Return of the Champions League Catch all thread (2012/13)

alright. Pick your poison for potential mexican teams next year:


Gualadajara
Cruz Azul
UANL
Pachuca
Santos
Jaguares
Morelia
Queretaro


for me

1.Pachuca
2.Chivas
3.UANL

Mixed feelings here.

CCL is an honor to participate in, especially against the best in the region.

However...my concern is the effect it will have on the squad.

Correct me if I'm wrong but we didn't do well in the playoffs/didn't make the playoffs in the years we participated correct?

For me, the league will always come first.

reminder: winner of the 2012-13 CCL qualifies into the 2013 Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco (not official location yet)


Would be LEGIT!

Also not trying to be like westside, but if we draw one of the El Salvadorian teams, expect a large turnout from theset fanbases as well.


Alianza: We could see a good crowd at the new place for them, and i'm crossing my fingers for a good away match at Cuscatlan.
Metapan idk about their fanbase.

07: MLS Cup Winner
08*: WC Semi-Final
09: WC Final
10: SuperLiga/Missed Playoffs
11: No CCL/MLS Cup
12: ?

* - This was the dreaded year where we set a league record for games played. We participated in MLS, MLS Playoffs, Open Cup, Champions Cup, Champions League, and SuperLiga plus a few friendly tournaments as well (if you rate 'em).

I'll be accused of being Downside Cosmo, but this "achievement" usually turns into a double-edged sword. Look at the MLS playoff records of teams that play in the fall group stage of the CCL and MLS Cup playoffs - it's not good. Too many games too late in the season especially if you are in other summer competitions.

Just in 2011 alone, FC Dallas, Colorado, and Seattle all went out before the conference finals. FCD and Colorado faded badly this year. Only LA can break that trend this year.

I guess it depends upon how the MLS final goes, but we may have to play in the play-in round which I think is a home-and-home series to get to the group stage.

1. Rosters sizes are larger that they were in 2008.
1.1 Seattle's travel to CONCACAF is pretty far. Plus they care about USOC so that added games for them (still only tied our record for most games even with a expanded roster). Plus the didnt fade that badly.
1.2 Colorado had injuries that contributed to their fading late (although the CONCACAF games could have contributed to that)
1.3 Dallas had injuries plus national team call ups.
1.4 All of those teams did make the playoffs.

2. Remember Houston is going to have a heavy home schedule to finish the year do the stadium construction and they are much shorter trips to most CONCACAF foes. I feel like that and the expanded rosters will help the Dynamo.

3. Even if the CONCACAF hurts are MLS chances a bit for 2012, i think the value that it added by forcing young players to play helps the team in the long run. Although the reserve league helps nothing is like getting real minutes. I really attribute those CONCACAF and superliga games for developing players like Stuart holden.

4. IMHO CONCACAF is just fun. Who cares if the above i wrote it not true.

I'd certainly hope we'd see players like Dixon, Watson, Taylor, etc... get a lot of time in CCL matches to keep the squad fresh.

Suh-weet!!!!

I want Metapan and to destroy them. We need revenge for 2009 and our greatest international embarrassment.

reallly looking forward to this again.......

Can we say Dixon, Deric, Navas, and so on!
Love the fact that pro soccer rewards domestic success with extra international competitions.
It's what separates the rock stars from the gruppies.

1. Pachuca
2. Pachuca
3. Pachuca

this.
i wonder if we get nearly as many telefutura games this year if we didn't perform well in previous CCC/CCLs.

On this CCL league , does Dynamo get a fair $ on those telecast from Telefutura and from some Mexican TV ..just curious..
With the extra games at the new stadium, hopefully this will gave FO more revenue..last questions..now that the player get to play more games , will they be compensated for those extra games they played..is that negiotiated on their contract ?

Wasn't that part of the most recent CBA (IIRC)?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHhahahahahahahaha.....oh, wait. You want a serious answer? Yeah....What's left of Jack's cronies get this. In fairness, much of the money is used so we can have a champions league by paying the airfare and hotels for traveling teams.

Finally we will be making money off of home games, regardless of competition! Hopefully this means the owners won't be so shy about splashing cash on DPs instead of 6 month trials.

Of course they are compensated. They were under the old deal and are on this one. However, unlike the old CBA, this one hasn't been published so we aren't sure of the details.

My best experience ever in Mexico was a funny one. I was in Pachuca for a Pachuca game. I turned the TV and saw a Dynamo game being played against some other team. I think the Revs or DC. All I heard was praise from the announcers. They were talking about Dynamo as if they were MLS. Another funny tidbit was I met somebody who has family in Conroe and comes to Houston often on visit. He's a well to do college student. He randomly asked about the Dynamo and brought up how he went to Mexico v. Country he couldn't recall game. Well the conversation stayed on soccer and I brought up how happy I was we were getting a new stadium. His first response was, " but your soccer stadium is amazing! At least it was during the Mexico game." It crushed me when I had to explain that was our American Football stadium.

The Dynamo will always be known as the team that did what no Mexican team could accomplish and that was almost eliminate Pachuca, a team that in a span of 3 years won 5 trophies . There was one moment Pachuca held the CONCACAF, League, and a CONMEBOL trophy at the same time. They defeated Chivas in the CONCACAF final and a month later defeated America in the League final. Dynamo almost eliminated THAT team. Not to mention later on they would go to Mexico City and have an epic game against Pumas. They went there and played beautiful soccer and almost won. That's the way you earn respect. Nobody hates Holland because they play beautiful soccer. Even if they lose everybody respects them. I challenge anybody to show me a game that, while lacking in defense, was more entertaining in that CCL tourney than the Dynamo v. Pumas game.

During the CCL I challenge every single one of you to watch a Dynamo game in Spanish. Even if you only know a few words in Spanish you'll come to the realization Telefutura and others were left with a good impression of Houston.

This tournament separates soccer from other sports. You can root for your country by rooting for your club. This is where the big boys are made. Every team in the World wants international glory. Hopefully one day we can enter a Sudamericana or Libertadores. Then we'll be playing in the tournament that creates legends.

Just in case people do not follow the CCL, here are the scenarios for the Dynamo:

1. We fail to win the MLS Cup, Houston has to play in the Preliminary Round of the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League. That is a home-and-away series against another preliminary round qualifier. The winner of that series moves on to the Group Stage. The dates for 2012-2013 have not been announced but this year the games were played July 26–28 and August 2–4. The draw for that round was held on May 18.

2. We win the MLS Cup, Houston goes directly into the Group Stage. We would be in a four team group that would likely include one Mexican team. The Group Stage is six games (3 home, 3 away) played in August-October of 2012. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals which begin in March of 2013.

To add to that; the field is made up of 24 teams.
Mexico: 4 (Apetura and Clausura winners to the group stage, Runners-up to the prelminary stage)
Usa: 4 (MLS cup winner and Supporters shield winner to the group stage, US Open cup winner and MLS cup runner up to the preliminary stage)
Canada: 1 (Canadian challenge winner to the preliminary stage)
Costa Rica: 2 (Apertura and Clausura winners qualify, playoff to see who goes to group stage)
Honduras: 2 (Apertura and Clausura winners qualify, playoff to see who goes to group stage)
Panama: 2 (Apertura and Clausura winners qualify, playoff to see who goes to group stage)
Guatamala: 2 (Apertura and Clausura winners qualify, playoff to see who goes to group stage)
El Salvador: 2 (Apertura and Clausura winners both go to preliminary stage)
Nicaragua: 1 (Apertura and Clausura winners have a playoff to see who qualifies for the preliminary round)
Belize: 1 (Apertura and Clausura winners have a playoff to see who qualifies for the preliminary round)
Carribean: 3 (top three finishers in the Carribean tournament go to the preliminary round)

The US is the only country with qualifiers so far. All of the Apertura playoffs should be done by mid December.

So, here's a legit question.. what if the MLS Cup Winner and the Supporters shield winner are the same team..? Does the MLS Cup Runner-up automatically advance to the group stage? Or would it be the USOC Winner? Or someone else?

Nobody knows.

Seriously, nobody (outside the inner corridors of the USSF) has any clue.

The best guess of a lot of people (including myself) is that Seattle would get the second group-stage spot based on their regular-season record, the same way you guys did for the 2009-10 CCL.

You have to love the USSF.

Alright, so when do we play a team from Netherlands Antilles for the right to move on to the group stage?

August