Published 3/3/2007 8:33:34 AM by Shane Barrow from Dallas, Texas

Both DC United and Houston Dynamo won their home games Thursday night to take aggregate wins and advance to the semiifinals of the CONCACAF Champion Cup. Tougher tests await as Mexican powers Chivas and Pachuca wait in the next round.

DC United 3 CD Olimpia, Honduras 2 (7-3 aggregate)
D.C. United successfully negotiated sloppy conditions and ornery opposition to get the result they needed in their tricky second-leg CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal with CD Olimpia at RFK Stadium on Thursday night, a 3-2 victory sparked by their blossoming South American strike trio.
It looked like a different story when the visitors took a 1-0 lead on the half-hour as a waterlogged field helped provoke some unsteady play along the DC back line. But the Black-and-Red held their nerve and repelled Olimpia's spirited challenge on the strength of a two-goal performance from new arrival Luciano Emilio.

"They came here behind the 8-ball a little bit, and they came out and fought and scrapped," said United head coach Tom Soehn of the Honduran side. "They were the beneficiaries of a lot of second balls, 50-50 balls. I thought we adjusted well at half and took over the play a little bit. But I give them a lot of credit - they fought and gave us everything they could."

D.C. entered the match with a 4-1 aggregate cushion and despite a few defensive hiccups, displayed more of the same promise as in last week's startling result in Central America. Along with his refined finishing, Emilio gave more evidence of why United's braintrust identified him as the missing link in their championship quest, as he combined well with captain Jaime Moreno and on-form playmaker Christian Gomez

With the 7-3 win on aggregate against Olimpia, United advances to take on CD Guadalajara (better known as Chivas) in the tournament's semifinals, with the first leg scheduled for March 15 at RFK. The Mexican giants present a substantially more imposing obstacle for the Black-and-Red, but United's veterans are more than ready for the challenge

Houston 2 Puntarenas FC, Coasta Rica 0 (2-1 aggregate)
Houston Dynamo are through to the CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinals after defeating Puntarenas FC 2-0 Thursday night in College Station, Texas, to edge past their Costa Rican rivals 2-1 on aggregate.

Paul Dalglish scored the opener for the home side in the 27th minute, and Kelly Gray notched the deciding goal in the 74th, both coming through close-range strikes off rebounds. The goals overturned a 1-0 deficit the Orange faced after the first leg in Puntarenas last Wednesday.

In clinching the first Champions' Cup win since 2000 by an MLS team against a Costa Rican team, Dynamo move on to face Mexican club Pachuca in the semis. The defending Copa Sudamericana champions, Pachuca will come to Houston for the first leg on March 14. The teams will meet again in Pachuca on April 5.

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