Costa Rican heavyweight Saprissa went to Portland, took the lead in the first half, and held on after Jack McInerney equalized for the Timbers. The 1-1 draw sends Saprissa through to the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.
Former New York Red Bulls' defender Roy Miller is on Saprissa's roster this season and started the match. If he's still a regular starter for the Costa Rican club in February, he should feature in the 2016-17 CCL quarterfinals.
Pachuca's trip to Honduras produced some drama, and not just because the lights in the stadium went out for a while. Los Tuzos twice put themselves a goal up against Olimpia, and twice were pegged back. Then two second-half goals handed Pachuca a 4-2 lead and seemed to have put the game to bed. Olimpia came charging back, scored twice in the last 10 minutes and threatened to bounce Los Tuzos out of the tournament. But the fifth goal didn't come for the home team and Pachuca squeaks through to the quarterfinals.
In the dead-rubber match in Group C, Sporting Kansas City beat Central FC, 3-1.
The results bring much greater clarity to the prospective quarterfinal pairings. Pachuca's slip in Honduras means Vancouver Whitecaps will have the number one seed in the knockout rounds. Arabe Unido is the two seed. Pachuca will be the third seed.
Pumas are expected to win on October 20, but need to win 3-0 to claim the fourth seed from UANL Tigres. FC Dallas can qualify with a draw in its final match; host Suchitepequez needs a win.
From the New York Red Bulls' perspective, it looks very likely the team will be playing Arabe Unido in next year's quarterfinals.
RBNY is the lowest-ranked of the the teams currently guaranteed a quarterfinal berth. Pumas might draw with W Connection and slip below the Red Bulls in the rankings, but that seems almost as improbable as the Pumas' loss that would allow Honduras Progreso to slip into the knockout rounds (as a lower seed than RBNY). Count on the Liga MX side winning a home game against the weakest team in its group to claim the four or five seed.
Conversely, FC Dallas' trip to Suchitepequez seems unlikely to deliver the lop-sided win either team would need to relegate RBNY to the eighth seed. (FCD needs a three-goal win; Suchitepequez would need a four-goal win.) One of those teams (the odds favor Dallas since a draw puts FCD through) will be the lowest-ranked seed in the quarterfinals.
There is no change to OaM's estimated quarterfinalists and rankings from yesterday's updated table, but there is more certainty. Bold in the table below shows guaranteed seedings, qualifiers, or points.
Seed | Team | Points |
1 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 12 |
2 | Arabe Unido | 12 |
3 | Pachuca | 10 |
4 | UANL Tigres | 9 |
5 | UNAM Pumas | 9 |
6 | Saprissa | 8 |
7 | RBNY | 8 |
8 | FC Dallas | 6 |
And based on those assumptions, the predicted quarterfinal pairings haven't changed either:
1. Vancouver Whitecaps vs 8. FC Dallas
2. Arabe Unido vs 7. RBNY
3. Pachuca vs 6. Saprissa
4. UANL Tigres vs 5. UNAM Pumas
Note that these match-ups would deliver a guaranteed MLS vs Liga MX semifinal: the winner of the VWFC-FCD game would play the winner of the Tigres-Pumas quarterfinal.