With a league title on the line Sunday the Puerto Rico Islanders rested several regulars for tonight’s Champions League match in Mexico against Santos Laguna. The results were disasterous even with Santos resting several regulars. 3-0 was the final scoreline which proves USL sides have neither the depth nor the quality to really compete against the best from North America. This result comes just two weeks after the Islanders dominated Santos at home.

Puerto Rico has allowed fixture congestion to bog down its season, like certain MLS sides that don’t call Houston home.  This game exposed USL’s weakness and quite frankly reinforced what we’ve seen from MLS sides save Houston in this tournament. A very embarrasing performance and a revealing night that discredits some of the love USL has been getting lately. When you factor in Montreal’s sub par performance against a vastly outclassed Joe Public side, the worst team to make the group stage in the region, USL had a bad night. The Impact won 4-1 in Port of Spain but the side which was eliminated from the USL playoffs this past weekend missed three sitters, yes three sitters. The Impact will not get away with that sloppiness against any other side currently in the CONCACAF Champions League. Quite frankly after watching Joe Public in both matches against the Impact it is an embarresment to the entire region that this side somehow made the group stages. Until the overall level of CONCACAF improves and sides like Joe Public do not advance to the group stage, the tournament will continue to have its detreactors.