Two MLS clubs take to the field in the away legs of their preliminary round series for the CONCACAF Champions League tonight, and both will have their work cut out for them. Coming off of last year's disappointing showing, the 2009-2010 edition of the Champions League hasn't gotten off to a good start for MLS. Last week's first round matches saw two clubs fail to take advantage of home legs. Now, Toronto FC and DC United need results tonight to progress to the group stage.
Toronto FC heads to Puerto Rico to take on last year's tournament semi-finalist Islanders (8pm ET, FSC), with the USL-1 club holding a significant advantage after stealing a 0-1 win at BMO Field last week. TFC needs to score, as well as hold down the Islanders, and do so on the road in a hostile environment. For the Islanders' part, this is been-there-done-that territory; last year's tournament success should only give them confidence that they can close out the Canadian champions and head to the tournament proper, where they'd be grouped with Columbus Crew, Saprissa, and Cruz Azul (almost a certainty). TFC worked hard to win the Voyageur's Cup, and to go out to a USL side (no matter their track record) in the preliminary round would be a massive disappointment.
In El Salvador (10pm ET, FSC), DC United must score to give themselves a chance; after drawing 1-1 at home with CD Luis Angel Firpo, United will face their own hostile environment at Estadio Cuscatlán in San Salvador. If United does go out, it will certainly be the largest MLS disappointment of preliminary round. Not only is United the best performing team in the American league of the three vying for the groups, they're also playing competition that entered the CCL as a replacement for a club that failed to meet CONCACAF's participation requirements (Chatalenango, who apparently did not return forms on time), and is also in their pre-season. United's head coach Tom Soehn chose to play a less-than-first-choice side in last week's first leg, and is now faced with putting out his strongest possible team on the road in order to salvage the series.
Neither result is predictable in any real sense, and any advantage that MLS may have over their "weaker" competition is debatable; if MLS is going to significantly improve over last year's terrible showing, both TFC and United need to put serious effort into tonight's matches.
Whether they will, and whether they can win, is anyone's guess.
I didn't get a chance to make predictions last week, but I'll go ahead and take a shot for the second legs.
PR 1, TFC 1, Islanders advance (2-1 aggregate)
Firpo 0, DCU 1, United advance (2-1 aggregate)
