The draw for the 2019 CCL is tonight. KC has been given USA2 slot, which has the worst coefficient of the 4 US slots (based on previous record by that spot in the tournament). That means KC is in Pot 2 and will face either TFC or 1 of the 4 Liga MX teams, Monterrey, Toluca, Santos Laguna, or Tigres. https://www.sportingkc.com/post/2018/12/03/2019-scotiabank-concacaf-champions-league-draw-set-monday Who's ready to renew our rivalry with Santos (2001 Copa Mercanorte, 2002 CONCACAF Champions Cup, and 2009 Superliga)?
Gross. Just have to hope and pray the team starts the season hot. Otherwise we'll definitely miss the knockout rounds again. Toronto is obviously the ideal pick though. I vote Canada.
Aren't we drawing for the "knockout rounds" ... so our first round will be a "knockout round"? So we won't "miss" them entirely? I agree, wouldn't mind facing Toronto, but I'd hate to get to CCL and only play 1 team ... another MLS team. I like the variety, I'm hoping for Toluca!
It's all "knockout rounds" now. We'll be draw into a home-home series with someone in pot A, winner advances. It's like the old CONCACAF Champions Cup before they reorganized it into the CCL.
Instead of having multiple smaller CONCACAF nations in group play, they essentially give the smaller countries 1 spot in Pot 2 and then they have a different tournament in the fall (CONCACAF League) for their other participants and the winner of that fall knockout CONCACAF League gets a spot in Pot 2 as well ... so there's 1 team from Costa Rica, 1 team from Honduras, 1 from Panama, 1 from El Salvador, 1 from Guatemala, 1 from all of the Carribean, and 1 winner from the CONCACAF League (which happens to be a Costa Rican team). So the "lesser" teams have to play through the CONCACAF League.
We're on the opposite side of the bracket from Santos and Tigres. But getting by Toluca will be incredibly hard.
Using the wildly inaccurate Transfermarkt.de as a guide, the talent edges to them but not by much. They're reported to have a squad worth €28m on the open market, while ours is valued at €22m. Looking at their roster, there really isn't anyone who we'd think "no way SKC could ever sign him." but there are a lot of very good players who we would be thrilled to see SKC pursue. So they should be a better team, but not by much and it is a funny game.
Probably a better comparison by far (/sarcasm) is the Global Club Soccer Rankings ... which has Toluca ranked 175th and Sporting ranked 195th. Similar "result" of (they're better, but not by much). I like our draw to be honest! This should be entertaining.