Saprissa (Costa Rica) defeated Olimpia (Honduras) 2-1 on Thursday night to win the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series 3-1 on aggregate.
Saprissa will next face Real Salt Lake in the semifinals. The first leg will be at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday, March 15 at 8 p.m. The second leg will be in San Jose, Costa Rica on Tuesday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Real Salt Lake advanced to the CCL semifinals with a 4-1 thrashing of Columbus on Tuesday night at Rio Tinto Stadium. It became the first MLS team in history to qualify for the semifinals of the Champions League.
Ironically enough, the series won't be the first time these teams have met. They played a friendly at Rice-Eccles Stadium back on July 23, 2008, with Saprissa prevailing 2-1.
Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Fabian Espindola, Javier Morales, Jamison Olave, Kyle Reynish and Chris Wingert all played in that match back in 2008.
Current RSL player Alvaro Saborio began his career with Saprissa from 2001 to 2006.
e-mail: jedward@desnews.com