Ulsterman Poised to Foil Mexican Domination in CONCACAF Cup

Monday, April 6, 2009

Puerto Rico Islanders Take 2-0 Lead to Cruz Azul

April 6

With the dismal fate of Houston Dynamo, New England Revs, DC United and Chivas USA, Colin Clarke’s Puerto Rico Islanders are the closest thing America, or the MLS, has to a representative in the CONCACAF Champions League.

True, Puerto Rico is not really in the USA and the Puerto Rico Islanders are definitely not in the MLS, but at least the plucky island side that has set the Champions League alight are not totally strange to us. Despite being from Belfast, manager Colin Clarke is comprehensible to most of us, and those of you who followed the Sounders when they were in the USL know all about their players. Sandy Gbandi and Nicholas Addlery, who tortured Seattle last year while a Vancouver Whitecaps player, scored the goals in the opening leg played in Bayamon, PR on March 17. PRI therefore head to Mexico for the second leg against Cruz Azul with a 2-0 lead, but will be well aware of the fate that befell Montreal Impact who lost an identical lead in Mexico in the last round. The Quebecois side went down 5-2 to Santos to go out 5-4, with the last two goals coming in injury time.

Nick Addlery Tormented Seattle as a Whitecap

The Islanders are the first Caribbean team in 14 years to reach the final four of CONCACAF’s premier club competition and is trying to become the first to win the title since Trinidad’s Defense Force in 1985.

Cruz Azul Winless in Five

Cruz Azul, known as the Cementeros, are without a victory in their last five matches in the Mexican Clausura and have lost their last three, including a 3-2 defeat to Pumas UNAM Saturday night at Estadio Azul. They have conceded 11 in the last four league matches and the club is at the bottom of Clausura Group 2 with 11 points in 12 matches.

“Mistakes keep costing us but I’m left with a good impression from the second half,” Cruz Azul manager Benjamin Galindo said after Saturday’s game. “We knew the match would get complicated if we gave Pumas the space we gave them, but the team never quit fighting and looking for scoring opportunities so I’m left with a good impression.”

With a 2-0 lead, and Cruz confidence already at a low, the chances have never been better for Puerto Rico to make history.

In the other semi-final, an all Mexican affair, Santos lead Atlante 2-1, before a second leg to be played at Estadio Quintana Roo in Cancun on Wednesday.

Live coverage of the Puerto Rico game is on Fox Soccer Channel at 7pm Pacific time.