Defending champ opens eMLS League Series One with big win

George "Adamou" Adamou of the New York Red Bulls opened defense of his eMLS Cup title with a convincing 11-2 win on Saturday, one of four players to advance to Sunday's semifinals.

Adamou led Erfan "Skill Shack" Hosseini of the Vancouver Whitecaps by only 3-1 at the half, and Skill Shack further cut that deficit to 3-2, before Adamou scored four straight goals to begin the rout.

In one semifinal, Adamou will face Phil "PhilB94" Balke of Toronto FC, who eked out a 7-6 win over Mohamed "KingCJ0" Alioune Diop of D.C. United.

PhilB94 capped a comeback that began with a 3-0 deficit to score the game-winner in the 78th minute. PhilB94 trailed 3-1 at the half and then 4-1 before scoring three straight to tie the match.

Chris 'didychrislito' Holly of New York City FC marched into the other semifinal with an 8-0 shutout of Macisse "CisseSZN" Diop.

'didychrislito' scored four goals early to take command, taking advantage when CisseSZN missed a penalty kick.

His opponent on Sunday will be John "xbLeu" Garcia of Austin FC, who didn't secure his 4-3 win over Christian "Alekzandur" Alexander Garcia of Sporting Kansas City until the final minute.

xbLeu never trailed, continuing to build one-goal leads, only to see Alekzandur come up with an answer. xbLeu scored the winner on his last kick of the match.

--Field Level Media