So I've been thinking a bit about why this first edition of the CONCACAF League proved underwhelming (Olimpia-Liga and Olimpia-Alianza aside). ESPN Deportes had a discussion about it in August: ...in which they predictably missed the point. CONCACAF knew full well that this first phase would lose interest with Mexico and the U.S. sitting out; they did it not because they thought it would benefit the CONCACAF League, but as a favor to the Big 2 - solving the scheduling issue w/CONMEBOL for Mexico, and allowing MLS teams to make their fall playoff push free of continental commitments. Having said that, even a glorified UNCAF Copa Interclubes should do better. This time around, I'd pin it on three circumstantial (as opposed to structural) culprits: 1) Alajuelense and Olimpia playing like garbage in their respective spring 2017 domestic tournaments, leading them to sneak into the CL through the back door and open up the possibility of facing off as early as they did. 2) Olimpia fans' stupid antics against Alianza, earning the club a deserved empty-stadium sanction that significantly dampened the atmosphere for these latter rounds. 3) The biggest offender of the lot: Guatemala. Their continued suspension sent Herediano straight to the CCL, when they would've been among the favorites to challenge for the CL title - and would've had had far better attendance and atmosphere at the Rosabal Cordero than Santos in the Estadio Nacional. In addition, the presumption is that (once they get back to winning ways), at least one of Comunicaciones and Municipal would participate in the CL, adding to the number of "big teams" in the mix. If I'm Montagliani, I'd wait until at least 2020 before considering any format changes.
According to Santos de Guápiles' president, playing in the CL has left them $52,000 in the hole. He admits that CONCACAF gives them some support (I'm guessing the usual travel grants); judging by his own comments and the commenters on Facebook, they've lost money largely on having to rent venues for their games + hardly getting any ticket revenue.
Primera Division in El Salvador has declared itself independent from the federation. League prez says vote was 11 teams for, Aguila against https://t.co/0ZZRKCh3Oq— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) September 29, 2017 That means no El Salvador team in CCL.
Hold up now - the teams themselves walked way from the world football hierarchy, but the Salvadoran federation itself hasn't done anything to get on FIFA's bad side. Couldn't FESFUT just say, "Screw you all then, we'll just call our Second Division the new First Division"? And then reach an agreement with CONCACAF to give their 2018 CCL berth to the Apertura winner. Otherwise, CONCACAF would then have to decide what to do with the vacant 2018 CCL berth; the easiest solution would be to let both the current CL finalists into the CCL and call it a day.
I hope that is what they decide. Having a second division Salvadorian team in the next round would be a train wreck
I'm not saying this is what CONCACAF should do for the draw, but if the Round of 16 has one pot with Liga MX and American clubs and one club with everybody else, that Salvadoran club would have a one in two chance at facing a Liga MX club. If the Liga MX club tried to score as much as possible, I wouldn't be surprised if they could reach 15 goals in two legs.
For this tournament? Thursday, October 19: Olimpia (HON) vs. Santos de Guápiles (CRC), 10:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Thursday, October 26: Santos de Guápiles (CRC) vs. Olimpia (HON), 10:00 p.m.
Always kind of loopy to see a slow-roller go in from distance before the replays show the deflection that threw the keeper off. Worth noting that there actually is prize money on the line: 125,000 USD for the winner and 75,000 USD for the runner-up.
That was actually a pretty entertaining game, well played by both sides. But what i really liked was that there was no time wasting bullsh*t with players dropping to the ground for 5 minutes at a time after the slightest touch. Both teams came out to play, something that doesnt always happens in these tournaments. Hopefully the second game will be like that as well.
Bad news, fam: here in the US, the MLS playoffs tomorrow will be on Unimás and UDN, so the second leg of the final will not be shown live on TV. At least there's always concacafleague.com
@Paul Calixte The Red Bulls at Chicago was on FS1 and Atlanta vs. Columbus will be on ESPN2. What may have fooled you is that ESPN's schedule has ESPN2 showing The Fantasy Show at 7:00 P.M. when the game begins and showing the game from 7:30 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. (I don't know what ESPN2 will actually do). Vancouver vs. San Jose last night and Houston vs. Sporting Kansas City tonight have English SAP on UniMas according to MLS.
Congrats Olimpia! They took the long path, but kept up their perfect attendance in the Champions League by tying the series tonight and holding on for penalties...from there, whether because it was their first-ever continental final or the pressure of playing before the biggest "home" crowd in their history, Santos choked hard from the spot, 1 off-target and 1 saved. Olimpia were perfect, although they got a mulligan after one saved penalty was called back for the Santos keeper being well off his line. Now, unless they manage to successfully appeal their sanction before CONCACAF, they'll have to play all their CCL home games at empty stadiums. All that lost revenue