Hoffenheim advances in DFB Pokal, Mirandes wins in Segunda Division

Tuesday’s soccer news has more from the opening round of the DFB Pokal, where John Brooks was in the middle of the defense for Hoffenheim in their 4-1 win at VfB Lubeck. Trailing from a 35th minute penalty, Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric equalized from the penalty spot in the 42nd and converted a 60th minute penalty. Marius Bulter scored for Hoffenheim in the 69th and Julian Justvan finished off the goals in the 75th minute.

Moving to Spain’s Segunda Division, Jonathan Gomez subbed on in the 62nd for Mirandes in their 4-0 home win over Alcorcon. Sergio Barcia put Mirandes up from the penalty spot in the 16th, Carlos Martin doubled the lead in the 37th, Gabri Martinez made it 3-0 in the 59th, and Martin scored again in the 73rd.

Joe Gyau manned left back for Degerfors in their 1-0 win at Varnamo in the Allsvenskan. Diego Campos scored the Degerfors goal four minutes into stoppage time. Moving to the Azerbaijan Premier League, Kenny Saief’s Neftchi drew 1-1 at home with Sabail. Falling behind in the 34th, Saief equalized from the penalty spot in the 82nd. Saief saw yellow in the 40th minute.

Tanner Tessmann subbed out in the 113th, Gianluca Busio subbed on in the 69th, and Andrija Novakovich was on the bench for Venezia’s 2-2 draw at Spezia in the first round of the Coppa Italia, with Venezia exiting 4-3 on penalties. Spezia opened the scoring in the 19th and Venezia’s Joel Pohjanpalo equalized in the 54th. Spezia went ahead from a 60th minute penalty with Christian Gytkjaer equalizing from the penalty spot in the 81st. With the game 2-2 through regulation and extra time, Spezia failed to convert in the 2nd round and Venezia failed to convert in the 1st and 5th rounds. Busio converted his penalty in the 4th round.

It’s Leagues Cup semifinals night for MLS and Liga MX, starting with Philadelphia and Inter Miami in the 7:30pm ET slot and concluding with Monterrey and Nashville at 9:30pm. While we all know it’s the first edition of an expanded tournament, it’s still somewhat interesting to look back at the groups that produced tonight’s semifinalists.

Philadelphia advanced in 1st-place from East 1 by winning both of their games with Queretaro in 2nd and Tijuana 3rd. Inter Miami also won twice in South 3, finishing ahead of Cruz Azul and Atlanta. Monterrey took the top spot in West 2 also by winning both games against Real Salt Lake and Seattle. Before we establish a trend, Nashville finished 2nd in Central 4 with three points to Toluca’s six with Colorado in 3rd-place. Toluca knocked out Sporting Kansas City in the round of 32 before losing to Minnesota United on penalties in the round of 16.

While it’s easy enough to look at the Liga MX table and wonder what we really know from three Apertura games and the Leagues Cup, at the very least, the three MLS semifinalists are well aware of what it takes to get a result, specifically Philadelphia. The Union beat Toluca and Queretaro, and then Queretaro again. Inter Miami opened with a win over Cruz Azul and hasn’t played a Liga MX team since. Nashville lost 4-3 to Toluca, advanced past Cincinnati on penalties, and then knocked out Club America on penalties in the round of 16.

Those seven round of 32 games and the additional five round of 16 games that went to penalties would at least give us something to point to, but none of the quarterfinal games added to that trend. That leaves another round of this tournament as an unknown, in large part the story so far.

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