2018 CONCACAF Champions League Thread

Olimpia vs New York in Tegucigalpa is a must-see game. Will tell a lot about if MLS is ready to say, without question, they're the second best league in CONCACAF (of course not money-wise, but sporting-wise)

edit. wait... in Costa Rica?? is that right?

 

man that sucks. But well deserved after the stupid stuff that happened in Olimpia - Aguila game

 

Current forecast for Tuesday in Denver is a high of 12, a low of 2, light winds, and afternoon snow showers. Rapids fans are starting to wonder if this game might not be delayed until Wednesday when the forecast is sunny with a high of 26 and a low of 8.

 

Are they showing the games on facebook like they did last year?

 

We should maybe change the thread name to 2018 MLS in CCL... Since this thread is going to involve discussion as well as posting TV times for the games.

I miss the days of Fox coverage of CCL. I am perfectly capable of tuning in to Univision Deportes and Galavision and understand spanish so i can enjoy the commentary, but all these games delayed to midnight and 1 AM absolutely sucks .... Fox at least covered the games involving MLS teams live most of the time.

Guess I'll put my DVR to use and watch the games at my own convenience.

 

'IT CAN GET DANGEROUS': Toronto FC, Colorado facing frigid conditions in Champions League play
http://torontosun.com/sports/soccer...ng-frigid-conditions-in-champions-league-play

 

Games in February in North America...doesnt matter whether the game would be at Denver or Toronto both places would be uncomfortably cold at this time of year.

 

Current hourly forecast for Commerce City has it at 15 degrees at kickoff with a wind chill down to 6, a chance of a few snow showers leading up to kickoff.

 

It would be idiotic to play in those conditions. I hope that responsible heads prevail....

 

Well CONCACAF is not MLS hq, but I remember several years ago when the Red Bulls played in a much criticized game that was dubbed by some NYC metro area fans as the "Heat Bowl." The NYC area was going through a very bad summer heat wave and on this particular day It was so hot that kids day was cancelled at the stadium. Rather than re-scheduling and waiting a few hours for a night kick-off, the game went on as scheduled in the middle of the day when the heat was at its worst!! There was real concern that players would collapse from heat exhaustion (they stopped several times during the game for a water break). Coaches on both sides felt insulted at having to play under such conditions.

I guess this is my long winded way of saying common sense doesn't always prevail with people who make decisions, so don't be surprised if Toronto and Colorado are forced to go ahead and play anyway.

You have to wonder how many fans will show up? I know that teams will always have die hard fans so i assume that there will be some fans there from both teams that will show up to support, but will it be worth it from a financial point of view if large sections of the stadium are empty? And how will that look on tv?

The only silver lining to this whole mess (and it's not much of a silver lining) is that if they do play, they will probably have to bust out the flourescent ball if there's snow. I always like the hot yellow or hot orange ball.

 

My personal belief is that they shouldn't play under those types of brutal conditions. Especially if there's going to be a wind chill. There's no long sleeved MLS jersey that is designed to protect players when the wind chill is 6 degrees. The health of the players should come first.

This does however bring to mind a famous anecdote from NFL hall of fame coach and broadcaster (now retired) John Madden. Madden would sometimes say during games that were cold that the test for whether or not it was too cold to play was the "spit test." If you spit and it turns to ice before hitting the ground then it's too cold to play football. I'm sure he was only half joking. Even in NFL football which is used to cold weather games, the Ice Bowl is still infamous because from a logical point of view it was so cold that it went against common sense to go ahead and play. So of course some nuthead decided they should play and it went down in NFL history as the coldest game ever... The temp at game time for the Ice Bowl was -13 (thirteen below zero) !!

 

That was also a Rapids game IIRC.

 

I didn't remember the opponent during the Red Bulls Heat Bowl but if it was against the Rapids then it is indeed an appropriate comparison. As they say--it's a small world!

 

Those predicted wind chill temps are brutal.

 

CONCACAF has announced all #CCL matches will be broadcast on Univision Deportes in the U.S., but an industry source tells me streaming service go90 will stream all matches in English as part of its free package.

— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) February 20, 2018

 

Reports from people who covered today's CCL press conference at the Dick are that short of a snow-pocalypse overnight the game will be played as scheduled. Makes sense as the revised forecast for Wednesday is just 3 degrees warmer than tomorrow so a delay doesn't gain them anything before the next system rolls in on Thursday.

 

We doing PBP here or in preseason thread?

 

I hope they have some super high tech cold protection Underarmour under shirts and underwear to wear under their team jersey and shorts. And i hope that Adidas has made some super long sleeve shirts that can take single digit wind chills. To make players play under conditions like this is crazy. I get it that postponing to the next day wouldn't make much of a difference--how about postponing to the next week maybe? Anyway postponing the game is not going to happen so i guess there's no use in crying over it, however it is irresponsible on the part of decision makers as far as the health of the players is concerned. Pneumonia anyone?

 

Leg two is February 27 in Toronto. And the next round starts on March 6 and finishes the week of March 13. There is no slack in the schedule at all.

 

Wow-- I didnt know that, so thank you. You're right the tourney organizers have not left themselves any wiggle room whatsoever. Sounds like this is something they will have to tinker with for next year.

On a totally unrelated note --Am I right in thinking that this is the last CCL under the old format? Or is this CCL already the first edition under the new format?