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Concacaf (not CONCACAF) Champions League gets back in action tonight with Toronto FC hosting Club America. It is going to be cold and rainy tonight so that is going in the Canadians favor, but if they have a hope at getting through to the final they need to get at least three points at home and do their best to prevent an away goal. At the very least we get to see El Piojo in a parka.
Oh, Atlanta is keeping up with the aggregate record spot a US team will have for the 2019 spot a US team will get:
Week 5 update in race for 2019 #CCL spot, U.S. based team with best aggregate record over 2017 + 2018 #MLS seasons.
— Jason Foster (@JogaBonito_USA) April 1, 2018
1) #NYCFC 70 pts
2) #ATLUTD 64 pts
3) #CrewSC 64 pts
4) #SportingKC 59 pts**
5) #cf97 56 pts
6) #RBNY 56 pts
7) #RCTID 55 pts
8) #Dynamo 54 pts
9) #Sounders 53 pts pic.twitter.com/kjfNCjHL2b
Anyway, onto the Dirt...
Domestic
The NC Courage got a late game winner in injury time as they stayed undefeated with a 1-0 win against Sky Blue. Neil Morris of WARL recapped the match here. Here’s how the USWNT players did in NWSL over the weekend from SSFC.
It turns out it’s really, really hard to quantify what makes a good defensive midfielder. Is Michael Bradley a good one? Is Alejandro Bedoya? What do the stats say about it? Are people going to skip straight to the list here without reading the article and get Mad Online about it? This is great stuff from the one and only Rapids Rabbi - Mark Asher Goodman.
International
Sevilla and Bayern Munich face off with Real Madrid taking on Juventus in Turin in the UEFA Champions League quarter finals today. At this point you have to want Juve to win so that when they lose to the MLS All-Stars we can say the league is better than all of Europe.
Sometimes data is misused, others it can be beautiful.
It’s actually incredible how Messi has 36 goals and 16 assists this season even though he plays a similar position to midfielders like Ozil and de Bruyne.
— Juan (@socraticjuan) April 2, 2018
Scoring, assisting, creating, passing, or dictating the tempo; Messi has it all.
The most complete footballer in history. pic.twitter.com/VIDIGHTfAb
Goal
Get ready for CL action with this classic
We will always have this goal. #JuveReal pic.twitter.com/Ld6h4HSmDT
— Juve Podcast ⬛️⬜️ (@Juvepodcast) April 2, 2018
You should watch...
It isn’t as witty, clever, edgy, and completely hilarious as a Silicon Valley media conglomerate that isn’t totally in a bubble that is going to help crash the economy when it pops doing a gag about buying Seth Rogen, but this is a good April Fools gag if you missed it: