Alamo City wins West; Capital District wins East

West Group: Alamo City 4 Gold Coast 2
East Group:  Capital District 5 Gateway United 4

Sebastian Blanco's brace was the difference this weekend for Alamo City as the Battle defeated Gold Coast FC to win the West and advance to the clubs 5th Majors Cup tournament in its history. As the top seed representing the BSL, Alamo City will play Toronto FC in the Semi-Finals of the tournament. In the East of the qualifiers, Diego Rossi broke a 4-4 tie and his game winner earned Capital District the clubs 9th appearance to the Majors Cup tournament. The Gunners will face Sporting Kansas City in the other Semi-Final match.

Gunners Reclaim First Place; MCQ Finales Next

Capital District  10 : 5  Gateway United
S.C. Canada  5 : 4  Union S.C.
Alamo City  8 : 2  Gold Coast

In the race for the Honors Trophy, Capital District had 2 separate players put up a hat-trick to defeat Gateway United and reclaim 1st place in the league standings with 1 match remaining. Meanwhile, Alamo City did what it needed to do to staying in the race by defeating Gold Coast FC with 7 players hitting the boxscore. The win was Alamo City's 100th all-time league victory! Finally, S.C. Canada overcame a 4-0 deficit by scoring 5 unanswered to claim victory over Union S.C. The results of the week mean the playoff teams are set with Capital District and Alamo City now clinched. Only the Semi-Final pairing is left in doubt with the Gunners now in the drivers seat having to play Union S.C. in week 10, while the Battle and Saints have to duke it out against one another and hope the Gunners lose.

Before all that! The last Majors Cup Qualifiers start tomorrow with both the West and East groups in doubt. Gateway United and Capital District will have a very quick turnaround versus each other with the Eastern Group up for grabs. Both a 1-0-0 and it will be winner take all to advance into the Majors Cup tournament. The other MCQ match is less simple. Alamo City plays Gold Coast in another quick turn around from this weekend. Alamo will need to win or tie to advance, but could also lose and possibly advance if the club holds Gold Coast from scoring too much and itself scores at least 4 points. Gold Coast has it tougher, as the club would need to win and score at least 8 points. Otherwise Union S.C. will win the West and advance to the tournament.

All Three Matches End In Draws

It was an interesting week in the BSL. Let's start with Alamo City vs Union S.C., where the match went back and forth as the substitutes began entering the match for both sides. A Sebastian Giovinco red card allowed Penilla to enter and score 2 goals for Alamo, but a late Tyler Miller yellow allowed Plata to enter to tie the match for the Union to end the match in a 7-7 draw. Meanwhile, S.C. Canada and Capital District also were in a neck and neck fight that went down to the wire, including a David Villa PK to close the scoring and end the match in a 6-6 draw. Finally, Gateway United and Gold Coast put forth another tug of war this weekend to end in a 5-5 draw. All these results help the standings leaders including Gateway United, who clinched a playoff berth.

Saints Take Over First Place

The Saints marched to this weekend's best 8 points and easily defeated S.C. Canada in the process. The result was highlighted by the 4 point performance from Piatti very early into the match and moved Gateway United into first place in the league standings after Alamo City handed Capital District a 2nd straight loss to win the BSL Classic with a 10-8 aggregate scoreline. Alamo City remains in 3rd place, but is now 4 points clear for the last playoff spot with 3 matches to play and is only 2 points out to rise all the way to a potential first place. Union S.C. took the California Cup after defeating Gold Coast FC 7-3 this weekend and a 15-5 total aggregate.