Are there any reports on how (and was it at all) successful was the change of CCL format? What was the reaction from fans on last edition? What were the TV ratings like? Any official surveys?
Comunicaciones won the clausura. Heredia qualify as best ranked runner up as GUA2 and are placed into group 5 with San Jose and Montreal. Any news on a schedule?! Last years was released about 2.5 weeks after the draw.... we already had the draw 3 weeks ago today!!!!
Some teams have announced their schedule: 7-AUG: Montreal v San Jose; Esteli v Kansas 20-AUG: W Connection v Houston 21-AUG: Heredia v Montreal 27-AUG: Olimpia v Kansas; Houston v Arabe Unido 28-AUG: Heredia v San Jose 17-SEP: San Jose v Montreal; Kansas v Esteli 25-SEP: Montreal v Heredia; Houston v W Connection 23-OCT: San Jose v Heredia; Kansas v Olimpia 24-OCT: Arabe Unido v Houston
6-AUG: Firpo v Tijuana 20-AUG: LA Galaxy v Cartagines; Victoria v Tijuana 21-AUG: Esteli v Olimpia 28-AUG: Tijuana v Firpo 18-SEP: LA Galaxy v Isidro 24-SEP: Olimpia v Esteli 25-SEP: Cartagines v LA Galaxy 26-SEP: Tijuana v Victoria 23-OCT: Isidro v LA Galaxy
And the full list of fixtures are available on CONCACAF's new look website: http://www.concacaf.com/category/champions-league/schedule-results For some reason, the kick off times are set to British time (5 hours ahead of ET), hence why some matches are listed as friday matches (althought the first game: Toluca v Caledonia, is actually set for Friday 2-AUG!!!!)
First off, kudos to whoever designed the new CONCACAF website. They still need to get their news up to date (for some reason, they still have 2012 Caribbean Cup articles on the front page), but it is a significant step up from its predecessor. And the times seem to adjust to your time zone (I'm currently in Peru, 1 hour behind EDT).
I'm assuming Toluca or Caledonia was unable to play the following week, so the game got moved up. In USA Eastern Time, 19 games start at 8:00 P.M. and 29 start at 10:00 P.M.
The Toluca-Caledonia game is now listed on Tuesday, August 6. BTW, they have the weirdest abbreviation for Sporting Kansas City that I have ever seen: "Sp. Kansas C." Not sure why they didn't use "Sporting KC". That's what they did for Sporting San Miguelito.
I still wonder (don't know why, though) who makes schedules like these... some teams play two games away in first half of group stage then they have their last two games at home - they have some sort of advantage over other two teams in group... e.g. Sporting KC... at first, they had advantage in non-playing against Mexican team then they get first two games away with last two games at home. Is it so hard to make each team play one at home and one away in first part then same in the second part of group stage?
Nope, not too hard... look at groups 1 and 6... they seem reasonable. I agree too, the schedule is really ugly. Especially with Esteli, Valencia, Miguelito and Victoria having to play 2 away games inside 1 week. Also, I dont know why CONCACAF has schedule these 2 "double" match days (2 games within a week). The teams that have to play on 20-22/27-29 AUG and/or 17-19/24-26 SEP have a massive disadvantage imo (especially on the latter dates of the pairs as the team they play will have not play a match the midweek before). They could quite easily have moved the 24-26 SEP matches to 1-3 OCT; and maybe move 20-22 or 27-29 AUG to 5-7 NOV (all major leagues are still playing regular season matches around this date, except the MLS!!!)
Yeah, there are exceptions... all I say is "why can't they do it UEFA/AFC way?"... There are three teams in each group. OK. Now pair their name with a number (1-3, random pairing). OK. There's the schedule that won't raise any eyebrow.
Favorites to win the CCL 1. America 2. Tijuana 3. Toluca 4. Cruz Azul Cruz Azul is 4th but they will surely reach the final
And thats despite that U.S. teams are protected in the group stages.......I`ll write that again, P-R-O-T-E-C-T-E-D in the group stages from the big bad mexican teams. Maybe if the Concacaf Champions League was held entirely in the U.S. then maybe the yanks might have a chance of winning it..........OH BUUUUUUUUUUURRRRNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't understand why you're bringing up MLS teams? They've able to challenge Mexican clubs recently (Seattle Sounder vs UNAL??) Again i say Mexican teams are favorites; they've been dominant in the region so long The last time one CCL finalists wasn't a Mexaicn club was 2010-11 which was Real Salt Lake The last time both finalists were both non-Mexican was in 2004 The last non-Mexican club to win the CCL was Sarpissa back in 2005 Mexican clubs have won the region's CL a total of 28 times More than any other country; the closet is Costa Rica which only has 6!
Yes, the following will represent the MLS: Los Angeles Galaxy (2012 MLS Cup champion) San Jose Earthquakes (2012 MLS Supporter's Shield champion) Houston Dynamo (2012 MLs Cup runner-up) Sporting Kansas City (2012 US Open Cup champion)
Come on even the most MLS die hard looks at the history of the CCL and can't deny what the group rule change was intended to do
What other clubs would you give top seeds to? American teams have consistently been the second best throughout the history of the CCL. If you have 8 groups of 3 and are only evaluating seeding by federation, there really isn't another option.
I would at a minimum give Costa Rica a seed possibly the top Honduran team as well. 4 MLS teams don't generally do well even in their best years it is generally 3. There is no reason to have a rule that all 4 MLS teams avoid Mexican teams
US teams, that is - nothing stopping the Canadians from squaring off against MEX1 or MEX2 in the group stage. There is an argument to be made in favor of the smaller clubs that enter the tournament (e.g. the teams from Panama, Nicaragua and the Caribbean): given this rule, they are guaranteed two games against a high-profile opponent from the US or Mexico just for showing up, which is a huge improvement over their lot in the previous format (good chance of getting eliminated by some non-descript team from Guatemala and going home empty-handed). Mind you, CONCACAF hasn't even bothered to take that route, instead sticking with "the Executive Committee agreed to these rules, end of."