By: BoriQa | December 10th, 2008
The Puerto Rico Islanders will take on Marathon from Honduras in the CONCACAF Champions League quaterfinals to start with the first leg at Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium in Bayamón, Puerto Rico February 24-26. The Islanders will return Marathon the visit in Honduras March 3-5.
The Champions League quarterfinals knockout-round draw took place Wednesday December 10th at the CONCACAF head offices in New York.
In the other quarterfinal pairings Mexico City’s Pumas will meet its local rival Cruz Azul, Mexico’s champion Santos Laguna will go against the USL’s Montreal Impact; and the last Mexican team, Atlante, is set to meet its MLS nemesis Houston Dynamo again to seek for revenge! (Houston trashed Atlante 4-0 in this past summer’s SuperLiga group stage).
Marathon becomes the fourth Central American team the Islanders face in the 2008-09 Champions League tournament.
The Islanders are close to unbeatable at home in the Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium, also known as “La Islandera”, and as the “Central American Cemetery” by some fans!
The Islanders successes at home in the Loubriel include wins over Liga Deportiva Alajuelense from Costa Rica 2-1 in the preliminary round and Tauro FC from Panama by the same score (2-1) in the group stage. A 0-1 loss to Municipal from Guatemala (the only team to “win” at the Loubriel) in a twist of fate was still a success for the Islanders, as the win was not good enough for the Guatemalans who still ended up eliminated from the tournament with that “win” (they needed to score at least 2 goals in Puerto Rico to stay alive, so in a way, Municipal still met its fate at the Loubriel!).
The Islanders biggest success yet at the Loubriel was a 3-1 win over the Mexican Champion Santos Laguna in the group stage.
