Matches in Toronto, Bayamón (Puerto Rico) and Monterrey (Mexico) kick off CONCACAF Champions League group play tonight, three of the eight contest set to be staged over the next three days.
CONCACAF Champions League: Let The Group Play Begin
" class="sbn-auto-link">Toronto FC, one of four Major League Soccer teams alive in the tournament, hosts one of the favorites, Cruz Azul. La Maquina, with consecutive runners-up finishes in the competition blew through group play last season, recording five wins and one draw while posting a +12 goal difference from a group that also featured the Columbus Crew and Deportivo Saprissa. This year's team may be more talent that last's, with coach Enrique Meza bringing the likes of Chirstian Giménez, Fausto Pinto, Gerardo Torrado, and Emmanuel Villa to BMO Field. Beyond that list, the attention-grabbing Cementero should be 22-year-old Javier Orozco, who has scored seven goals in four matches to start the Apertura.
Toronto has not played since Wednesday when they lost at home to New York, continuing a trend of unspectacular results. Though the Reds added Maicon Santos and Mista last month, TFC's failed to see a corresponding uptick in performance. Preki did guide his team past Honduras's Motagua and into this group stage, but in league they've failed to make significant progress, still profiling as a borderline playoff team. Despite their new forwards, TFC's goal scoring rate is 13th in MLS.
Cruz Azul and Toronto make-up half of Group A, a group that also includes Real Salt Lake and Panamanian club Árabe Unido, making TFC a longshot to advance. However, as the Reds showed in getting a result in Honduras, they're an underdog that can't be overlooked.
The match starts at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Puerto Rico (Caribbean) versus Olimpia (Honduras) - Since we last left Puerto Rico, the Islanders have climbed out of the cellar in USSF Division II’s USL Conference, and thanks to a number of games in-hand on most of their opposition, La Naranja look set to improve upon their seventh overall place in league. That, however, takes a back-seat for PRI now that Champions League has restarted, with Tuesday’s match against Olimpia possibly their most crucial result if they’re going to advance out of Group
If your Naranja coach Colin Clarke and you’re looking at the group, you have to try to get one point from Toluca and at least four from El Salvador’s FAS. If that happens and if you can take a four from Olimpia, you’re probably going through. That math isn’t full-proof and Puerto Rico may get multiple points from Toluca (two wins and a draw in the last two years against Mexican competition in Bayamon), but that’s a reasonable formula to get out of group play. To get four from Olimpia, however, Puerto Rico almost certainly needs to win tonight so they can play toward a draw in Honduras.
Olimpia is one of the most successful clubs from Honduras, but their Champions League results have failed to convince. Last year, they were eliminated in the Preliminary round by Árabe Unido (which, as it turned out, was a respectable result). Two years ago they finished behind the Montreal Impact and failed to get out of group.
That same year saw PRI make the semifinals, losing on penalty kicks to Cruz Azul. If Colin Clarke gets his team playing like that this year, they don’t to rely on a blogger’s scrounge for points plans.
Monterrey (Mexico) versus Deportivo Saprissa (Costa Rica) - Two confederation giants, even if only one is playing like it. Monterrey is coming off a 5-2 throttling of Pumas on Saturday and have the second-best record in Mexico through four Apertura matches. The man responsible for that form: Chilean attacker Humberto Suazo.
El Chupete went out on loan after the Rayados won the last Apertura. Now he’s back from Spain’s Real Zaragoza and has four goals in four matches. If they keep him over the length of Champions league, Monterrey will remain another of the tournament’s favorites.
Though Saprissa is not currently playing to Monterrey’s level, they are not playing poorly, either. They’ve stumbled out of the gate in the Torneo Invierno, losing two of their four matches, but one was a 0-1 decided by an own goal while the other was a 0-2 result featuring a 91st minute insurance tally. In both matches, Saprissa had somebody sent-off mid-way through the second half.
The fear for Roy Myers’ team is a repeat of last year, where Saprissa stumbled in the winter tournament and correspondingly struggled in Champions League. Saprissa failed to advance out of group last year, losing at home to Columbus along the way. Drawn into this year’s group of death, the three time confederation champions look unlikely regain royalty status this year.
Saprissa and Monterrey share Group C with Seattle Sounders FC and Honduran power Marathón.
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