USA #2 is LA Galaxy for now. They can still win USA#1; so Seattle and RSL still have a chance to inherit this spot from LA. http://www.settingthetable.info/home/ Also October 4th will be the Final of the US Open Cup so USA#3 will be known then. Seattle or Chicago. http://thecup.us/2011-lamar-hunt-us-open-cup-results/
MLS playoffs underway. I think, that if Galaxy beats New York Red Bull on aggregate tonight, then Real Salt Lake will have qualified for 2012/2013 one way or another. The other spot will go to either Kansas City and whoever wins Houston/Philadelphia (also tonight). We should know all the US teams on Sunday ... though not which spots they've got until MLS cup on November 20th.
Well all American teams are now known, it is just a matter of the rank. LA is guaranteed a group spot for the 2012-2013 CCL. LA Galaxy Seattle Sounders Real SL Houston Dynamo.
So what determines the four again? I get Supporters Shield Champ, MLS Cup Champions, US Open Cup Winner. Is the automatic fourth slot runner-up in the MLS Cup?
IIRC the auto-qualifiers are the MLS Champs and Supporter's Shield winner, with the Open Cup champion and MLS Cup runner-up going through the play-in round.
Then I guess RSL get in on a tie-breaker??? ...because L.A. can only get in based on one automatic bid... and Seattle got in based on the US Open Cup Trophy... so that gives RSL the third best regular season record ... so RSL is in....I guess.
Well, not necessarily a "tie-breaker" by definition, but... yeah, the Gals are the SS winners and a cup finalists, which means they have two spots. When one team holds two qualifiers, the SS runners up (Seattle) get the abandoned spot. Since the SS runners up are in by way of their USOC win, the spot goes to the third best team in the regular season. I am basing this on what I recall from reading these threads and about three minutes of Googling though, so take it with a grain of salt.
Yes, but the issue is what if LA wins the MLS cup? They would hold both automatic USA spots to the CCL, so Seattle as second best record overall will receive one of those 2 spots and RSL would receive the spot from Seattle. I think, it would only make sense for Seattle to pick the automatic spot and give up their pre-group CCL spot.
Pretty sure that will happen automatically, as I cannot imagine a scenario in which a team 'picks' the spot that has them playing more games than they have to.
Here's the precedent that people are using to figure out what will happen for 12-13. The Crew won both SS and MLS Cup. So Houston got the other 'bye to Group Stage' slot as SS Runner-up. If LA wins, and that rule is applied, then Seattle would get the other 'bye to Group Stage' slot. The question then becomes "Who gets Seattle's OC spot?" Most of us have been assuming that it would be Salt Lake as 3rd best in the regular season. But now that I look at the slots, since Seattle would be giving up their OC slot for the 2nd best in the season, it makes sense that their OC slot actually goes to the OC runner-up... Chicago. If Houston beats LA, the argument for Salt Lake is more solid. You get: Supporter's Shield: LA MLS Cup Winner: Houston Open Cup Winner: Seattle MLS Cup Loser: (LA) ? How would you select between Salt Lake and Kansas City? Well, Salt Lake was #3 in the regular season, so they get the spot. Does anyone have anything definitive about Salt Lake getting the final spot? Wiki doesn't have a source for putting RSL there.
Yes we have talked about it on the MLS threads; we are all pretty sure RSL has the USA#4 or USA#3. We are basing it on the USSF rule that if one team has more than 2 CCL spots then their lowers CCL berth will go to the next highest American team on the MLS regular season table. USA#4 Does not really belong to the US Open Cup (It should IMO). So if LA wins this is what would happen. LA would hold the rights for USA#1 and USA#2; they can not keep both so they will pass down their lowest CCL berth USA#2. Then Seattle would hold the CCL rights for USA#2 and USA#4; they can only keep one of them, so they will pass on USA#4 and keep USA#2. Now USA#4 is available, we all understand that any available CCL berths will be distributed according to final MLS regular season position (nothing in the rules ever mentions passing it down to the Open cup runner up) So RSL would inherit USA#4 from Seattle. Again all this is only if LA wins.
I am stealing this from here Paul Calixte says: November 6, 2011 at 8:02 pm Panama’s Apertura has one matchday left in the regular season; Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala have between 2 and 4 matchdays to go. The regular season is done in the Nicaraguan Apertura, but the top four teams move on to to a semifinal group stage (each team playing home-and-away against everyone else), so there are still six more matchdays to go. Since Nicaragua only gets one spot in the Champions League, I will focus in on their leagues only during the Apertura and Clausura finals. I was planning to do the same with Belize, but right now they’re in a reform process which should lead to the creation of a new first division, Top League Football (wonder where they got the inspiration for that name?), by the end of the year. Presumably they would play one half-season in 2012 and nominate the winner for CCL play, give-or-take a suitable stadium.
LA winning MLS Cup sets the USSF qualifying positions in stone now. USSF 1: LA Galaxy USSF 2: Seattle Sounders USSF 3: Houston Dynamo USSF 4: Real Salt Lake
Panama #1? Chorrillo FC http://www.es.concacaf.com/page/LC/NoticiasDetalle/0,,12814~2536167,00.html#.TtpKEgSGRwU.twitter So 5 we know with 19 to go.
USSF 1: LA Galaxy USSF 2: Seattle Sounders USSF 3: Houston Dynamo USSF 4: Real Salt Lake Panama #1 or 2: Chorrillo FC Mexico 1-4: Santos Laguna
USSF 1: LA Galaxy USSF 2: Seattle Sounders USSF 3: Houston Dynamo USSF 4: Real Salt Lake Panama #1 or 2: Chorrillo FC Mexico 1 or 3: Santos Laguna Mexico 1 or 3: UANL Tigeres