2019 CONCACAF Champions League Thread

2019 CONCACAF Champions League
Semifinals
Home team first, times are ET

First Leg
Wednesday, April 3
Tigres UANL (MEX) v. Santos Laguna (MEX) 10:00 pm

Thursday, April 4
CF Monterrey (MEX) v. Sporting Kansas City (USA) 10:00 pm

Second Leg
Wednesday, April 10
Santos Laguna (MEX) v. Tigres UANL (MEX) 8:00 pm

Thursday, April 11
Sporting Kansas City (USA) v. CF Monterrey (MEX) 9:00 pm

The Finals start on April 24.

 

Trying to figure out if i should I tune in to watch Tigres vs Santos Laguna?

 

No

 

I’m an MLS snob, so no.

 

Sure, why not? But it's in April so you have plenty of time to ponder it.

 

The semis are next week-- it goes against all common sense, but i am actually looking forward to this. Logic would seem to dictate that the most likely outcome is to expect a beatdown of Sporting KC--but i find myself having hope that MLS's elegant playing team can somehow find a way through to the final.

 

So, imagine the CCL starts this week - I have a hard time picturing TFC, in the form they are in losing 4-0 in Panama!

 

Perfectly sensical. KC swept aside a Liga MX team already. They are facing a much tougher one now, but you can't say they are leagues apart any more.

 

MLS teams are at an obvious disadvantage by the timing. Any neutral with a reasonable understanding of the tournament and intellect realizes this. That said the Toronto that played on Friday would have a challenge as they are not very deep and they couldn't field the same team in both MLS and CCL each game.

 

Show me the data that says that MLS teams perform worse in the spring knockouts against Liga MX opponents versus the old fall group stages.

 

Scandinavian teams also have to play in European competition during their pre-season. Funny thing, never read them complain about it. They know they lose because they're just not good enough.

 

I'm assuming you are not a troll and instead like most people, don't spend a lot of time canalizing data. The problem is that your data set doesn't exist. It like comparing how u18 players did in a scrimmage against U15 players in one format and then trying to compare how those same individuals compared under a completely completely different format. Whatever influence to format had, and it can considerable, would be dwarfed by the fact that it was no longer a competition of boys against men.

 

More likely a troll as few that post on boards like this are so mentally deficient they cannot understand the difference between the comparisons.

 

C'mon man, no need for the personal attacks. I happen to agree that playing straight out of preseason must have some negative impact. But neither of those posters are "trolls" and discussion should not be centered around name-calling.

 

So you have no evidence to support your claim. Cool. Thanks for your contribution to this enlightening conversation.

 

It bothers me when people whine and create excuses. Rather than doing it, think: why do we have FIVE MLS teams in a competition where Liga MX, that wins it every year, has only four?

Fine, Canada needs to send a team. Then reduce the MLS clubs to three. In no other place you have a league with MLS record of never winning the competition in recent memory sending more teams than a league that keeps winning it.

Also, if we start talking of unfairness, how about the fact that the Gold Cup is always played in the USA? Everybody else has to travel, make arrangements, get the proper visas and paperwork. We don't. No other confederation offers such level of comfort cycle after cycle to a single team.

 

Just think if we had a coefficient like UEFA. Remember that the way a club gets to the Europa or the Champions does not matter: they may get there through league play, or through cup play.

What matters is, since it's a continental competition to decide the best of the best, to have as many good clubs as possible. Same idea in South America, where more teams from Brazil and Argentina are given berths to the Libertadores, since clubs from those two countries have won the competition much more often than anyone else.

So, even if the competition were broken up by country, there's no way to excuse the USA having four spots, the same as Mexico. Out of 20 finalists in the Champions League era, 17 have come from MX, and all 10 winners as well. Were we to apply the same principles applied everywhere else, we'd have many more MX clubs participating than anyone else.

If people are going to complain about being off-season at the start, something that not only happens with us, it also happens in UEFA with the Scandinavian teams, in Asia with the J-League, K-League & CSL (all three start in March, the playoffs are in January and the group stage starts in February; the A-league, by contrast, is in mid-season then), then they should consider this as a form of compensation: we got more clubs in than we deserve.

 

Why does CONCACAF get 3.5 World Cup spots when the region has never had a winner? Probably because a World Cup is not really a World Cup if it's only European and South American countries. That said I'd not be bothered if MLS lost a CCL spot or two. Although I'm not concerned about being like other confederations just because.

 

Well, if kc needed a confidence boost before their big match, they just got it!

 

I still don't get the argument that the timing of having preseason MLS teams vs. Liga MX teams in midseason play doesn't matter. It makes absolutely no sense. Of course it matters. Why do teams play preseason games and have preseason camps? Why not just start the season at day 1?

 

Of course it matters but complaining about it is like complaining about the climate: USA is a colder country in the region, hence no games until March.

Same for Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, etc. At some point, you just go, "well, that's the way it is, time to move on."

 

If it mattered so much, MLS teams would get better results as they progressed through the tournament. Or, alternatively, they would have gotten better results in the group stages that were in MLS midseason and Liga MX early/preseason. Neither of those are true.

MLS teams are worse than Liga MX teams because the way they spend on players is crazy inefficient because of MLS's stupid salary rules, and because American domestic depth players are worse than Mexican domestic depth players.

The schedule is an extremely lazy excuse that explains maybe 5-10% of the league quality difference, but ignores the much more important factors.

 

The first paragraph kinda of lost me. It's March and MLS just started and the CL is already at the semifinals. It will be over well before MLS teams hit midseason. The MLS primary transfer window is still open.

You raise some valid issues however my point still stands that MLS teams are at a competitive disadvantage by coming into the business end of the CL during preseason.

I do agree it's not really worth complaining about it. It's a rather easy tournament to ignore.

 

I can't help you understand that.

Prove it with numbers. Your point is falling over drunk; it isn't standing at all.

I never said anything of the sort.