Columbus welcome Houston in CCC
A trip to the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals is on the line Tuesday night when the Columbus Crew host Houston Dynamo FC at Lower.com Field. Kickoff is set for 6 pm on FS1 and ViX.
Pachuca host Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Union visit Liga MX side Pachuca Tuesday night with a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals up for grabs. Kickoff is set for 8:15 pm ET on FS1 and ViX.
Orlando travel to face Tigres
A berth in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals awaits either Tigres UANL or Orlando City SC, who square off Tuesday evening in Leg 2 of their Round of 16 series. Kickoff is set for 10:30 pm ET on FS1, FuboTV and TUDN.
Knowles transitions to assistant role with Minnesota United
Cameron Knowles, who’s served as interim head coach for Minnesota United FC, will continue as a first-team assistant coach under new head coach Eric Ramsay. Knowles has overseen the Loons since January, steering them to an undefeated 2W-0L-1D record in 2024 – including two road victories. As it stands, Minnesota are second in the Western Conference table and third in the overall MLS standings.
Sign up for The Daily Kickoff in your inbox! The Daily Kickoff is more than an article – it can be delivered to your email account as well.
A busy night of Concacaf Champions Cup action features three underdogs hoping to surprise a whole lot of folks on the road. Let’s talk it out.
Columbus Crew (1) vs. Houston Dynamo FC (0) - 6 pm ET
Houston could have been totally fine heading into this second leg if they held on for just a couple of minutes longer last week. Instead, Alexandru Matan found a late leg-one winner and gave the Crew a huge advantage.
The Crew can win or draw their way to the CCC quarterfinals tonight. They were already going to be heavily favored at 0-0, but an away goal and a win makes this an incredibly daunting task for a Houston side that’s had remarkably little go right for them to start the season.
They do have one advantage here, though. The Dynamo got a full week’s rest after a bye in MLS last weekend. Meanwhile, a nearly full-strength Crew side spent 100-plus minutes tracking down a late winner against Chicago on Saturday. That’s something, right? Maybe, just maybe, Houston can take advantage of some tired legs.
Pachuca (0) vs. Philadelphia Union (0) - 8:15 pm ET
The Union weren’t at their best in leg one, but still had several clear chances and half chances to take the lead against Pachuca. They didn’t execute and now they have to go to Mexico needing a win or a goal that earns them a draw.
It’s another lofty task, but, like Houston, the Union got a break this weekend. Their matchup with Seattle got postponed due to weather, while Pachuca bricked a 2-1 loss to a mediocre Querétaro team.
That’s not their only advantage. The Union have been here before. Well, kind of. They took a 1-0 lead into the second leg against Atlas last year, but still needed to come back from an early Atlas goal to take a 2-2 draw and a 3-2 win on aggregate. That win sent them to the CCC semifinals. They have plenty of experience in Concacaf at this point and should be well aware of how to approach tonight’s matchup. They won’t be overwhelmed.
Tigres UANL (0) vs. Orlando City SC (0) - 10:30 pm ET
Orlando have also been here before. A little bit more than Philadelphia, actually. In 2023, the Lions earned a 0-0 draw on the road against this same Tigres team before falling on away goals in a 1-1 second-leg draw.
This year, that same scenario is flipped. Orlando and Tigres played to a 0-0 draw last week in Florida. Now, the Lions need to head to Nuevo León and reverse the script on Tigres.
That’s obviously easier said than done. You might be especially doubtful Orlando can do it after a pretty miserable couple of weeks. The Lions laid an egg against Inter Miami in a 5-0 loss, squandered multiple chances in leg one, and then followed that up with a frustrating 3-2 home loss to Minnesota that featured some atrocious defensive moments. But the flip side of that is they created multiple chances and were probably the better side against freaking Tigres and were absolutely the better side against Minnesota, save for a couple of errors. There’s no reason to panic with this group.
At the same time, that doesn’t mean they’re going to waltz into El Volcán and get the job done without any issues. They’ll need to put together something special to pull this off. But special is plausible tonight. That’s better than a lot of teams can say against Tigres.
Atlanta's Giakoumakis named Player of the Matchday: Atlanta United striker Giorgos Giakoumakis has won MLS Player of the Matchday honors for Matchday 4 of the 2024 MLS season. The Greek international scored his first career MLS hat trick in Atlanta’s 4-1 victory over the New England Revolution on Saturday.
New England's JAFONSO wins 2024 eMLS Cup: New England Revolution’s João Afonso “JAFONSO” Vasconcelos has won the 2024 eMLS Cup presented by TikTok, defeating Inter Miami CF’s John “K1john” Kamel by a 6-0 scoreline in Sunday’s final.
- Sacha Kljestan has a new version of Stock Up, Stock Down.
- Jonathan Sigal has one thought on every team after Matchday 4.
- Here’s your Team of the Matchday presented by Audi.
- The Young Players are here to stay.
- Voting for AT&T Goal of the Matchday is open.
Good luck out there. Take a good look.
