That, and we'll no longer have the awkward occurrence of Canadian Championship games on the same day as the CCL final 2nd leg.
2014 CFU Club Championship semi-finals (18 april) Bayamon FC(Puerto Rico) - Waterhouse(Jamaica) Valencia(Haiti) - Alpha United(Guyana) 3 of the above four teams qualify for the Champions League 2014/15.
That means we'll see two teams (or three, if Valencia finish fourth) making CCL Group stage debut and one team (or two, if Alpha or Valencia finish fourth) will make CCL debut (Preliminary round included).
Well Valencia is virtually out at this point, considering the latest developments with their national federation.
Valencia is officially out, so Waterhouse (Jamaica), Puerto Rico Bayamon, and Alpha United (Guyana) have qualified for the 2014-15 CCL. http://www.cfufootball.org/index.ph...ves-club-championship-group-winners-good-news As noted in that article, if any of those teams cannot meet minimum standards, Curacao's Centro Dominguito will take their place.
So that we're all on track: that just leaves the Mexican Clausura finalists, the Clausura winners in the Big 5 Central American leagues, the Belizean wild card (likely to go to Costa Rica if the FFB Stadium isn't up to standard) and the Voyageurs' Cup winner.
In Honduras, Real España can claim their country's top seed if they beat Platense this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. EDT. They could also pull it off with a tie or loss, as long as remaining contenders Real Sociedad and Olimpia don't manage a superior result in their respective Clausura regular season closer.
False alarm: Espana tied while Real Sociedad and Olimpia won, leaving Hernan Medford's team third in the full-year table.
Just for the fun of it, an update on the top seed races in Central America: GUA - Apertura winners Comunicaciones have a 3-point lead over archrivals Municipal (74 points to 71, respectively), with three games left in the Clausura regular season. SLV - With four games remaining, Apertura winners Isidro Metapán (52 points) find themselves staring up at FAS (57) and Juventud (54). HON - Real España blew the last game of the Clausura regular season against Platense, settling for a draw when a victory would have guaranteed them the top seed. They (59 points) are now behind Real Sociedad (61) and Olimpia (60) heading into the playoffs. CRC - Alajuelense gladly sent out reserve lineups in the Torneo de Verano in order to focus on their eventual semifinal run in the Champions League. They're still well on pace to make the playoffs, but their 79 full-year points leaves them behind rivals Saprissa (84) and Herediano (83). They do have a game in hand, however, with four left on their plate while morados and florenses have three to go, including a head-to-head clash in the Estadio Saprissa tomorrow night (10 p.m. EDT). PAN - With three games left in the regular season, Tauro are right behind arch rivals Plaza Amador (56 to 58 points, respectively), with Clausura regular season leader Árabe Unido catching up with 50 points. Not that Tauro has much to worry about: the next time Plaza qualify for the CCL will be their first. --- Meanwhile, in Belize, Opening season winners Belmopan Bandits (30 points) find themselves behind Verdes (36) and Police United (34) in the full-year table halfway into the Closing season.
According to FFB President Ruperto Vicente last year, a number of improvements needed to be made to FFB Stadium and the surrounding area, so I highly doubt that all of them have been resolved in time. In other news: once again, Canada will kick off its Voyageurs' Cup the same day as the CCL Final. This time, NASL sides FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury will face off in a home-and-away series to reach the semifinals, starting in Ottawa this Wednesday and finishing in Edmonton in a week's time - both matches to be streamed on the CSA's website. The winner will then take on the Montreal Impact, while Vancouver is set to battle Toronto.
Well, there'll be about a 1/2 hour left in the CCL game when the Ottawa game finishes, so maybe they'll show the end of that game on the big screen when the local game is over? There's also a Hou-NY game scheduled at the same time as well. Hmm, I wonder how many UEFA games are scheduled at the same time as their CL Final.
Zero. See here, article 3.4 (page 6) There cant be any UEFA top division games/cup matches played at the same time as any CL match. Although, I am sure there are some exceptions. England refused to sign the agreement, but I think they are now on board as we have seen FA Cup replays brought foward to Monday night this season when there were CL clashes.
Lower divisions and cups are played during UCL dates, but in the afternoon and they end before 20:45 when UCL games start. Top divisions games are rarely played in UCL dates, but if those are scheduled on same day (postponed games), they are played as stated before, in the afternoon - mostly mid and low class leagues like Bosnia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan... Schedules in North America are ridiculous, I was shocked to see back-to-back games in USL Pro.
We have our first top seed from Central America: Comunicaciones finished the Guatemalan Clausura regular season with a 0-0 draw at archrivals Municipal, leaving the Apertura champs on top of the full-year table with 78 points. 2014-15 CCL Qualifiers 1) DC United [USA4] 2) New York Red Bulls [USA2] 3) Portland Timbers [USA3] 4) Sporting Kansas City [USA1] 5) Tauro [PAN1 or PAN2] 6) Club América [MEX2 or MEX3] 7) Club León [MEX1] 8) Comunicaciones [GUA1] 9) Real España [HON1 or HON2] 10) Isidro Metapán [SLV1 or SLV2] 11) LD Alajuelense [CRC1 or CRC2] 12) Real Estelí [NCA] Also, the Honduran final will be between Marathón and Olimpia. Ironically, Real España would be better served with their city rivals taking the championship: a Clausura title for Marathón would give Real España the top seed, while Olimpia would grab it for themselves.
Your edited list matches Concacaf's: Wednesday Apr 23, 2014 CCL 2014-15: 15 berths confirmed, 9 to be decided http://www.concacaf.com/article/ccl-2014-15-15-berths-confirmed-9-to-be-decided
Another top seed was decided tonight: Alajuelense made the Torneo de Verano final after knocking off Herediano 4-2 on aggregate. They will face off against archrival Saprissa in a blockbuster: not only will el monstruo morado be chasing the CRC2 spot (if they win, otherwise it falls to Herediano) and the end of their trophy drought, but the winner of this series will be the first Costa Rican club to 30 league titles. 2014-15 CCL Qualifiers 1) DC United [USA4] 2) New York Red Bulls [USA2] 3) Portland Timbers [USA3] 4) Sporting Kansas City [USA1] 5) Tauro [PAN1 or PAN2] 6) Club América [MEX2 or MEX3] 7) Club León [MEX1] 8) Comunicaciones [GUA1] 9) Real España [HON1 or HON2] 10) Isidro Metapán [SLV1 or SLV2] 11) LD Alajuelense [CRC1] 12) Real Estelí [NCA] 13) Puerto Rico Bayamón FC (PUR) [CFU] 14) Waterhouse FC (JAM) [CFU] 15) Alpha United (GUY) [CFU]
So it's not official yet that they will have 3 spots due to Belize? If they get 3 spots, all 3 teams will go, right? The 2 champs plus the 1 subchampion that didn't already qualify, or the 1 bichampion along with 2 different subchampions.
If they get three spots, yes, all three would go. I can't come up with any system in which they wouldn't be the three chosen.
With today's Toluca victory, we are assured of 2 Mex CCL teams that weren't in the last edition, and 2 who were.
Furthermore, the Toluca-León semifinal echoes the last CCL final: Toluca qualify themselves for the 2014-15 edition with a win, while a León victory guarantees a hand-me-down spot for none other than Cruz Azul.
That means that, for the second year in a row, title holder might not defend it's title. I think CONCACAF should do something about that, like UEFA or CONMEBOL do.