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!