Early Lightning Strike (7/11)

107°F BUT DRY, CA -- A rain and lightning delay postponed kickoff 45 minutes which seemed to energize both pool favorite Atlanta United FC and the New York Red Bulls with NY getting on the board in the 4' and several great chances for both teams in the first half.  The second half seemed to tire both teams but ATL had a few good chances with the last a leaping 90'+8' save by David Jensen to help NY preserve the 1-0 win.   This was the first time in 5 matches a team scored in the first half and it was the first time in 28 matches that ATL failed to score (regular season plus playoffs).  

The second match was delayed 30 minutes meaning an 11 pm EDT start (11:25 pm kickoff) and it didn't end until 1:22 am which wasn't soon enough for FC Cincinnati.  Columbus Crew SC scored twice in both halves in a 4-0 rout of CIN.  A lot of firsts for the tourney:  first team with a multi-goal lead, first team to score more than twice, first player to score more than once (Gyasi Zardes), and first official VAR review (on Zardes' second goal if he was offsides).  It was not a good night for new CIN coach Jaap Stam (hired on May 21 during the shutdown) and CIN's next opponent is ATL.

So FOX is piping in fake noise?  Yuck.  But you can listen to the natural noise on the FOX Sports app (not to be confused with the FOX Sports Go app -- ok, it's confusing).  I mean USA head coach Gregg Berhalter couldn't have made ALL that noise when his son Sebastian debuted for CLB in the 77'.

No one believed in RBNY but 12 did get CLB right.  The same 3 are on top (Kona Coast Fauci's, Kona Coast Sliders, and Super League) with 3 pts while Deutschland = Koenig is last with zero points.