Draw for Celta Vigo, win for Panathinaikos
Friday’s soccer news starts in La Liga, where Luca de la Torre’s Celta Vigo drew 1-1 at home with Alaves. An own-goal put Celta Vigo up in the 35th with de la Torre exiting to a second yellow card in the 68th. Alaves equalized in the 73rd minute.
Erik Palmer-Brown subbed out at halftime of Panathinaikos’s 4-1 win at Asteras in the Greek Super League. Willian Arao scored for Panathinaikos in the 5th and Asteras equalized in the 7th. Panathinaikos retook the lead from a 31st minute Benjamin Verbic goal with Fotis Ioannidis converting an 80th minute penalty and scoring in the 87th.
Djordje Mihailovic was on the bench for AZ’s 1-1 home draw with Heracles in the Eredivisie. Vangelis Pavlidis scored for AZ in the 13th and Heracles equalized in the 53rd minute. Owen Otasowie wasn’t in the squad for Club Burgge and Mark McKenzie wasn’t in the squad for KRC Genk in their 1-1 draw at Brugge in the Belgian Pro League. Bilal El Khannouss scored for Genk a minute into stoppage time and Hans Vanaken equalized for Club Brugge in the 67th minute.
Moving to Major League Soccer, it’s an interesting week 35 with the pressure building on teams hoping to take advantage of tight tables in both conferences. The problem with being only a few points out of the final playoff position is that your club isn’t the only one a few points out of the final playoff position. While acknowledging the realtive wonders of the unbalanced table, there are now three unclaimed playoff spots in the East with the 10th through 12th-place clubs within three points of 9th-place and the postseason. Complicating things are the two teams on 29 games played rather than 30 or 31, 13th-place Charlotte with 33 points and four points back of 9th-place and 14th-place Inter Miami a point behind them.
Charlotte is at New England, with the Revs in the playoffs but well aware they can push up the table from 6th-place. Has New England lost at home? No, they have not and that adds to the situational pressure for Charlotte after losing 3-0 at home to FC Cincinnati last week and breaking a streak of four consecutive ties. Inter Miami is shaking off the US Open Cup final, hosting NYCFC with New York on a five-game undefeated run with three of those wins. Considering games played and the situation with the Eastern Conference table, when it comes to Inter Miami there’s no reason to talk about anything else but the game against NYCFC.
In the West, only 1st-place St Louis is officially in courtesy of the three points separating 2nd from 7th-place and 10th-11th within three points of that playoff line. 12th-place Austin on 35 points and five back of 9th-place Dallas as well as the 13th-place Galaxy a point behind Austin are still very much in the conversation, especially since LA also hasn’t played their 30th game. After drawing 0-0 at home with LA on Wednesday, Austin is at Colorado the week after the Rapids officially exited the playoffs. The Galaxy hosts 7th-place Portland later on Saturday with the Timbers on a six-game undefeated streak with four wins in a row.
All links are provided as a courtesy. Neither US Soccer Players nor its authors are responsible for the content of third-party links or sites. For comments, questions, and concerns please contact us at editor@usnstpa.com
