FRISCO, Texas — By advancing to the Champions Division quarterfinals, Real Salt Lake achieved one of their Generation adidas Cup goals. But in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night, the Claret-and-Cobalt fell 2-0 to La Liga heavyweights, Valencia, ending their promising 2019 tournament run. Two second half goals by the Spanish side proved to be the difference after an even first half between the teams. Bode Davis and Pablo Caperelli created good chances for Salt Lake on the counter, but their efforts narrowly missed.
“We have been a dangerous team in every game we’ve played [this week],” RSL head coach Juan Fresquez, told MLSsoccer.com after the quarterfinal loss. “The difference has been the finishing. We have created some chances in every game, so there a lot of positives to take from [this quarterfinal] against a very strong opponent.”
RSL still have two games left at this year's GA Cup with the next coming on Thursday against FC Dallas. -Elliott Tomes
A slow start doomed FC Dallas against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, falling 3-1 in the Generation adidas Cup Champions Division quarterfinal.
Playing on their home turf, FC Dallas fell behind 3-0 after just 26 minutes to a clinical Zagreb side that took advantage of every chance. The fight back from FCD was on as USL-signee David Rodriguez finished an effort in the box in the 29th minute to pull Dallas within two.
In the second half, fellow North Texas SC striker Ricardo Pepi came close on multiple occasions to find that second goal that would’ve set up a grandstand finish, but it never came and Dinamo moves on to the semifinal where they will face La Liga’s Valencia CF while FCD will face RSL in a consolation match.
"I think we started slow mentally and made some errors and then were chasing the game,” Dallas head coach Matias Asorey told MLSsoccer.com after the match. "We rebounded but against an organized team like Dinamo it’s tough and we had the chances to score but our accuracy was a little bit off tonight.” -Daniel Robertson
Following a second-place finish in Group B of the Champions Division, the LA Galaxy squared off against undefeated West Ham United with a trip to the semifinals on the line. Fueled by strong play from fullbacks Kobe Hernandez-Foster and Mauricio Cuevas during group play, the Galaxy knew they had the quality to advance deep into the Generation adidas Cup bracket if they could finish their chances.
Unfortunately for head coach Andrew May and his players, their good form was not enough to avoid a heartbreaking 2-1 loss in extratime to West Ham United. The back-and-forth affair saw the Galaxy first concede a goal in the 17th minute, but eventually found an equalizer through left winger Cameron Dunbar 16 minutes later. Dunbar’s right-footed curler was set up by some quick combination play between Dunbar and Hernandez-Foster on the left flank.
LA saw plenty of later scoring chances fall short as they pushed for the winner. These efforts included a flashing header from striker Andre Ochoa in the first session of extratime that went just wide of the right post. But ultimately it was West Ham United securing advancement to the semifinals with a set piece goal in the final minute of the second extratime session, flicking a header past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Carlos Zuniga.
Despite the loss, the tournament does not stop for the Galaxy, who will now face River Plate in a Champions Division placement match on Thursday. West Ham will face the Seattle Sounders in the semifinals on Thursday at 4:30 pm ET on Twitch. -Elliott Tomes
