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Club football is working its way to champions on every continent. Seattle Sounders FC and Santos Laguna are in the semifinals of their climb in North America. The Liga MX is favored in the contest (a Sounders win is listed at 9.00, Santos at 1.33), which isn't really a surprise. You certainly know of the big UEFA contests involving Malaga's trip to Dortmund and Turkish club Galatasaray needing a miracle to get past Real Madrid. Both of those will be on TV in the USA. Fox Soccer has the Madrid contest while Root gets Dortmund. Both start at 11:30 AM Pacific.
But that's not all. The Copa Libertadores is contested this week as well. Former Sounder Fredy Montero is not yet eliminated, but Millionaros is quite close to finished. He faces another Liga MX power on Wednesday night.
Over in Asia former Sounder Alvaro Fernandez and al-Rayyan take on al-Ain of the UAE. Qatar's al-Rayyan is in a poor run of form and Alvaro is not powering that offense like was expected. He's been a central mid, left mid and left wing at various points. He did earn a recall to Uruguay with his loan from the Fire to Qatar. Asia is early in their cycle still contesting their regional based group stages.
Bringing it back locally, the coverage from MLSSoccer.com is immense with one of their staff traveling (sadly not Jeremiah). The key as put forward by Sigi, Eddie and Zakuani? Patience and playing within themselves. The Sounders know that they stand a chance. They know their history. It was only last month that they did the "impossible."
"A comeback is doable because it's only one goal," Mauro Rosales told reporters at Torreón Airport. "The last game, we were in a worse situation and we were able to get past Tigres so we anticipate that we can do the right things to get a result."
Do you believe? Sigi does.
"But we believe in ourselves and we believe in our ability to do a difficult thing. . . . It's not going to be easy, but it's not going to be impossible."
We'll see you tonight.
This is your open thread for Champions.