Five CCL quarterfinal berths to be decided in last round

October 3, 2009

With three berths already clinched, the final five CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal spots will be decided on the final matchday of the Group Stage.

Joining Cruz Azul in the knockout stage are fellow Mexican squads Pumas and Pachuca, while Toluca missed an opportunity to claim its place by losing 2-0 to Marathon in San Pedro Sula Thursday night.

Pumas, which sits atop Group D, advanced with a 2-1 win against W Connection Wednesday night in Mexico City. Paco Palencia and Oscar Rojas scored second-half goals for Pumas, which has earned a seeded quarterfinal berth as a result of winning the group.
The race for the second berth from Group D is wide open. Comunicaciones and Real Espana are level with six points apiece after five matches and W Connection has four points. On October 21, the Savonetta Boys host Real Espana, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Comunicaciones 2-0 on Wednesday night in San Pedro Sula.

Fredy Thompson’s own-goal and Carlos Pavon’s fourth goal of the tournament kept the Honduran side alive. Comunicaciones is home for Pumas on October 22.

In its first win against the Houston Dynamo at Robertson Stadium, Pachuca sealed a knockout stage berth with a 1-0 victory Wednesday night. Edgar Ramirez scored the lone goal for Los Tuzos, which leads Group A with 12 points.

“I am satisfied with my team’s performance tonight,” Pachuca coach Guillermo Rivarola said. “The team was smart and was able to dictate the rhythm of the game and that gave us a chance to take home the three points.”

Arabe Unido thrashed winless Metapan 6-0 Tuesday night to move a step closer to the quarterfinals. Orlando Rodriguez scored three goals and Camilo Aguirre added two for the Panamanian squad, which is three points ahead of the Houston Dynamo heading into the final day of the group stage.

The second berth will be decided on October 21 when Arabe Unido and Pachuca meet in Estadio Hidalgo, while Houston travels to El Salvador to take on Metapan.

“Overall I was happy with the way the guys played,” Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. “[The loss] puts us in a difficult position. We know what we have to do now, go to El Salvador and win and hope that Pachuca beat Arabe Unido.”

The Columbus Crew was minutes away from clinching a berth in the quarterfinals, but Alexander Robinson scored a dramatic second-half stoppage time equalizer for Deportivo Saprissa in a 1-1 draw at Crew Stadium Tuesday night.

“It was live or die,” Saprissa coach Jeaustin Campos said. “We tried to move forward and made substitutes to try to score and we gave them a lot of space. Sometimes we showed some weakness in the defense but that’s what we had to do to play for the tie.”

The Crew is second in Group C with seven points, two in front of Saprissa while the Puerto Rico Islanders, a surprise semifinalist a year ago, was eliminated from advancement with a 2-0 loss at Estadio Azul Tuesday night.

On Oct.ober20, Columbus can advance with a draw against Puerto Rico in Bayamon, while Saprissa is home for Cruz Azul.

“We still have a chance,” Columbus coach Robert Warzycha said. “It’s going to be an important game in Puerto Rico. The guys know that.”

Toluca is three points clear of both D.C. United and Marathon in Group B, but failed to become the fourth Mexican team to
advance to the knockout stages when Marathon handed Diablos Rojos its first loss of the group stage on Thursday.

Walter Martinez and Carlos Mejia scored first-half goals for Marathon, which travels to Trinidad to take on winless San Juan Jabloteh on October 22. Christian Gomez and Boyzzz Khumalo scored two goals apiece and Fred scored the other goal to lead D.C. United to a 5-1 thumping of Jabloteh on Wednesday night at RFK Stadium.

D.C. heads to Nemesio Diaz to take on Toluca on October 20 and could potentially go through as long as they match Marathon’s result. A year ago, the Major League Soccer team had just one point from six group stage matches.

“This year we’ve treated the game very importantly, no matter who is on the field,” D.C. coach Tommy Soehn said. “We’ve taken the time to make sure we understand what the games are about. It’s never easy with all the travel, but still understanding that we’re looking to qualify and now we’ve put ourselves in a good way to do that.”

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Tags: Carlos Pavon, concacaf champions league, cruz azul, fredy thompson, game losing streak, houston dynamo, lone goal, los tuzos, matchday, night in mexico, oscar rojas, pachuca, Paco Palencia, pumas, rivarola, robertson stadium, san pedro sula

Wenger backs Ferguson in fixture row

January 4, 2009

LONDON (AFP) – Arsene Wenger has backed Sir Alex Ferguson’s claim that the Premier League fixture list is unfair and should be changed.

Ferguson has been highly critical this week of the scheduling that has led to his Manchester United side playing a majority of weekend Premier League games away from home following a midweek Champions League clash.

Wenger took the unusual step of agreeing with his longstanding rival after his Arsenal team’s 3-1 FA Cup third round victory over Plymouth Argyle at the Emirates Stadium here Saturday.

The Gunners boss believes Ferguson has a case – and pointed to the imbalance of home fixtures across the four Champions League teams to reinforce his claim.

"I saw Ferguson made the case about fixtures," Arsenal manager Wenger said. "And we checked because we are always curious. And he has a case, and in this case so do we.

"If you take the international fixtures plus the Champions League, everybody has played ten games, six Champions League games and four internationals.

"And after those 10 games, we played eight away games and two at home. Manchester United played nine away games, Chelsea played six games at home and four away. And Liverpool played eight times at home and two away.

"You could argue the biggest disadvantage is not the Champions League but the international games when some of your players play a Wednesday night in Mexico and they cannot even play on Saturday if you kick-off early."

Wenger said the only solution was to change the Premier League fixture list to match the international and Champions League schedules.

"I would think the way to do it is if you play 10 games after Champions League or internationals then everybody plays five games at home and five away.

"But you have some teams playing eight or nine away and some teams playing eight at home, that is not really a fair competition.

"That is an unfair advantage and that explains a lot. In that case I stand alongside Ferguson."

Wenger said he felt a sense of relief after Arsenal saw off Championship side Plymouth thanks to two goals from Robin van Persie and a David Gray own-goal.

Dutch striker van Persie was made captain for the day in the absence of goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and the injured Cesc Fabregas even though former skipper William Gallas was in the starting line-up.

"He is always interested in team problems and team affairs and he wants to help sort things out," Wenger said of van Persie. "In today’s team he was the longest servant of the club and he did well.

"I believe he is one of the players who show how well you can have an evolution. When you consider how he was when he came here and who he is today, he has evolved well.

"Not many would have believed he would be captain when he arrived here."

Arsenal’s injury problems got worse when defender Mikael Silvestre was forced out after just 30 minutes with a thigh problem that should keep him out for three weeks.

Meanwhile, Wenger denied reports that Arsenal had received an offfer for centre-back Kolo Toure, who missed this match with a groin problem.

But he did say he might have to review his transfer priorities during the January window after these latest injuries.

"I have to look at it at the moment," he conceded. "At the moment with the injuries we have we are a bit short everywhere.

"Kolo I hope will not be out for a long time. He has an inflamed groin but Gael Clichy should be back next week."

Written by: AFP