Northern Ireland’s own Colin Clarke sure had one hell of a St. Patrick’s Day. Yesterday his USL side, the Puerto Rico Islanders, went up against five-time CONCACAF champions Cruz Azul and walked away with an impressive 2-0 win. The first goal came inside of four minutes after Josh Hansen sent a nice little through ball to Sandi Gbandi at the top of the right-hand corner of the penalty area, who slotted it in to the far post; the second goal came right before half, when Nicholas Addlery deftly tipped a free kick just out of keeper Alfonso Blanco’s reach.
You could point out a lot of things about this game. First of all, the Islanders are clearly committed to defending as a team; James Marcelin, in particular, was stellar at tracking back to pick up the loose balls. Secondly, the Islanders probably should have had a third goal in the second half; the chances were there (Cristian Arrieta’s miss off a free header from a corner right after half set the tone for the rest of the game), but they weren’t able to finish. The lack of conditioning was evident as the game went on, and Clarke will most definitely work on his team’s stamina before the April 7th away leg in the thin air of Mexico City.
For all of the Islander’s sluggishness, though, Cruz Azul were still unable to thwart Puerto Rico’s Bill Gaudette between the sticks. The clean sheet and two-goal lead means that Puerto Rico are very much in the driver’s seat for the away leg, and should be odds-on favorites to advance past this point.
The other matchup in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals, Santos Laguna and Atlante (not Atalanta!), is tonight on Fox Soccer Channel at 10:00 PM EST.
Impressive – they don’t come up to MN until Sept., have to check ‘em out.
Hey can someone let me know when America’s new fun couple – Dana Jacobson/Drew Carey – are off the front page video on Soccernet? I need my Georgie Bingham fix. Thx.
They’re not coming to Cleveland until July, but I may do the same.
And I have no video on the Soccernet page, but I might just be missing it.
Bill Gaudette was definitely the man of the match. He had some great saves. I just hope the knock to his shoulder isn’t anything serious. He seemed to be in some pain, especially after running into Dominguez late in the match.
Drew Carey’s still on the soccernet page. He’ll probably be there until the Sounders’ opening game Thursday night.
What I was particularly impressed by was the quality of passing on both sides of the ball; the Islanders, especially in the first half, had a really nice little short passing game going at times. I don’t usually see that in the MLS.