~Soccer Thread~

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup

The league breakdown for round 3

Tier 1

• MLS: 17 worst teams according to 2021 standings (the top 8 teams have another bye)

Tier 2

• USL: 15 teams

Tier 3

• USL1: 8 teams
• NISA: 4 teams
• MLS Next Pro: both teams (Rochester Rhinos and St Louis City SC 2)

Tier 4

• USL2: 1 team (North Carolina Fusion)
• NPSL: 1 team (FC Motown)

Amateur Teams

• None

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Third_Round_Matches

April 19-21

[Brutus Buckeye]

Might as well post the MLS standings before the Crew drop completely out of the playoff picture. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

UNAM and Seattle both won their first leg.

UNAM and Seattle in the Final 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Caribbean Shield 


https://twitter.com/Concacaf/status/1514327566387138560?s=20&t=HsP31QEgnj_nQRzZ2uC72A


This is the final season that the Caribbean Zone Champions League qualifiers will be split up into two different tournaments, before being fused back together into one next year. So the three countries that have "Tier 1" professional leagues, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, have their own tournament called Caribbean Cup which will be in May. The rest have to play for this Caribbean Shield instead starting Friday April 15. 

The Caribbean Shield is moderately important, as the USA can technically back door a 5th team into the 2023 Champions League through Puerto Rico. It's a long shot, but not nearly as long as it usually is because Puerto Rico is hosting this thing, and their Champion, Bayamon, has made the Champions League field as recently as 2015. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Caribbean_Club_Shield

The teams will be divided up into three groups. All three group winners will make the semifinals as well as the top remaining team. Bayamon is in a group with teams from St Lucia, St Martin, and Dominica. So not exactly a murderers row. 

Now winning this thing doesn't get them a Champions League bid, but it does keep their hopes alive. Next, they'd have to play a one off playoff game against the 4th place team from the Caribbean Cup (loser of their Consolation Game). If they win that, then they will get an unfavorable seed in the Concacaf League tournament, which is a Champions League qualifying tournament with mostly Central American champions. They don't have to win the Concacaf League Tournament in order to get a Champions League bid, but they would have to finish in the top 6. That means a semifinal birth would get them in automatically, but they can also get in if they are among the top 2 quarterfinal losers according to a point system. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup

The league breakdown for round 3

Tier 1

• MLS: 17 worst teams according to 2021 standings (the top 8 teams have another bye)

Tier 2

• USL: 15 teams

Tier 3

• USL1: 8 teams
• NISA: 4 teams
• MLS Next Pro: both teams (Rochester Rhinos and St Louis City SC 2)

Tier 4

• USL2: 1 team (North Carolina Fusion)
• NPSL: 1 team (FC Motown)

Amateur Teams

• None

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Third_Round_Matches

April 19-21

US Open Cup


These matches are on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, 4/19 and 4/20. 

Tues has the Crew playing on the road at Detroit City, Cincinnati hosting the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

The regional emphasis makes for a lot of interesting match ups. 

This is the final round before a fixed bracket of 32 clubs is set in stone. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Third_Round

[LetsGoPeay]

My wife and I just got back from a 17 day European trip. We visited Lisbon, Rome, Venice, Montenegro, Mykonos, Santorini, and Paris. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the stop in Paris. I was able to get ninth row tickets for the PSG-Lorient match. As a big soccer (football) fan it was an awesome experience. Neymar and Mbappe scored twice and Messi scored once. The only thing that could have been better was the atmosphere. The PSG ultras are "on strike" due to their dissatisfaction with management and going out of the Champions League early again. So the small Lorient supporters group of about 300 fans was much louder than the entire rest of the stadium. The exception was when Sergio Ramos came on and they booed and whistled loudly every time the ball came to him. His signing is one of the biggest complaints from the supporters. All in all though it was an awesome experience.

Some pictures and videos: PSG vs Lorient

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup

Round 3 Day 1

Already a couple of upsets, with the Midwest MLS teams getting knocked off left and right.

First was the Columbus Crew, who ventured into enemy territory and blew a lead by giving up two late goals in a 2-1 road loss to Detroit City from the USL.

Not to be outdone, the Chicago Fire lost a shootout to Union Omaha of USL1, a step below the regular USL.

Cincinnati knocked off the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2-0, scoring both goals in stoppage time.

In a minor upset South Georgia Tormenta (USL1) knocked off the Birmingham Legion (USL).

Tuscon (USL1) lost to the California United Strikers (NISA) 2-1.

Round 3 Day 2 on 4/20

[Brutus Buckeye]

Caribbean Shield 

Bayamon (Puerto Rico) won their group, and will play in the semifinals Friday 4/22.

IF they win, then they will play in the final on Sunday 4/24. Otherwise, the consolation game on Sunday 4/24. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup 

Round 3 Day 2



Two more MLS teams bow out with Austin dropping their match against San Antonio (USL). Worse yet Real Salt Lake got beat by the Northern Colorado Hailstorm (USL1). 
 
St Louis 2 got beat by Louisville City (USL), so they are out as well. 

A handful of other sub MLS teams also advance to the round of 32, largely because they didn't have to play an MLS team this round, including the Rochester Rhinos, who of course won this thing once. 

All of the round 1 participants have been eliminated. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

US Open Cup 

Round of 32

The match ups have been released, and will be played May 10 and 11. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_U.S._Open_Cup#Round_of_32

By League, you have:

• 21 MLS teams; everyone except Columbus, Chicago, Austin and Salt Lake. 
• 5 USL teams; Louisville City, Detroit City, San Antonio, Phoenix Rising and Sacramento Republic. 
• 4 USL1 teams; Northern Colorado Hailstorm, Union Omaha, Richmond Kickers, and South Georgia Tormenta
• 2 other teams; Rochester Rhinos and the California United Strikers. 

The 2 USL1 clubs that beat MLS teams, Omaha and Northern Colorado, will be playing each other. So at least one of them will make it to the Sweet 16. There is also a pair of all-USL match ups; one between Detroit City, who beat an MLS team, and Louisville City, who beat St Louis City FC 2. The second all-USL match is Phoenix Rising vs Sacramento republic, neither of which has had to play an MLS team yet and won't have to this round either. The rest of the sub-MLS teams will have to square off against an MLS team this round including San Antonio, who already beat Austin. This time they get Houston. 

So at least two USL teams and one USL1 team is guaranteed to advance, plus whatever upsets. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

2022 Caribbean Shield 

Bayamon from Puerto Rico advances to the final on Sunday 4/24 against a team from Suriname, which is in South America, but plays their Futbol in the Concacaf Caribbean Zone for whatever reason. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Not only are the Crew undefeated, but they are also winning each game by an average of 4 goals.

The Crew haven't scored a single goal in an MLS game since March 20. 
Their only goal over that span was on a penalty kick in their 2-1 loss to a Michigan USL team. 
On the bright side, they did manage to muster a scoreless draw against Sporting KC over the weekend. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Caribbean Shield

Bayamon wins the final Caribbean Shield tournament 2-1. Thus this thing will remain on US soil for the foreseeable future.



Next in their quest to give the USA a fifth champions league bid, they will play a one off playoff game against the fourth place team in May's Caribbean Cup tournament (the loser of their consolation game) where the winner will get the third and final Caribbean bid to the Concacaf League qualifying tournament in July, where they would have to finish in the top six in order to earn a champions league bid. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Caribbean Shield winner usually fares pretty well in that game because the fourth place team is in the lower half of the tournament's field of six teams.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Concacaf Champions League Final 

The Final will be played on the next two Wednesdays between the Seattle Sounders and UNAM from Liga MX. 

Seattle currently sits at 11th place out of 14 teams in the MLS West. 

Nevertheless, they will play for a Continental Championship over this final week of April and first week of May.