by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Mar 6, 2019

March 5 in Harrison, N.J.

March 5 in Houston

The dominance of Liga MX teams over MLS teams in the Concacaf Champions League has been based on a simple formula: win at home and tie on the road.Three years ago, when all four quarterfinal matchups were Liga MX vs. MLS, the Mexican teams swept all four series with wins at home and ties on the road.Liga MX's hegemony was threatened last year when the three remaining MLS teams, the New York Red Bulls, Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC, all beat Mexican opponents at home in the quarterfinals -- and the Red Bulls and TFC advanced.This year, Santos and Tigres took Liga MX domination one step farther, opening the quarterfinals on Tuesday with 2-0 wins at the Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo, respectively.Travel delays and harsh weather in New Jersey didn't bother Santos, which got two excellent goals byandon either side of the break to take command over the Red Bulls, who created plenty of chances but were denied by Santos keeperThe Red Bulls, who were frustrated by Orozco on shots byandin the first half, had not given up a goal at Red Bull Arena in 799 minutes across all competition before Valdes scored in the 42nd minute. The second goal three minutes after the break was the killer.“Going into halftime," said Red Bulls coach, "you feel like it’s there for us because of what the first half looked like. And then to come out in the second half and as things really didn’t even settle down you’re down 2-0. I think it did rattle us a little bit.”Goals: Valdes 42, Furch 48.Robles; Duncan, Long, Parker, Lade, Davis, Rzatkowski, Kaku, Muyl (Ivan 61), Royer (Etienne 77), Wright-Phillips.Orozco; Doria, Nervo, Angulo, Abella, Lozano, Valdes (Quinones 83), Vazquez, Moreno (Auirre 46), Correa, Furch (Rivas 75)3,508.The Dynamo held off Tigres until late in the game whenandscored round minutes apart for the Torneo Clausura leaders."The problem for me was," said Houston coach, "in the second half that we were losing the ball too easy up front and we didn’t hold the ball the way we needed to hold the ball and when you don’t hold the ball against a team like this they punish you. We got punished. We got punished at the end twice with good quality and that cost us the game."Goal: Valencia 78, J.Quinones 82.Willis; Beasley, Figueroa, Fuenmayor, DeLaGarza; Vera, B.Garcia, McNamara; Quioto (Hairston 67), Manotas, Elis (Rodriguez 81).Guzman; Ayala, J.Torres (Pizarro 62), Meza, Rodriguez, J.Quinones; De Souza (Salcedo 87), L.Quinones, Duenas; Vargas, Valencia (R.Torres 90+2).16,890.