The soccer news starts with the conclusion of the quarterfinal round of the 2019 Leagues Cup. The Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake exited the tournament, with the LA Galaxy the only MLS team to advance to the semifinals. LA plays Cruz Azul in Carson and Club America faces Tigres in Houston on August 20.
Club America advanced 6-5 on penalties after drawing 1-1 with Houston in regulation in front of 20,315 fans at BBVA Stadium. Nicolas Benedetti scored for Club America in the 73rd minute with DaMarcus Beasley equalizing in the 85th. Houston failed to convert their first penalty with Club America doing the same in the fifth round. Houston failed to convert in the seventh round with Gio dos Santos winning the game for Club America.
“Winning it in penalties was not how we wanted to win,” Club America coach Miguel Herrera said. “The important thing is that we are through o the next round as we navigate our domestic tournament. With national team commitments we had challenges working together as a team and we look to do that over the next two weeks.”
At Rio Tinto Stadium, Tigres knocked out Real Salt Lake on a 57th minute Eduardo Vargas goal. Nahuel Guzman kept the clean sheet for Tigres with three saves.
In the Canadian Championship, Calvary FC knocked out Vancouver 2-1 in the second-leg after drawing 0-0 in the first. Jordan Brown scored for Calvary in the 7th minute with Vancouver’s Hwang In-Beom equalizing in the 67th. Dominic Zator finished off the Calvary goals in the 72nd minute. Calvary advances to play Montreal in the semifinals. Ottawa plays Toronto in the other semifinal series.
Pro Soccer USA’s Emily Olsen has DC United coach Ben Olsen’s comments about the lack of meaning from a friendly they lost 8-1 to Marseille. “It is on the schedule and we go out the best way we can with these friendlies with the priority being this weekend in Chicago. That means we [were] going to play half a team of Loudoun County versus Marseille and this is what can happen.”
MLS spent the last offseason reworking the schedule after giving up on playing MLS Cup in December. That was a way to extend the season and head off complaints that there was too much downtime compared to European leagues. Opting to embrace their uniqueness as a playoff league getting games in amid international breaks, MLS acted. They need to do that again, addressing the meaningless friendly issue. Instead, MLS added the Leagues Cup and plans on extending it next season. That the Leagues Cup happened without consultation with the MLSPA is an obvious cause for concern for MLS players.
The Independent’s Miguel Delaney explains the situation Neymar faces. The Telegraph’s Matt Law updates the situation with Gareth Bale at Real Madrid. The NY Times’ Tariq Panja reports from documents on UEFA’s investigation of PSG over Financial Fair Play.
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Photo by Michael Janosz – ISIPhotos.com
