The group stage of the 2013-2014 CONCACAF Champions League wrapped up last night, and it was a mixed summer for MLS squads. This year the LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, and Sporting Kansas City filled the four US slots in the tournament while fellow MLS side Montreal Impact took the one Canadian slot available. Three of the five MLS clubs will be moving on, but each one will face a tough Liga Mx side in the quarterfinals.
As RSL found out last year, the new tourney format with 8 groups and only the winner advancing is quite unforgiving. The Dynamo learned this lesson last night as well as they fell to Arabe Unido 1-0 in Panama, which knocked them out of the tournament. Of course, they continued to participate in what to me is a disturbing trend, MLS clubs fielding weaker sides in these matches. Now, it's hard to blame the Dynamo for doing this when they have their regular season finale this weekend with the playoffs on the line, but it still goes to show where most MLS clubs rank this tournament.
Also in action last night were the LA Galaxy who traveled to El Salvador to take on to take on Isidro Metapan. The Galaxy also fielded a weakened side, but their passage to the next round was already assured. However, Metapan forward Nicholas Munoz dropped an insane 4 goals on the defending MLS Champs to crush them 4-0. The Galaxy dropped from the 1 to the 6 seed in the next round with the loss, which as we'll see in a minute, created an interesting matchup.
Wednesday night Sporting Kansas City and the San Jose Earthquakes secured their passage to the knockout rounds as well. Sporting held Honduran side Olimpia to a 0-0 draw at Sporting Park and the Quakes managed a 1-0 win over Heredia at Buck Shaw, thanks to a goal from Chris Wondolowski.
With all that said, here are the CCL Quarterfinal pairings, with the higher seed listed first:
Toluca vs San Jose Earthquakes
Cruz Azul vs Sporting Kansas City
Club Tijuana vs LA Galaxy
Arabe Unido vs Alajuelense
Honestly, I don't see much hope for MLS sides in this draw. The Liga MX sides will be into their second half and the MLS sides will be looking at preseason type form. Toluca should smash the the Quakes. Sporting could have a shot at Cruz Azul if they can win at home. The most interesting matchup is Tijuana and Herculez Gomez vs the Galaxy. The Xolos haven't exactly been setting Liga Mx on fire, currently placed 12th out of 18. However I still think this is going to be a tough ask for the Galaxy. Should be a great tie to watch though. Maybe Fox Sports 1 will actually show it, if not I can watch it on the Mexican broadcast I guess. I'm sure Fox will have better things to show, like 20 consecutive replays of it's highlights show.
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