CONCACAF League Week 4 Wrap-Up

The round of 16 second legs produced a lot of fantastic matches including an all time upset and timeless classic. Eight teams remain, but only six of them will advance to the Champions League next year. But this post is not about the juicy quarterfinal match ups, it is about the great games we just had this past week. You know the drill by now, here's the highlights:


Independiente 2-1 Robinhood (3-2 aggregate)

Robinhood fought hard and even managed an away goal against the newly coronated continental powers, but ultimately fell 3-2 on aggregate.

Motagua 1-1 Managua (3-2 aggregate)

Managua will regret conceding that second goal in the first leg, as they did well and took the lead in Honduras but were unable to hold on.

San Carlos 0-0 Santa Tecla (0-0 aggregate)

Another scoreless draw in the series sent this one to penalties, where ultimately San Carlos narrowly escaped with a victory.

Guastatoya 0-0 Comunicaciones (1-2 aggregate)

Los Cremas held on to advance on away goals in this all Guatemalan affair; they are now the last surviving Guatemalan team in the tournament.

CD Aguila 1-0 Saprissa (1-2 aggregate)

Aguila did very well to win a game over the giants, and it certainly made for a tense final 15 minutes or so but ultimately Saprissa got the job done and continue as favorites to take the title home.

Tauro 1-0 Alianza (1-2 aggregate)

Much like Aguila, Tauro were able to win at home but it wasn't enough to overcome a 2-0 road defeat. Alianza have been stellar in this tournament and after conceding in the opening moments the defense stabilized and locked down the Panamanian side.

Olimpia 4-1 Forge (4-2 aggregate)

Forge had an amazing debut for the CPL in continental play, and their win at home over Olimpia was excellent, but Los Leones were too much for them in Honduras, comfortably winning and advancing to the quarterfinals.

Herediano 1-1 Waterhouse (2-2 aggregate)

The match of the tournament so far and the biggest upset in the history of the competition, Waterhouse did the unthinkable by getting a result and the away goal in Heredia, and ultimately emerged victorious after a penalty shootout that lasted nine frames and saw both goalies take kicks. It is incredibly difficult to get any kind of result in Costa Rica; ask Tigres and Atlanta how they fared in the most recent Champions League. A historic performance for Waterhouse.

 


 

CONCACAF League Week 3 Wrap-Up

The round of 16 kicked off this week, meaning we've now seen the entire field of teams in action at least once. There were a lot of tantalizing first legs played, and after the dust settled it's fair to say all 16 teams are still alive, with the largest margin of victory being just two goals. A great example of the increasing parity in the region.

Santa Tecla 0-0 San Carlos

This was not the prettiest of matches, with honestly the only real good chance of the match coming in the 3rd minute for Santa Tecla, but credit should be given to the hosts for not conceding an away goal and putting them in good position for the second leg.

Robinhood 1-1 Independiente

Robinhood fell behind late in the game and it looked to be a loss that would kill their chances of advancing, but a dramatic stoppage time goal from Shaquille Cairo sent the fans into hysteria and kept the Surinamese side alive.

 Highlights Here

Managua 1-2 Motagua

In their first game since the horrible attacks over the weekend, Motagua escaped with a 2-1 victory thanks to a couple of mistakes from the home side. Remember that the Motagua home leg will be played behind closed doors, so Managua are still very much in it, especially if they can correct the mistakes they made in this game.

Comunicaciones 2-1 Guastatoya

In an all Guatemalan affair that will guarantee the country a place in the quarterfinals and more likely than not a return to the CONCACAF Champions League, Comunicaciones emerged the victors after a wild match. The hosts rallied from behind to claim a 2-1 win and leave the series hanging in the balance heading into next week.

Saprissa 2-0 Águila

Saprissa looked better here than they did in the first round against Belmopan, but Águila produced a lot of really good chances and on another day may have picked up an away goal or two. As it stands, Saprissa are in control but will need to be cautious on the road.

Waterhouse 1-1 Herediano

It was a dream start for the Jamaicans, getting on the board after just three minutes and making the reigning champions really push for that away goal. They eventually got it, but Waterhouse know they are still in this series and a 1-1 draw in the away leg is more than within their capabilities.

Forge 1-0 Olimpia

Forge continues to impress, remaining unbeaten in this tournament and a perfect 2-0 at Tim Horton's Field. The goal came very early from Chris Nanco, and the Canadian side will look now to replicate their efforts from the last round when they head to Honduras (behind closed doors) next week. There were a lot of great chances in this game, including a missed penalty for Olimpia, but a one goal margin of victory was a fair result.

Alianza 2-0 Tauro

Alianza remain the most impressive team in the tournament thus far and one of the most impressive teams on the continent; their league form has been every bit as good as their performance in this tournament. A very comfortable 2-0 win for the hosts means they have a bit of leeway when they travel to Panama for leg 2.

CONCACAF League Week 2 Wrap-Up

The preliminary round has come to a close and the field has been narrowed to 16 teams. Everyone is just four series wins away from a title and potentially only one win away from the Champions League. The round of 16 may be early goings but these will be some seriously important matches.

During Jornada 2 we saw the conclusion of the series from last week, complete with some real surprises and impressive performances. Here's the quick review:

Santa Tecla 1-0 Real Estelí (2-2 aggregate)

Santa Tecla took an early lead into a massive thunderstorm and power outage delay, and held on to advance on away goals. Last week's MVP Juan Barrera sat out with the flu, and his absence was visible for Estelí.

AS Capoise 1-1 Robinhood (1-1 aggregate)

Capoise dominated the start of the match and took a deserved lead on an unfortunate own-goal in the 21st minute. The momentum shifted in the second half and Robinhood snatched the winning away goal in the 79th minute thanks to Cirilo Da Costa's header.

Saprissa 3-1 Belmopan Bandits (6-2 aggregate)

This series was already finished when Saprissa took a 3-1 lead in Belize last week, but the Bandits played well. They played even better in the Monster's Cave, even taking a 1-0 lead into halftime to put the whole region on upset alert. Needing just one more goal to steal a legendary series win, they were burned a few times in the second half to make the aggregate score a completely inaccurate picture of how competitive this series was.

San Francisco 0-1 Alianza (1-6 aggregate)

Alianza demolished San Francisco so bad in the first leg that the energy was a little low for this one. Alianza snatched the away win for style points and look quite dangerous heading into the next round.

Antigua GFC 0-0 Forge FC (1-2 aggregate)

A thrilling series ends with Canada's first ever representative living to fight another day. After conceding the away goal last week it looked like a tall order to escape from Guatemala alive, but Forge pulled it off despite some scares. A fantastic result for their first foray into Central America.

Marathón 1-1 Comunicaciones (Aggregate 2-3)

With only a few minutes left to play in a flooded affair it looked like Guatemalan football was in for a sour night when Yustin Arboleda banged one in for Marathón, but a dramatic late winner in extra time from Christian Hernandez on what seemed to be a failed cross sent Los Cremas through to the next round. This is the pure chaos we're all here to see.

 Player of the Week: Kyle Bekker

Bekker was in charge of the midfield for Forge all night, making some key steals and helping control the pace to prevent Antigua from overwhelming them.


Goal of the Week: Yustin Arboleda

Arboleda's impressive juggling act should have been a fantastic winner that would go down in club lore, but after the loss it may be forgotten.

CONCACAF League Week 1 Wrap-Up

One week down in the CONCACAF League, nine more to go. And what a great start to the tournament it was. There were at least three goals in every game, with one exception, but even the 0-0 draw between Robinhood and Capoise was compelling. For this tournament I'm going to keep it simple; these wrap-up posts will have one or two sentence summaries of each match, a link to the highlights, and my player of the week and goal of the week.

Real Estelí 2-1 Santa Tecla

Juan Barrera had an absolutely dominant performance including the game winning goal to give Estelí their first ever win in a CONCACAF tournament. Three really good goals in this one.

Robinhood 0-0 AS Capoise

Hardly a dull match, the fans in Suriname were treated to about 10 penalty shouts, plenty of fantastic saves, and a swashbuckling Capoise side as promised. They also got a 20 minute power outage delay.

Belmopan Bandits 1-3 Saprissa

Saprissa came out with a comfortable win as expected, but Belmopan did well to net one fantastic goal and they nearly had another later on.

Forge FC 2-1 Antigua 

After falling behind early and being completely dominated in the first half, Forge turned it around with two goals in the second half to snag Canada's first ever CONCACAF League win and give themselves hope in the series.

Alianza 5-1 San Francisco 

It got ugly quick for the visitors who were down 3-0 by the half-hour mark. Alianza looked really really good.

Comunicaciones 2-1 Marathón

What could have been disaster for the hosts when they fell behind immediately turned into a 2-1 win with the series hanging in the balance. Side note: Disappointing crowd in Guatemala City.

Player of the Week: Juan Barrera

Barrera was just so dang good in this game, he has to get the nod. Shout out to Saprissa youngster Manfred Ugalde who scored twice, but Barrera controlled the midfield the way you expect a legend to.

Goal of the Week: Jefrie James

The Belmopan man pulled the ball down in heavy traffic and then fired it past four defenders into the top corner from 25 yards out. It was reaaaaally good.

That's all from me, the preliminary round second legs are next week. See you then!