Short takes
• Another year, another failure for MLS in the CONCACAF Champions League. Both Dallas and Vancouver lost semifinals against Liga MX teams, and either Tigres or Pachuca will take this year's title — the ninth win in nine years for a Mexican team, and the seventh time in nine years that the final has been an all-Mexican affair.
• St. Louis was the prohibitive favorite for the next MLS expansion franchise, but the city's voters weren't nearly as excited as MLS. A $60 million city referendum went down at the polls, with 53 percent voting against. The city's bid now appears dead — bad news for St. Louis soccer fans, but good news for the other 11 cities seeking a franchise.
• It's hard to have a worse week than Spanish third-division team Eldense had last weekend. Spanish reserve teams play in the regular league system, and so Eldense came up against Barcelona's B team. Barcelona B won the encounter 12-0, guaranteeing that Eldense would be relegated. In response, team management forfeited the rest of the team's games this year — and in the aftermath, two players, a coach, and the team's manager, and general director were arrested for match-fixing.
