Santos Laguna Knocks Houston Dynamo Out of Champions League

The Houston Dynamo went into last night's 2nd leg CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals tie against Santos Laguna at Estadio Corona with a 1-0 aggregate lead, but by the end of the night, the Dynamo gave up 3 unanswered goals and were booted from the competition.

Santos evened up the score 1-1 in the 23rd minute when Juan Pablo Rodriquez picked up the rebound goal after Tally Hall had blocked Rodriquez's penalty shot. Five minutes later US National Team forward Herculez Gomez picked up the lead, and the winning goal, for Santos.

During the first half, the Dynamo were hampered by sloppy play and mental mistakes, and although they started to show some offensive life in the second half, their hopes of advancing were dashed by a Marc Crosas goal in the 77th minute.

With the loss to Santos, the Dynamo are out of the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League and return their focus to the MLS regular season. This Sunday, the Dynamo take on F.C. Dallas in Frisco, Texas. The match, which begins at noon local time, will be broadcast on ESPN2.

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Dynamo Start First Leg of Champions League Quarterfinals With 1-0 Win

Photo by Nigel Brooks.

The first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals began in Houston, Texas with the Dynamo hosting Mexico's Santos Laguna at BBVA Compass Stadium.

On the whole, much of the match seemed fairly balanced with both teams being unable to take advantage of opportunities presented as a result of defensive breakdowns on both ends of the pitch. In the end though, it was Brad Davis, who had some less then stellar set pieces, that picked up the game winning goal in the 89th minute.

The Dynamo's newest player, Andrew Driver, had a golden opportunity to score a second goal almost immediately after Davis' goal, but Driver lost control of his feet and went down, untouched, in the box.

While a 1-0 win at home is a good result to start with, the Dynamo have to defend their lead, and hope to extend their lead, down in Torreón on Wednesday March 13th at 7:00 p.m. central time. The good news for the Dynamo and its fans is that the Dynamo do not have an MLS match this week, so they have plenty of time to rest and prepare for the second leg of this quarterfinals match-up.

David Beckham vs. The Beer Can

On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Toronto FC treated soccer fans to a very entertaining CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal 2-2 draw at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Despite two excellent early goals from Toronto and then LA's efforts to battle back and pick up two away goals, the most memorable moment of the evening was in the 88th minute when, despite a wall of security guards, a beer can was hurled at David Beckham as he prepared to take a corner kick. Beckham picked the can up in anger, yelling about it to officials, and Bruce Arena was seen pointing at his watch in effort to make sure the officials accounted for this in extra time, then Beckham settled down, took the corner which Landon Donovan managed to put into the goal for LA.

It's interesting to note that this incident occurred about a week after MLS handed down sanctions on Houston Dynamo supporter groups for incidents that occurred last season in MLS, and despite all the fuss that created within the soccer fan community, Wednesday's incident indicates that the projectile issue in North American soccer hasn't disappeared.

Since Wednesday's match was a CONCACAF game not an MLS game I'm not going to pontificate on what the suits should do about the incident, rather, I think the incident highlights that it is a difficult issue to police, even within the supporter groups cause all it takes is one drunken fan to throw something without warning. Policies on beverage containers vary from stadium to stadium, but even in stadiums where all drinks are served in plastic cups, those cups can become projectiles too - I vividly recall that happening during a Mexico-Panama match at Reliant Stadium.

I really don't have any good solutions for this issue. I really don't have a strong stance one or another regarding MLS's sanctions of Dynamo fans. What I do know is that throwing projectiles is wrong, and, with the start of the 2012 MLS season tomorrow, I'm hoping the projectile issue won't be a big issue this season.

Why Did Both Renteria & Bochers See Red in CONCACAF Champions League?

Tuesday night marked the return of the CONCACAF Champions League, with the Columbus Crew - Real Salt Lake tie being the focus of Major League Soccer fans. Ending in a 0-0 draw, it wasn't the most exciting match, but considering that this was the first competitive match either side has played in months, it could of been much worse. In some ways, the most active person on the pitch in Columbus last night was referee Jair Marrufo, who handed out three red cards.

In fact, Marrufo issued a double sending off to Nat Bochers and Emilio Renteria for off the ball fouls in the 72nd minute. Since the Bochers-Renteria scuffle occurred off the ball, television viewers only saw this:



While Bochers can clearly be seen throwing either his arm or elbow into Renteria, viewers were left scratching their heads as to why Renteria was also sent off. Apparently, according to Bochers, what the television viewers saw was his retaliation after Renteria had elbowed him in the throat.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, this is what Bochers had to say about the incident:

"If you want to use an analogy, I think what I did was petty theft and what he did was a first-degree felony," Borchers said. "I hope they caught it on tape. I thought it was a very unfair judgment against me. Hit me right in the neck. Had I not backed off him and (had) he connected, I might be speaking to you through a breathing tube. I thought it was bad. In the heat of the battle you do stupid things, but that was bad from him. Unfortunately the refs didn’t catch it."

Both Renteria and Bochers, along with Real Salt Lake's Tony Beltran, who picked up a red card in the first half, will not be available when the teams meet in the second leg of this tie on March 2nd in Sandy, Utah.

Dynamo Draw for the CONCACAF Champions League

On Monday, the draw for the 16 team group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League came out, and the Houston Dynamo are in Group B, with the following fixtures:

Sept. 17 – Dynamo vs. Luis Angel Firpo
Sept. 23 – Dynamo at San Francisco/Jalapa/Municipal
Sept. 30 – Dynamo at Pumas/Harbour View
Oct. 8 – Dynamo vs. San Francisco/Jalapa/Municipal
Oct. 22 – Dynamo vs. Pumas/Harbour View
Oct. 28 – Dynamo at Luis Angel Firpo
Times and venues to be announced.