Johnny Cardoso's Internacional advances in the Copa Libertadores, wins for Fulham and Crystal Palace in the Leagues Cup, and our MLS top five.
Internacional wins in the Libertadores, Fulham and Crystal Palace advance in the Leagues Cup, MLS Power Rankings
Wednesday’s soccer news starts in the quarterfinal round of the Copa Libertadores, where Johnny Cardoso’s Internacional beat Bolivar 2-0 at home on the night to advance 3-0 on aggregate. Cardoso subbed out in the 75th minute with Internacional’s Enner Valencia scoring in the 11th and 60th minutes. Bolivar failed to convert a penalty in the 85th minute. Internacional waits for the winner of the Fluminense vs Olimpia series that concludes on August 31 with Fluminense up 2-0.
Erik Palmer-Brown wasn’t in the squad for Panathinaikos’s 1-0 home loss to Braga, exiting the Champions League in the play-off round 3-1 on aggregate. Braga scored in the 83rd and Panathinaikos’s Juankar saw red a minute into stoppage time. Panathinaikos drops to the group stage of the Europa League.
Moving to the second round of England’s League Cup, Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson’s Fulham drew 1-1 at home with Spurs, advancing 5-3 on penalties. An own-goal put Fulham up in the 19th and Spurs equalized in the 56th. Spurs failed to convert in the 3rd round of penalties with Fulham going five for five. Chris Richards’s Crystal Palace won 4-2 at Plymouth Argyle. Down 2-0 from goals in the 6th and 46th, Palace’s Odsonne Edouard scored in the 58th and Jean-Philippe Mateta equalized in the 61st. Mateta added goals in the 62nd and 83rd minutes.
Josh Sargent wasn’t in the squad for Norwich City’s 1-0 win at Bristol City on a 49th minute Przemyslaw Placheta goal. Tyler Adams wasn’t in the squad for Bournemouth’s 3-2 win at Swansea City. Trailing from a 9th minute penalty, Bournemouth’s David Brooks equalized in the 55th and Hamed Traore scored in the 68th. Swansea equalized in the 79th, but Ryan Christie scored for Bournemouth a minute into stoppage time.
Moving to MLS week 29 later tonight with 13 games on the schedule, it’s time for the abbreviated version of the Power Rankings aka the top five. That list still starts with FC Cincinnati, with one loss and one win in MLS on either side of their US Open Cup semifinal exit. Cincinnati’s 11-point lead with a game in hand over Philadelphia is the biggest difference in points between any two league positions in MLS, and it’s still too early to make that about the pre-Leagues Cup part of the schedule.
In 2nd-place we’ve got Philadelphia, winning at DC with one game played since the Leagues Cup concluded and at Toronto on Wednesday. The Union is tied on points with New England at 43 after 24 games, with the Revs losing last week at Montreal.
Switching conferences for 3rd-place, LAFC has six points from two games in their return to league play with a +5 goal difference. That came against teams outside of the playoff places, but we’re well into the stage where it’s worth crediting teams for taking full advantage. LAFC is now four points behind Western Conference leaders St Louis with both on 25 games played.
No surprise that we’re slotting in St Louis at 4th then, with their loss at Orlando City taking the gloss off of a 6-3 home win over Austin to restart their MLS schedule. St Louis was up 3-0 when Austin scored, managing a game where Austin would get a goal a minute into stoppage time and St Louis would respond with a goal of its own in the 5th minute. Hosting Dallas later tonight, they’re facing a team that beat Austin 1-0 at home last week.
Then there’s 5th-place in our rankings, where we’re almost tempted to put Dallas with their offense eventually showing form and getting them a positive goal difference. That’s quite the stretch for an 8th-place club, so we’re going to stay in the West with Houston. It’s an interesting situation in the middle of the playoff positions, with 3rd-place Seattle and 4th-place RSL tied on 37 points and 5th-place Houston and 6th-place San Jose tied on 35 points. Houston beat Real Salt Lake twice last week, 3-1 at home in the US Open Cup and then 3-0 away in the league. The Dynamo hosts a good Columbus team, 5th-place in the East, that returned to MLS by beating Cincinnati 3-0 at home and then Toronto 2-0 at home. This is our pick for the highlight game for round 29.
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