Houston gets knocked out yet again early in the US Open Cup! 1-1 versus the Charleston Battery. Charleston playing a man down, but with the lead until Houston leveled. The Battery go another man down…but the Battery hang on for Penalty Kicks!

Upset alert! Crystal Palace USA wins by TWO goals versus the Red Bull New York. The Baltimore team played a man down since the 34th minute of the first half. Yeah, the excuse will be that the Red Bulls were with out six or seven key players. Poor excuse if you ask me, they lost due to no effort or hustle from what it sounded like.

No upset alert! DC United wins fairly easy, 2-0 over the Rochestor Rhinos. Both goals by Marc Burch. Love seeing those outside defensive backs score.

In overtime, the Wizards score, having really turned it around from a 2-0 deficit to the Carolina Railhawks. After another PK in the game, the Wizards turned it up a notch. It’s now 4-2. Caroline came close to scoring a third, but couldn’t manage it, playing a man down too big a handicap. See a theme here tonight? Yeah.

Chicago Fire scored 3 goals on the Cleveland City Stars – in the first half. Cleveland get a consolation goal back.

Games In Progress…

Miami Blues and FC Dallas all tied up at halftime.

Richmond Kickers and New England Revolution – Revs go up a goal early in the second half.

In Canadian soccer news, Toronto FC finally lost a game at home to their little brother from Vancouver. Yikes not a good way to show off their field to a couple potential players (Darren Huckerby and Paul Dickov) who were in the stands.

Toronto FC opened up the Nutralite Canadian Championship with a 1-0 win against Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo tonight with a goal from Marco Velez.

Montreal played a man-down for the better part of the second half.

Bigger news may be that Reds striker Danny Dichio had to leave the game with a groin injury, no word on if he will be available for this weekend’s match. Toronto was able to play pretty well without the likes of Maurice Edu and Amado Guevara, who were both away with national team duty.

The Reds return to Nutralite Canadian Championship action on July 1st against Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field. The Impact are in Toronto on July 22nd.

Toronto FC side: Greg Sutton, Marvell Wynne, Olivier Tebily, Marco Velez, Jim Brennan, Rohan Ricketts, Kevin Harmse, Carl Robinson, Laurent Robert, Jeff Cunningham, Danny Dichio (Jarrod Smith 41).

Switching pace to the US Open Cup for a moment. While the LA-Colorado game is still going on (if that score goes final while I am still up I will update this), the Columbus Crew were able to knock off Real Sale Lake in convincing fashion, 2-0.

The Black-and-Gold got goals from rookie Steven Lenhart in the first half and Robbie Rogers in the second half as they move forward in the Open Cup.

With the victory, Columbus advances to play the Chicago Fire in both teams’ final play-in match on June 10.

Both clubs used a mix lineup of starters and reserves. Columbus continues it’s solid home play while Real Salt Lake continues to be lost on the road in any competition. From what it sounded like, the Crew really never let RSL in this game. Point being, good teams know how to win and how to lock down an opponent on any given night. Columbus was able to do both tonight.

Scoring Summary:
CLB — Steven Lenhart 1 (unassisted) 26
CLB — Robbie Rogers 1 (Brian Carroll ) 53

Real Salt Lake — Nick Rimando, Dustin Kirby (Tony Beltran 61), David Horst, Matias Mantilla, Ian Joy, Dema Kovalenko, Matias Cordoba (Javier Morales 73), Kenny Cutler (Andy Williams 46), Kyle Beckerman, Tino Nunez (Fabian Espindola 70), Robbie Findley.

Substitutes Not Used: Nat Borchers, Alex Nimo, Kyle Reynish

Columbus Crew — Andy Gruenebaum, Jed Zayner, Chad Marshall, Danny O’Rourke, Ryan Junge, Emmanuel Ekpo (Andrew Peterson 85), Brian Carroll (Brad Evans 70), Adam Moffat, Robbie Rogers (Eddie Gaven 75), Alejandro Moreno (George Josten 77), Steven Lenhart.

Substitutes Not Used: Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Will Hesmer, Andy Iro

This is the first of a few round-robin type games between Montreal, Toronto and another USL side Vancouver for the lone Canadian bid into the region’s club championship. This little group even as a sponsor, the Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

Both sides know the importance of this and will want to put their best foot forward. Its nice that the stadiums are new and will be packed  between these two clubs. I think even when they travel to Vancouver there will be some solid interest there as well for this.

Toronto’s coach John Carver has put a lot of importance in this one as he wants his club to be able to cash in on the tournament.

“There’s a pot of gold at the end of this tournament,” said the Reds coach. “We’ll get extra money by getting into the Champions League, but it’s also a chance for the players to go up against the best teams in CONCACAF. As a player you thrive on wanting to play against the best in the world, not just the best in your own league. So that adds to the excitement.

“It would be great if this becomes like the FA Cup in England. You have to start somewhere, and in years to come, it would be great to have lots more sides involved in the competition. It would be a fantastic situation for the game in this country if that ever happened.”

I honestly love that CONCACAF is giving Canada a bid for this Champions League. Sure they only have three clubs but I think CONCACAF realized just how well supported each club is.

There’s also a nice sub-plot here with the two USL sides who’s owners are wanting to get into MLS sometime soon. You have to get a feeling that if one of them end up winning this group that their city will have a solid chance of earning that bid with a little more cash in the bank from this competition. Not to mention the bragging rights in the country.

For the game tonight, I’m going with a 1-1 draw between the two sides. I don’t follow Montreal enough to know what they bring to the table but I do know they have some MLS-level talent on their roster. It could be interesting!