Breakfast Links - April 20, 2022

Well, that game was fun. Let’s get to the Breakfast Links for a Wednesday.

Houston

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup is here and its perfect, that’s what the cool kids say. The Dynamo hosted the bros from the south, the Rio Grande Valley Toros, last night for the third round. Paulo Nagamura fielded a combination of first team and Dynamo Dos players. The match saw a penalty stopped by Michael Nelson, two very different goals from the Dynamo, an own goal from an attempted cross by Thor and a Jared Borghetti-esque finish by Sam Junqua in the dying minutes of the match. The Orange pulled out a victory to move on to the next round where a few more MLS teams will enter and a total of 32 teams will compete to lift the trophy.

Beto Avila and Talen Maples, were signed yesterday to short-term loans by the first team before yesterday’s match. Basically what that meant was that both players were eligible to play in the US Open Cup match. This might not seem like much, but this is HUGE for this club and for this city. It is basically the first few “fruits” of this new harvest in which the club is “investing in the pipeline” from the Academy via Dynamo Dos to THE FIRST TEAM. Roberto “Beto” Avila came into the match in minute 66 and ended up providing the game winning assist in the 93rd minute. Unfortunately, Talen Maples didn’t get to see minutes but this speaks volumes to what he has been doing as the captain and center back of this Houston Dynamo 2 team.

MLS

Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

Some other match ups in this round of the US Open Cup left some surprises for us. Union Omaha traveled to Chicago to take on the Chicago Fire. Chicago got a goal in minute 115 to seemingly win the match until an equalizer from Omaha in the 122nd minute pushed it to the PKs. Union Omaha ultimately won it 5-4 from the spot to advance to the next round.

Another match up that left us surprised was Detroit City FC hosting Columbus Crew and beating them 2-1. Both Detroit and Omaha now move on to the next round where they will most likely have to face another MLS opponent.

Around the World

Liverpool put on a show against Manchester United. The Reds cruised to a 4-0 win to put themselves at the top of the most prestigious league in the world. Not only did they secure the top spot momentarely, since they are waiting on the result of Manchester City who will take on Brighton today, but the extended their unbeaten streak to 13 games. This is the longest active streak in Europe’s top-5 leagues.

I hate to end this on a sad note but out of respect and love for one of the GOATs, myself and the entire DynamoTheory.com staff would like to send our thoughts and prayers to one of the greatest to have ever played the sport and his family. Cristiano Ronaldo announced that his newborn son passed away on Monday. There’s not much to say about the subject, but don’t forget to call that someone and tell them that you love them.

Hope y’all have an amazing HUMP DAY!