Group A played the 2nd round of games yesterday and neither of our MLS teams fared very well. Chivas scored the only goal of the game to beat Houston 1-0. This put Chivas into the semifinals. Atlante secured a 3-2 victory over DC United which ensures that DC United has no chance at the semi-finals. So this is what the table looks like now.

Group A
pts - w - l - t - (gf - ga) team
6 - 2 - 0 - 0 - (3-1) CD Guadalajara
3 - 1 - 1 - 0 - (4-1) Houston Dynamo
3 - 1 - 1 - 0 - (3-6) Atlante
0 - 0 - 2 - 0 - (3-5) D.C. United

The remaining games are Houston Dynamo vs DC United and Chivas vs Atlante.

What if Houston and Atlante both win?

Chivas, Houston and Atlante all end with 6 points. Only the top 2 teams advance to the semi-finals.

In that case goal difference would be the first tie-breaker. Houston is already +3 and would improve that with a victory. Chivas is +2 but would go lower with a loss. This would make sure Houston is ranked higher than Chivas. Atlante is -3 currently meaning they would need to beat Chivas by at least 7 goals to match Houston’s total - and that is if Houston only gets a victory by 1 goal difference. In this situation Houston would likely win the group.

What if Chivas and DC United win?

In this case Chivas win the group with a perfect 9 points. Houston, Atlante and DC United all have 3 points. Houston is +3, DC United is -2 and Atlante is -3 on goal difference. Houston and Atlante’s GD goes down and DC’s goes up. If DC were able to beat Houston by 3 goals they would have the best GD of these three teams, sending them onto the semi-finals.

To simplify it a little bit: Chivas will probably advance and DC United is probably done. Houston is in better position to take 2nd place in the group, but Atlante has a shot at it.