unlucky to score in the run of play. The team even brought in Danny Dichio to try to tie the game. That didn't change the result. They now go to Puerto Rico next week to try and save this series.
New York Red Bulls vs. W. Connection FC
The only positive result came for MLS in this tournament so far came from the Red Bulls. Yes, that is right. The New York Red Bulls managed a draw on the road and are the only MLS team in good shape heading into the return leg. My goodness, we are living in bizzaro world. In all honesty, it is not that the Red Bulls are a good team, it's that W. Connection are an awful team. The Red Bulls scored no goals without some serious deflections that one could claim to be direct cause of the goals. The first goal the Red Bulls gave up was off the corner kick that the defense failed to clear, and the second came off a bad defensive breakdown. Overall, I still think the Red Bulls will find some way to screw this up, but they may be the first MLS to advance out the preliminaries. This Juan Carlos Osorio may have saved his job...Yeah that is not likely.
There you have it. After leg one the Red Bulls stand the best chance to advance, and the even get the weekend off to prepare for leg two at home. D.C. United and Toronto FC are not that lucky. Both have a road game, before traveling again to play the return leg. Seriously, can't MLS fix this broken schedule. If MLS seriously wants to do well in this tournament, they have to start giving the Champions League teams a break in between games. Otherwise, teams will end up rotating inexperienced players with lukewarm results.
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