last year's Champions' Cup runner-up -- in their first-leg encounter, the Jorge Vergara-owned club having also picked up a player who last year saw time with the MetroStars, midfielder Pablo Brenes (by way of Real Salt Lake).
D.C. United has had good fortune against Caribbean sides in their CONCACAF Champions' Cup history. In the quarterfinals in 1997 they defeated Trinidad & Tobago club United Petrotrin 1-0 in the quarterfinals, then the following season demolished T&T side Joe Public FC 8-0 on their way to becoming the first U.S. team to lift the club championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. In 2001, D.C. United dispatched Jamaica's Arnett Gardens FC on their way to the final of the ill-fated CONCACAF Giants Cup.
This is the first time a Jamaican side has qualified for the final stages of the CONCACAF Champions Cup since 2003, when Arnett Gardens narrowly lost to Mexican side CD Necaxa. The teams played to a scoreless draw in Jamaica before Necaxa scored the only goal of the series in the second leg to advance to the quarterfinals.
In Caribbean qualifying this year, Harbour View destroyed Ideal FC from Montserrat 30-1 on aggregate in the quarterfinals (the first time a team from that volcano-ravaged island had ever participated in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup). HVFC then knocked off InterMoengoTapoe of Suriname 9-6 on aggregate in semifinals, before slipping past Jamaican rival Tivoli Gardens in the zonal final, 3-2 on aggregate as an injury-time goal from Jomo Gordon in the second leg put Harbour View into the final eight.
After winning the first stage of Jamaica's Wray and Nephew National Premier League (the Jamaican season is split into three stages), Harbour View have struggled. They currently sit in 10th place in the 12-team league with just one victory and three draws in seven matches, that victory coming in their last match before departing for the USA, a 2-1 victory on March 1 against Rivoli United. In the overall table, Harbour View have the fourth-best record in the league with 38 points from 20 matches, seven behind second-stage leader Portmore United (with a game in hand).
Nicholas McCreath and Clifton Waugh -- both former Jamaica internationals -- lead Harbour View with six goals apiece, while current Reggae Boyz striker Luton Shelton has five, along with Sean Fraser. Shelton won the goalscoring title in the Digicel Cup, the qualifying tournament for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup, in leading Jamaica to the tournament with nine goals.
Deportivo Saprissa, 23-time Costa Rican champion, stand tied for second at the halfway point of the Torneo Clausura in Costa Rica's Primera Division, with 16 points from nine matches, level with AD Carmelita and one behind CS Herediano. On Sunday, goals from Walter Centeno (46) and Ronald Gomez (75) gave Saprissa a 2-0 home victory against Perez Zeledon, the club that defeated them in the final of the Torneo Apertura in December.
Twenty-two-year-old striker Alvaro Saborio, who was a part of Costa Rica's Olympic team last summer, has 15 goals thus far this season and led the Costa Rica league in the Torneo Apertura. Long-time Costa Rican international Centeno has three along with Alonso Solis.
A year ago, Saprissa reached the final of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, losing to arch-rival LD Alajuelense 5-1 on aggregate in an all-Costa Rican final. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in San Jose, before Alajuelense cruised to victory at home in the return leg.
This year, after getting past Real Esteli FC of Nicaragua 5-0 on aggregate in the second round of Central American qualifying (Saprissa had a first-round bye), the morados finished second in the four-team final group with four points, tied with CD Olimpia of Honduras and behind Guatemala's CSD Municipal.
Saprissa has twice won the region's highest honor for clubs, capturing the title in 1993 and 1995, both times when the tournament was decided with a final quadrangular. Saprissa last year defeated the Chicago Fire in the semifinals of the Champions Cup, winning the first leg in San Jose 2-0 behind goals from Andres Nunez and Solis, Chicago then winning the second leg after Andy Williams and Jim Curtin canceled out a Solis goal in the 11th minute, but that was enough to send Saprissa through on aggregate.
This is the second appearance in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup for the Kansas City Wizards. In their only other qualification, the tournament proper began with 16 teams, and Kansas City Wizards eased past W Connection of Trinidad & Tobago 3-0 in the first round. In the quarterfinals, the Wizards overcame a 2-1 first-leg deficit to score a 2-0 return match victory and 3-2 win on aggregate against Mexican side Santos Laguna. But then facing another Mexican team in Monarcas Morelia in the semifinals, the Wizards lost 6-1 in the first leg and although battling to a 1-1 draw in the home leg, Kansas City crashed out 7-2 on aggregate.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
