CCL 2012-13 Qualifiers: An American Two-For-One
Posted on October 4, 2011 2:00 am
The Los Angeles Galaxy are only scheduled to play one game on “Super Tuesday”; but they will have two shots at qualifying for the next Champions League.
Wait, what?
Now, before you start ranting about even more preferential treatment for the so-called Superclub (not to dissuade you from doing so; better yet, please direct your frustrations to this guy), I should point out that the Galaxy have earned their enviable position on the field. They still have some work to do, though, before they can reap the rewards of their season-long performance.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) night, two games will determine which club(s) will be the first to enter next season’s CONCACAF Champions League. First, at 8:00 p.m. (all times EST) the LA Galaxy will try to clinch first place in Major League Soccer when they visit the New York Red Bulls in regular-season play. Given that their last remaining challengers for the Supporter’s Shield, the Seattle Sounders, can only reach 66 points, and that the Galaxy are currently on 64, a victory will do the job. Obliging them will be the last thing on Hans Backe’s mind, of course: the Red Bulls are barely holding on to the last spot in the playoffs, with Portland, DC and Chicago breathing down their necks, so Thierry Henry and co. will take the field at Red Bull Arena with the sole intention of getting all three points. They already have the advantage in firepower: Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane are unavailable for the visitors.
As you can expect with a game of this level of hype magnitude, it will be readily available on television throughout the region. It will be broadcast live on TSN2 in Canada and on ESPN2 in the US, Mexico, all of Central America, the Dutch-speaking Caribbean and the Dominican Republic (the rest of the Caribbean can catch it on ESPN on delay).
If the Galaxy do not manage to wrap up a CCL spot, then the first team to do so will emerge from the US Open Cup Final, starting right after at 10:00 p.m. The Seattle Sounders will attempt to win three Lamar Hunt trophies in a row – the first “three-peat” for an MLS club in any competition, and the first in the Open Cup in 42 years – as they host four-time champion Chicago Fire in a one-off at CenturyLink Field. Stories involving the Sounders inevitably involve attendance, and this one is no different: over 33,000 tickets have been sold as of Monday, guaranteeing the biggest (recorded) crowd for a Final in the 97-year history of the tournament. The match will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Deportes in the US; but it looks like Fox Sports Latin America passed on it, so I will be sure to put up a highlights video in the comments once it is available.
Whichever team wins will be assured of at least a spot in the preliminary round of the next CCL. What does this have to do with the Galaxy, you ask? As I mentioned before, LA and Seattle are the only teams left in the race for the Supporter’s Shield. That leaves two possible outcomes:
- The LA Galaxy win the Supporter’s Shield
- The Seattle Sounders win the Supporter’s Shield, and the LA Galaxy finish as runners-up
Here’s the rub: if the Sounders win the US Open Cup, then either the Galaxy will enter the CCL on their own merits (case 1), or the Sounders will grab two continental spots (case 2) and hand the lower one (USA4) down the regular-season table to the first team not yet qualified: the LA Galaxy. For the same reason, Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas and everyone else with designs on third place in the regular season will also be pulling for Seattle to defend their championship, since an extra hand-me-down would be available if either the Galaxy or the Sounders make it to the MLS Cup Final. Hopefully the Fire brings a good number of fans for this game, where they will be up against a trophy-hungry team, a record crowd, and the interests of a third of the entire league.
1. Seattle Sounders [USA1, USA2, USA3 or USA4]
2. LA Galaxy [USA1, USA2, USA3 or USA4]
I might have this wrong, but wouldn’t the extra spot that Seattle would pass down be the US Open Cup spot? If that is the case, wouldn’t the Fire get into the CCL as the other finalist in the Open Cup? Please someone clarify this for me, I is confused.
All “extra” US spots get passed down the MLS regular season table.
The precedent was set back in 2008: the New England Revolution got two spots in the CCL, since they won the 2007 US Open Cup and made it to the 2007 MLS Cup Final (three guesses how that turned out). But instead of the hand-me-down spot going to FC Dallas, whom New England beat in the US Open Cup Final – or even the Chicago Fire, whom the Revs took down in the Eastern Conference championship – it went to Chivas USA, the highest team in the regular season that had not yet qualified for the CCL.
EDIT: Here is a good link explaining what happened in the Chivas USA case. http://chivas.theoffside.com/team-news/chivas-usa-in-concacaf-champions-league.html
The Galaxy ended up losing 2-0 at New York, leaving the Supporter’s Shield still up for grabs (assuming that Seattle win the rest of their games).
So, just as in years past, the first team to qualify for the next CCL will be the US Open Cup champion.
Once again, the Seattle Sounders are the first ones in: spurred on by their surroundings, they took the initiative in the US Open Cup Final, creating the majority of the chances against a Chicago Fire side that struggled to cope with the artificial turf. The visitors did manage to hold on until late in the second half, when Fredy Montero put away a loose ball in the box off a corner kick; and
OswaldoOsvaldo Alonso put the cherry on top, cutting through the defense on a solo run to score Seattle’s second right at the end.And as I explained before, the LA Galaxy also piggybacked their way into the next Champions League, thanks to Seattle. One imagines that CONCACAF will be thrilled to have the two highest-profile MLS teams involved for a third straight year.
A final note for newer readers: the USA1…USA4 markers after each team reflect the number of different spots in which these teams could finish. For example, if the Sounders fail to make the MLS Cup Final or overtake the Galaxy for the Supporter’s Shield, they will remain with their USA4 spot. But if, say, the Sounders double up their US Open Cup with an MLS Cup, then they would move up to USA1, with USA4 going down to the highest (American) team in the MLS season table that has yet to qualify.
FYI, it is Osvaldo Alonso. With a V, not a W.
Thanks for the correction.
So it would appear that RSL is in pretty good position to make the CCL now, too, since if LA, Seattle, or RSL make it to the MLS Cup final, RSL will get the slot (and LA, Seattle and RSL will make up 3 of the 4 teams in the West bracket – odds are pretty good one of those 3 will go to the final).
Courtesy of BigSoccer member Yoshou, here are the highlights of the US Open Cup Final:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7LpwFGXmn4
The funniest scenario that could happen in 2012 is for Edmonton to win the Canadian Championship and then Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal split the Supporter’s Shield, MLS Cup & MLS Cup runner-up. But I really doubt it will come to fruition.
Canadian teams can only qualify through the Canadian Championship. In the scenario you laid out, only Edmonton would be in the CCL. The US spots would go to the Open Cup winner plus the top 3 US based finishers in the regular season table
So the Sounders weren’t the 1st team to qualify, since the Galaxy qualified simultaneously with them. So, for the 1st time ever in this format, 2 teams were the 1st to qualify.
I wonder how many other times did 2 teams qualify simultaneously.
With the Sounders loss to the Union on Saturday (I guess we had to expect an emotional let down after the USOC win), LA clinches the Supporters Shield. This locks them into USA2 at a minimum. The Sounders also do not have USA2 available to them any more, but they could still get USA1 or USA3 and have clinched USA4.
This is assuming you are assigning the numbers based on:
USA1 – MLS Cup Winner
USA2 – Supporters Shield Winner
USA3 – MLS Cup Runner-up
USA4 – USOC Winner
“The Sounders also do not have USA2 available to them any more…” I was waiting for someone to point that out.
What we know for sure is that the Seattle Sounders can’t win the Supporter’s Shield this year.
…but, if they finish second in the regular season, and the LA Galaxy go on to win the MLS Cup Final, then the Galaxy would have both automatic spots in the group stage. As USA2 is the “lower” one, the Galaxy would pass it down to the next highest team in the regular-season table: the Seattle Sounders.
The wording I’ve read says that the slot goes to the next team in the MLS standings who has “not otherwise qualified”. If fact, you say the same in this blog post, using the words “not yet qualified”. If this really is the wording of the rule, then the Sounders cannot get the USA2 slot because they have already qualified.
I am not aware of any provision which allows for a team which has already qualified to pick up a passed down slot, choose the higher of the two slots and hand down the lesser remaining slot.
We have two cases of precedence for the passed down slots, but neither the 2008 Dynamo nor the 2007 Chivas USA teams had qualified on their own before having a slot passed down to them.
This is one of those cases in which we’ll find out how the rule gets applied when it actually happens. You’re right that I typically use “not yet qualified”, but there’s no direct precedent for what would happen if Seattle finishes 2nd and LA win the MLS Cup Final.
Ah, so there’s a possibility that Seattle would get stuck with a prelim berth for winning the USOC, even if Galaxy wins the double. I doubt they’d get screwed. If Gal does it, I think it’ll go like this:
USA1 Galaxy (League champ)
USA2 Sounders (SS runner-up)
USA3 Eastern Conf. champ
USA4 RSL (SS 3rd place)
In 2008, NE went in as League Final runner-up (USA3), not as usoc champ (USA4), even tho they won that title too. So there is precedent.
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