Hi everyone, My apologies for falling asleep at the wheel, but we have to get this thread kicked off already because we have our first qualifier for continental ball next season: ¡¡¡GOOOOLAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ⚽🔥😱😱 ¡GOLAZO de Jesús González! @TauroFC se va arriba y con este gran remate se está coronando campeón del Apertura 2018 poniéndose en ventaja 1-2 ante @costadelestefc en la prórroga. #LPFxRPC pic.twitter.com/rJIAkgCks4— Deportes RPC (@deportes_rpc) December 2, 2018 Tauro won the Panamanian Apertura, guaranteeing them at least a spot in the next Concacaf League. Elsewhere across the region... Mexico: the Apertura semifinals will wrap up next weekend, after which we will have the first teams in to the Champions League. Honduras: Motagua host Platense today, with the winner facing off against Olimpia in the Apertura Final. Costa Rica: Alajuelense will take on Herediano in the final of Round 2 of the Apertura, with the winner moving on to face regular season-winners Saprissa in the Grand Final of the tournament. Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, El Salvador: At or approaching the semifinal stage of their respective tournaments. 2019 CL Qualifiers 1. Tauro (PAN1 or PAN2)
A couple more updates from this weekend: the Mexican Apertura semifinals are set. Cruz Azul vs. CF Monterrey Club América vs. Pumas UNAM Over in Honduras, we'll get another clásico capitalino in the Final. The Nicaraguan Apertura Final will be: FINAL| Real Estelí 5-2 Juventus FC| Global: RE 7-3| Real Estelí es el primer finalista del Apertura 2018. pic.twitter.com/klVXGsSlj3— FutbolNica (@FutbolNica) December 2, 2018 FINAL| Managua FC 2-0 Diriangén | Global: MFC 4-1| Managua FC clasifica a la final de Apertura. pic.twitter.com/pLnzBpzU8b— FutbolNica (@FutbolNica) December 3, 2018 And in Costa Rica... 1069410819220357120 is not a valid tweet id
And, 14 months in advance, we have our first team into the 2020 Concacaf Champions League: Cruz Azul held on for a 1-0 win to tie their semifinal with Monterrey 1-1 and move on thanks to their higher seeding. 2020 CCL Qualifiers 1. Cruz Azul [MEX1 or MEX3] 2019 CL Qualifiers 1. Tauro (PAN1 or PAN2)
The "roommates" will have the Mexican Apertura final to themselves: América pimp-slapped Pumas to seal their return to the continental stage. We also have plenty of activity in Central America: Guatemala - Old money vs. nouveaux riches in the final, as Comunicaciones will face Guastatoya. El Salvador - Alianza vs. Santa Tecla for the trophy, no importa cuándo lo leas Honduras - Motagua beat Olimpia 2-0 in their house in the first leg of the Apertura final. Belize - The Opening Season is at the semifinal stage. And that's about all we know, because it's harder to get football updates from there than from North Korea. Nicaragua - 0-0 in the first leg of the final between Real Estelí and Managua F.C. Costa Rica - Better luck next time, Liga... 1071856577097932800 is not a valid tweet id Herediano will now face Saprissa in the frfr Final. 2020 CCL Qualifiers 1. Cruz Azul [MEX1 or MEX3] 2. Club América [MEX1 or MEX3] 2019 CL Qualifiers 1. Tauro (PAN1 or PAN2)
https://us.soccerway.com/national/belize/premier-league/20182019/s15980/final-stages/ has scores from Belize: San Pedro 1-4 Verdes (first leg was Saturday and second leg will be Wednesday) Police United 1-1 Bandits (first leg was Sunday and second leg will be Thursday) It has the two legs of the Finals listed on Fridays with the first leg 1 and 2 days after the Semifinal second legs. I hope that's a mistake.
In Guatemala, Guastatoya decided they rather like being on the continental stage, and won back-to-back league titles to at least guarantee a return next fall. And help me out @EvanJ @ArsenalMetro : here we have a debutant, right? ¡¡MANAGUA FC ES CAMPEÓN DEL APERTURA 2018!!| FINAL | Managua FC 1-0 Real Estelí| Global: MFC 1-0 pic.twitter.com/v2ad06smwB— FutbolNica (@FutbolNica) December 16, 2018 2020 CCL Qualifiers 1. Cruz Azul [MEX1 or MEX3] 2. Club América [MEX1 or MEX3] 2019 CL Qualifiers 1. Tauro [PAN1 or PAN2] 2. CD Guastatoya [GUA1 or GUA2] 3. Managua FC [NCA]
Managua will be a debutant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONCACAF_Champions'_Cup_and_Champions_League_records_and_statistics says Nicaragua never had a club in the Champions Cup. Real Esteli and Walter Ferretti are the only Nicaraguan clubs to play in the Champions League.
First off, as much as it hurts me personally: congrats to América, who are the winningest club in Mexico as well as in Concacaf, having claimed their record 13th title. Meanwhile, down in Central America: [GALERÍA] 📸@santateclafc sumó su cuarto título en la Liga Mayor de Fútbol al vencer al #Alianza. El Santa Tecla ganó al Alianza 2-1 durante la final del campeonato Apertura 2018. 👇https://t.co/iJOyo7Bfqo pic.twitter.com/5f97J33dcT— elsalvador.com (@elsalvadorcom) December 16, 2018 🦅🦅¡¡MOTAGUA ES CAMPEÓN DEL FÚTBOL HONDUREÑO!! 🦅🦅🏆🏆¡¡LOS AZULES VENCEN AL OLIMPIA EN EL GLOBAL!!🏆🏆🔴EN VIVO: https://t.co/DK4eVAwpU4 🌐(Global 🦅2-1🦁) pic.twitter.com/CPakN9UB0a— Diario Diez (@DiarioDiezHn) December 17, 2018 1074497654112030720 is not a valid tweet id 2020 CCL Qualifiers 1. Cruz Azul [MEX2 or MEX3] 2. Club América [MEX1] 2019 CL Qualifiers 1. Tauro [PAN1 or PAN2] 2. CD Guastatoya [GUA1 or GUA2] 3. Managua FC [NCA] 4. Santa Tecla FC [SLV1 or SLV2] 5. Motagua [HON1 or HON2]
A couple novelties with next year's semi-pro Caribbean Club Shield: it will take place in April in Curaçao, and will be the first time since I can remember that a Cuban club will participate in a regional tournament.
For anyone interested: if you're in the US and have a TV package with Centoamérica TV included (Ch. 661 with Xfinity), they're showing the second leg of Saprissa-Herediano live. 14 minutes in and Herediano's GM and/or coach Jafet Soto already got himself sent off
My apologies for falling asleep at the wheel - to be fair, no CCL or CL qualifier was missed on this occasion. But Belmopan Bandits won the Opening Season in Belize; and Verdes is their only real challenger for the Concaleague berth, given the 11-point gap between those two and everyone else in the full-year table.
The CSA has been promising this for a while, and it's now a reality: Canada Soccer’s 2019 Canadian Championship expands to 13 teams and 24 matcheshttps://t.co/yVQwqiu9MU#CanChamp pic.twitter.com/z8iBAlBvAc— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) January 10, 2019 Worth noting that Canada has decided to adopt the Concacaf format (which Concacaf itself adopted from CONMEBOL, to be fair) with ties after 180 minutes being decided by away goals, then straight to penalties, without extra time. Although it looks like that these tiebreakers will apply in the Canadian Championship Final as well, whereas Concacaf decided to turn off the away goals rule and allow for extra time in its continental finals. Also, league performance has not been taken into account for seeding purposes this time, as Toronto FC got the highest seed as the defending Voyageurs' Cup champion despite being the worst Canadian club in the 2018 MLS regular season table.
The Caribbean Club Shield draw: Group A Jong Holland (CUW) Scholars International Sports Club (CAY) Fruta Conquerors Football (GUY) FC Santiago de Cuba (CUB) Group B Weymouth Wales (BAR) SV Real Rincon (BON) CS Moulien (GLP) Group C Hoppers FC (ATG) Platinum FC (LCA) Rams Village Superstars (SKN) Group D Club Franciscain (MTQ) Dakota FC (ARU) SV Robinhood (SUR)
Of the nine clubs not in MLS or USL, the three CPL clubs that were professional in 2017 got byes. The other four CPL clubs, the League1 Ontario club, and the PLSQ (Première Ligue de soccer du Québec) club start in Qualifying Round 1. The second leg of the Final will be on September 25. That's closer to the end of the 2018 USOC, which was September 26, than the end of the 2018 Canadian Championship, which was August 15. I wonder if fans would like a doubleheader of the USOC and Canadian Championship ending the same night or on consecutive nights like a Tuesday and Wednesday. There's no way to know how well a doubleheader would work until we know what time zones the Finalists will be in. Canada Soccer made the graphic wrong with 5 clubs in the first column when it should be 6. Wikipedia says Cibao and Atletico de San Francisco from Dominican Republic did not register on time, so the Caribbean Club Championship will have only 6 clubs. 13 clubs in the Club Shield is an increase from 11 last year. Last year there were three groups with the top second place club making the Semifinals. This year I'm guessing only the group winners will advance rather than using the Group Stage to go down from 13 to 8 and play Quarterfinals.
I don't think they'd care because there's little synergy - they are national cups with the same CCL prize on the line, but there is (obviously) no overlap in the teams - and more importantly, there is no way to watch the Canadian Championship final on regular TV here in the States. Now that my mind's on it, here's an idea: take the stupid Campeones Cup, throw it into a river, and have a North American Cup Winners Cup (with a better name) between the US Open Cup winner, the Voyageurs' Cup winner and the two half-season Copa MX winners. Now that would help spread interest in the national cups, esp. while there is no other tangible prize for the Copa MX winners (until the FMF eventually kiss and make up with Conmebol). For instance, if we were to schedule it for late Jan/early Feb, the 2019 NACWC would include: Houston Dynamo Toronto FC Necaxa Cruz Azul Yeah, I'd watch them battle it out for a glorified supercup, and it would be a great CCL warmup as well for the first two.
The graphic now has 6 clubs in the first column and had all 6 when I first copied it on Thursday in the early afternoon. Who did they leave out?
The problem is if MLS player are entitled to a minimum offseason length that is already shorter for CCL clubs. It would also need to be played indoors or in the southern USA or Mexico at that time of year. No matter how good Toronto and their opponent could be, I wouldn't recommend playing there in January or early February. Another decision would be about the format. If the Liga MX clubs were always put in different Semifinals, there could be many Finals between two Liga MX clubs just like the CCL has, and it wouldn't tell anything about USA and Canada unless they played a Third Place Game. If the draw was random, the American and Canadian clubs would want to be drawn against each other. I made a mistake. It had 6 clubs.
The sum of the Costa Rican probabilities is 5.5504. I'm assuming 6 clubs make the playoffs. Playoffs can't have 5.5 or 5.55 clubs.
In Costa Rica, only four teams make the playoffs. What do you mean by probabilities? If you're referring to the last column, that's the percentage of maximum points that they were able to obtain, i.e. the PTS column divided by 69 (noice! ).
Thank you. I was referring to the last column. Standings don't normally give points percentages, albeit I don't normally look at standings from Central or South America. MLS gives points per game, which is proportional to points percentage.
Hey everyone, We have major news from Concacaf to chew through, so let's get right to it: Concacaf Announces #SCL Expansion: 2️⃣2️⃣ clubs🇨🇦 Inclusion of a @CPLsoccer spot🔝Five Central American clubs🆕Qualification method to Champions League🗞 >> https://t.co/2AhgRz7ws3 pic.twitter.com/S5QMe9US6N— Concacaf (@Concacaf) February 11, 2019 So for next season, only 10 teams will qualify straight to the 2020 CCL: the eight US and Mexico qualifiers, the Canadian Voyageurs' Cup winner and the Caribbean champion. Everyone else - now including the Canadian PL winner (told you @Robert Borden ) is playing Concacaf League, with preliminary playoffs between 12 sides feeding into the 16-team main tournament with six CCL berths on the line. Of the field of 22 Concacaf League participants, 10 get to avoid the prelims: the top two from Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama, plus the Caribbean runner-up and the top qualifier from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. I imagine the five-year index is being used, which explains the Canadian PL side getting stuck in the prelims - as well as the Belize champ, whose luck has finally run out after years of getting a higher seed thanks to Verdes winning a game once. There are still a few questions that we'll probably have to wait for the published regulations to resolve: 1. Who will get Canada's Concacaf League berth? The CPL isn't even going to begin play until April, so will there be an arbitrary cut-off date and whoever's #1 in the league standings then gets the prize? 2. How will they determine the CCL qualifiers? "At the end of the competition, clubs will we ranked 1-15, in accordance with the competition tie-breaking procedure." Will there not be a preference for the semifinalists (i.e. all four semifinalists qualify and the rankings are used to determine which two quarterfinalists join them)? And, 3. No, seriously, why didn't the Caribbean champion get dragged down into this as well?
I like the expansion, but is there a reason that another Caribbean team couldn't get a spot? They added 6 teams, and 5 of them are Central American, with zero being an additional Caribbean squad.