Welcome to Thursday, y’all. We made it over the hump. But it’s not just any Thursday- it’s Leap Day. 24 whole extra hours to spend our lives doing whatever it is we dedicate our time to. Like writing about soccer. And reading about soccer. And thinking about soccer. Like…
Concacaf Champions Cup
The second legs of Champions Cup Round One matches have been wrapping up over the course of the week, and we’re finding out which sides are moving on to the Round of 16, and which sides no longer get to complain about schedule congestion. To recap MLS’s representatives:
-Cincinnati and Nashville dominated their Caribbean opponents yesterday, both winning 4-0, resulting in 6-0 and 7-0 aggregate scores against the Jamaican Cavalier SC and the Dominican Moca FC, respectively.
-Vancouver drew the short stick and faced Tigres, and despite drawing 1-1 in Canada (yay!) got beat 3-0 in Mexico to make their exit. (RIP.)
-Orlando defeated Cavalry FC (Canadian Premier League) by a 6-1 aggregate
-Houston squeaked by St. Louis on away goals, 2-2, in MLS on MLS violence
-Philadelphia narrowly got past Deportivo Saprissa (Costa Rica) in a 6-5 aggregate with an extra time winner from Mikael Uhre
-aaaand New England is TBD. Currently up 1-0 over Independiente (Panama), and host the second leg tonight at 8:15 PM (FS2)
Concacaf W Gold Cup
DRAWING OF THE LOTS.
Every soccer sicko’s dream came true last night, as Costa Rica and Puerto Rico ended the inaugural W Gold Cup Group Stage tied for the “second-best third-place finisher” (sheesh) and a spot in the tournament’s quarterfinal round on every. single. tiebreaker. This includes points earned, goal difference, goals scored, and lowest discipline points for yellow and red cards. Thus, the drawing of lots.
The Concacaf gods smiled upon Costa Rica, advancing them to the knockout while sending home the Cinderella story Puerto Rican side in true Concacaf fashion. Wild times. Cue conspiracies.
U.S. Open Cup
Jeff Carlisle of ESPN reported yesterday that the 2024 U.S. Open Cup format (of recent news and focus) is set to be revealed within days at most, and will include the rumored 8 MLS teams, which includes Atlanta United.
Much more to be revealed, but the most historic tournament in the country lives (at least in part) to see another day.
MLS
In other MLS news, the PSRA and PRO remain at a standstill after further discussion, per Pablo Maurer of The Athletic. Seems like the replacement referees aren’t going anywhere yet.
USL
One Knox SC dropped their new 2024 away kit yesterday, inspired by the Sunsphere, Knoxville’s most recognizable structure. Pretty clean, if I do say so myself.
Enjoy your Leap Day, y’all. Don’t wait another four years.
Well, I feel a little vindicated. In 2017, I remember saying that Champions League, and Open Cup would become much bigger deals, and they have. Cool. Ths US are a normal place, except for Florida maybe.
I watched the drawing of lots live and it was truly electric
Regarding the ref contract thing, the only side I know of that has been willing to talk about it is the management side. Does anybody have any links to anything that gives the PRO refs’ side of this? The Athletic is trying to get info, but even they seem to have hit a brick wall and all they can find out are vague things like there’s an issue with how the refs will travel involving how much first class plane travel will be allowed.
I’m kind of surprised that the 8 MLS teams in USOC look to be the defending USOC champ and the top 7 Supporters Shield finishers not in CCC. I honestly figured MLS would make the bottom 8 US based teams in Supporters Shield last year play.
Bottom eight means Miami would be in and it feels like that’s one of the things they wanted to avoid along with roster congestion for CCC teams.
I just wanna see Messi play on a for real cow pasture in Nebraska somewhere
it’s weird because mostly what i have gleaned from the little that’s been written about their side of the story was about travel and accommodations/compensation on the road. it doesn’t seem like they were balking at the 25ish% pay raises and such. but it sounds like taking care of themselves on the road in a certain manner is what is hanging things up. weird.
So far, I don;t miss the MLS Pro refs. At. All.
I would if I was LA Galaxy.
yeah but PRO was also in the headlines every monday with various foibles from the weekend. overall (limited sample size to be sure) i think the replacement refs have been good enough.
still hoping that something significant comes out of the lockout tho. something more than just pay and benefits. some real commitment to making PRO actually professional would be great. pipe dreams, i know.
If you want professionals, you have to treat them like professionals. And pay them like professionals.
The current crop of refs aren’t great, but we won’t get better ones if they won’t be treated and paid well.
Oh yeah, I never for once thought that PRO was good enough. Just that I don’t remember them doing so bad as to send someone off for a non-foul. Course I hated how bad PRO was that I generally buried my head in the sand unless it was specifically at our games, so it’s very possible they might have done the exact same thing.