Lessons from the CCC & the weekend ahead | Thursday Round-Up

Let me start by apologizing for no Wednesday column. Been burning the candle at both ends and realized I had nothing left in the tank this week. On top of that, I am going away for a little battery recharge this weekend, which means no Sunday column, either.

I will, however, be back on Tuesday with the Power Rankings. Which are so important! How would you possibly know which team has the most power???

A few takeaways from this week's Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal openers:

• Brutal missed opportunity from Nashville in their scoreless home draw vs. Club América. The 'Yotes were better, but in games of this magnitude you need guys like Hany or Surridge to show up in a big way. Neither did.
• Son and David Martínez, however? Yeah, they showed up and crushed Cruz Azul (with some help from Mathieu Choinière as well). Gass and I talked, on Monday's Soccerwise, about how Marc Dos Santos has, for now, decided to draw a lower line of confrontation. It makes sense, and proved to be the right choice. Emphatically so.
• The Sounders had a good first half, but one mistouch opened the floodgates in the second and they were lucky to get out of Monterrey with a 2-0 loss and some faint hope of advancing. Lots of "hanging on for dear life" over the second 45, which is tough to do when you're down to your fifth-choice CB.
• I've been pretty dismissive of the Galaxy this year – it's them, not me – but they've really got nothing to hang their heads about after a 4-2 loss down in Toluca. They showed real life and opportunism of a sort that's been missing in their league play all year long:

I expect LAFC to go through. I think the Liga MX sides will win the three other series.

Good reads:

• Very good interview with Rapids coach Matt Wells over at Backheeled. That man is very, very happy to talk about his philosophy (and does so cogently).
• Yoann Damet's got good things happening for St. Louis City, as argued by the folks over at Chat City Tactics.
• Timbers CSO Ned Grabavoy talked with the press about head coach Phil Neville's job security. It doesn't seem great!
• Joe Tansey over at the Union Soccer Blog points out that Philly spent a lot of money on DP center forwards who, with nearly 20% of the season done, have yet to put a shot on frame.
• I missed this a couple weeks ago but a friend put it on my radar: press in the Netherlands is all over how bad a defensive forward Ricardo Pepi is. If you're wondering why he's yet to really win Mauricio Pochettino's trust for the USMNT, that's probably it.

Monday's Soccerwise was the usual weekend recap:

We've also got an episode coming today in which we talk a bit about the USMNT center forward situation. Obviously with Pat Agyemang's injury, the door is open for Pepi. But they're very different strikers with very different strengths and weaknesses, and I can't shake the feeling that even with Agyemang out until next year, Pepi's not a lock for the World Cup roster.

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