Well the second round of Group A matches in CONCACAF started on Tuesday night as Toronto FC headed down to Panama to face Arabe Unido to see if they could regroup from their 4-1 loss to New York last weekend. It simply wasn't to be as TFC ended up playing down 2 men at the end of the match and dropped a 1-0 match with a hodge podge lineup and some very questionable officiating.
After the match here are the updated standings in Group A:
|
Team |
Games |
Points |
Win |
Loss |
Draw |
Goal Differential |
|
Real Salt Lake |
1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
+1 |
|
Arabe Unido |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Toronto FC |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Cruz Azul |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
-1 |
So Real Salt Lake is down in Mexico City to face off against Cruz Azul, and from the game notes it looks like RSL will be putting out a top level lineup of: Nick Rimando, Robbie Russell, Jasmison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert, Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson, Ned Grabavoy, Javier Morales, Alvaro Saborio, and Fabian Espindola. Four RSL players picked up yellow cards in the first match; Russell, Olave, Wingert, and Andy Williams, in CCL if a player gets two yellow cards he will be suspended for the next CCL match.
It is clear that Jason Kreis is going to be going for a win against Cruz Azul, the elevation of Mexico City shouldn't pose any problems for RSL, but the humidity and air quality might impact their effectiveness over the course of the match. Can Real Salt Lake be the first MLS team to get a win in Mexico? Columbus is battling against Santos on Tuesday night, but going into that match MLS is 0-15-2 in CONCACAF play in Mexico.
Here are the full RSL match notes.
It should be an interesting match, and while I know RSL is going to be fighting an uphill battle having the weekend off might just give RSL that extra boost to get a result in Mexico City. I will post some preview links before the match.
OFF MY SOAPBOX