Breakfast Links - October 30, 2023
(image via Aldo Canale)
How are we feeling after last night? Hope all of you had an incredible weekend watching the Dynamo. Here are your links to recap the win and the rest of the soccer world this weekend.
Houston
The Houston Dynamo are the only Houston team left standing and they earned their first playoff win in six years with a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake. The Dynamo attacked right from kickoff while RSL were playing much more conservative. The Dynamo took advantage of Salt Lake’s low block trapping them in their own half leading to the opening goal from Hector Herrera. Salt Lake looked much better on the counter in the second half leading to an incredible shot from Diego Luna, who tortured the Dynamo defense most of the night. The Dynamo kept pushing until Amine Bassi found the winning goal off a rebound. They held on to the 2-1 lead and will look to advance to the next round in Game 2 next Monday.
Major League Soccer
The MLS Cup Playoffs began Saturday night with Philadelphia Union hosting the New England Revolution. Both teams should have found the back of the net early in the game, but it took until the 19th minute for Philly to open the scoring with a Daniel Gazdag penalty. Shortly after, New England’s star player Carles Gil exited the game with an injury. Philly scored goals two and three shortly after. The Union held on to the lead with New England only getting one goal back to make the final score 3-1. The second game of the night saw LAFC host Vancouver. Ryan Hollingshead did his best Griffin Dorsey impression, scoring a brace from right back alongside a brace for Denis Bouanga. Jesus Murillo added a fifth goal late on to compile on the misery for Vancouver in a game that ended 5-2.
Sunday night saw FC Cincinnati host the Red Bulls in a 3-0 thrashing. The Argentines stuck out with Alvaro Barreal scoring a brace and Lucho Acosta adding the third goal. Cincinnati took full advantage of a Red Bulls team who looked tired coming off Wednesday’s play in game. The late game saw the biggest upset of the playoffs so far with Sporting Kansas City dominating St. Louis CITY on the road 4-1. The teams traded goals before the 30th minute but it was all SKC after that. Remi Walter and Gadi Kinda both scored before halftime and Daniel Salloi capped off the night with a goal in the second half. So far, SKC is the only team to win on the road in the playoffs.
Around the World
This season’s first El Clasico took place on Saturday where Jude Bellingham beat Barcelona 2-1. Barcelona played a great first half with Ilkay Gundogan getting on the scoresheet just six minutes in. Midway through the second half, Jude Bellingham took over the game for Madrid scoring an incredible long-range goal. He found the back of the net again in stoppage time off a messy cross to win the game. This win puts Real Madrid four points clear of Barcelona and tied at the top with Girona.
Defense was optional this week in Germany with a crazy 42 goal being scored this matchday. Fourteen of those goals came for both Bayern München and RB Leipzig. Bayern won their game against SV Darmstadt 8-0 while being down to ten men for most of the game. Harry Kane scored a hat trick, including a goal from the halfway line. Leipzig won their game against Koln 6-0. Lois Openda and Xavi Simons shined as Openda had two goals and Simons had two assists. Bayern still trails Leverkusen at the top of the table and Leipzig moved within a point of the top four following Dortmund’s 3-3 tie with Frankfurt.
