Both MLS clubs had a chance to seize the initiative in their respective CONCACAF Champions League groups last night, but only one managed to come through. D.C. walloped San Juan Jabloteh 5-1 to hop into second place in Group B, while Houston failed to score and lost to Pachuca 1-0. United has completed a rather remarkable turnaround in the competition, after going winless last year and dropping their first two this year.
D.C. was in control after the first half, scoring three goals against a porous Jabloteh defense. Christian Gomez and Boyzzz Khumalo each scored twice for the home side, with Fred adding the fifth goal. If Marathon loses tonight against Toluca, United will advance to the quarterfinals next spring. It'll make things much harder if Marathon wins or draw, however, as the Hondurans face Jabloteh next while United travel to Mexico.
Houston couldn't achieve a similar result at home yesterday against a much tougher opponent. A 23rd minute goal from Pachuca's Edgar Benitez was enough for the visitors to grab all three points in a 1-0 defeat. Houston had plenty of chances to equalize but were unable to convert any of them. The loss dampens their hopes for a quaterfinal position next spring, as they'll need some help when Pachuca when they take on Arabe Unido in a couple of weeks.
Highlights of United's victory are after the jump.
What did you think of last night's CCL games? Will D.C. qualify tonight with help from Toluca? Can Houston make a comeback during their last game? Share your thoughts below.
Marc, two things. Just because YOU think there’s a “responsibility” to report all facts about the match doesn’t mean that’s true (He also didn’t include the weather, what a crime!). And second, Ives didn’t even write this story. Travis Clark did.
does RBNY even have a real soccer team “G”? I’m just sayin’ that Ives has a responsibility to report on all the facts about the match…and I think that he didn’t do it in this case.
I was at the DC game and I saw the Houston game on TV. Houston deserved to win. D.C. played better than Jabloteh… but then again so did my father’s pee wee soccer team.
p.s. Not likely for him to leave Mexico for club ball in the states, but I think Torres would be a really good fit in DC.
Way to point out the negatives there Marcy.
I’ll bet you were scramblin to get tickets to see Jabloteh werent you? NO?
Oh well, N… Y?RB has had smaller crowds for league games.
A wins a win. And this one had lots of action. Maybe that can give us push to get a good result in Mexico.
ahem…Attendance: 3,411
Ives…if you are going to publish the scoreline on a postive note, you should also include the announced attendance as the negative. Smallest DC United crowd in over 9 years…
Ching played well for a guy who was being double marked on the Pachucha side of the field. Pachucha did a good job of not giving up uncontested headers, and they got lucky a few times on near-misses. Houston just needs Pachucha to defeat Aribe Unido in Mexico, and to beat a team that hasn’t scored a goal in the group away. If that happens, Houston is through on head-to-head.
Houston appeared to be the better side, with Holden best on the pitch. Unfortunately Houston had to work with two impotent attackers, Oduro, and Ching. Ching was lost for most of the match, not holding balls, drawing fouls, nor even recognizing balls coming to him. He was replaced with slow as molasses Weaver and that was an upgrade. Will the Ching myth ever die?
McBride and Cunningham SA 2010.
DCU could have scored 10 – SJJ was that bad. Aside from Gomez, no one had a great game on DCU, IMO, but we’ll take the result. Khumalo’s second goal was very nicely done, but he also had his customary large number of turnovers.
I also watched most of the Houston game and Houston looked great until the last 15-20 minutes when they seemed to wear down chasing a goal. I thought Holden was the best player on the field for 60-70 minutes against pretty good competition. Torres had a decent stint helping Pachuca play keep away to hold the lead – nothing spectacular.
I was one of the few at the match. I’m happy my team won and all; but there’s not much you can take out of that game. It doesn’t really say much about DC’s quality. SJJ were just plain absolutely horrible — easily the worst team I’ve seen DCU play in a decade.
That was a nice cross by the defender on the first goal.
I wouldn’t put any stock in DC killing a terrible Jabloteh, that was rec league defending. Not scoring 5 would have been a disaster. Khumalo is very quick and brings lots of energy but he wastes lots of it and is not very efficient. A disciplined team would not most likely render him ineffective.
It’s hard to analyze the game when it looks like the Jabloteh doesn’t play any defense at all. Everyone standing around like that would have made it easy to score… but Khamalo did look good.
Torres played about 30 minutes. He played well. In fact, it was often an interesting match up of Stuart Holden going up against him.
Man, Houston looked GOOD last night. But they simply could not finish. A very exciting but ultimately very frustrating match.
did torres get any time? that would be the only redeeming quality…