2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition) [R]

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Yes and if the MLS was to get spots theyd have to make those trips at least 3 times which would take a toll on the players and the game play both in the copa libertadores and their league games. STay in the Concacaf and push for a 16 team league format competition.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

I can say whatever bribe MLS tries to give Azteca or whoever could more than equal that to keep it the way things are.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Houston finished up its prep for CCC tonight in Orlando, beating Chicago 3-1. That's the 3rd preseason match this past week for Houston. They beat the University of Central Florida on Wed 4-1, beat RBNY Friday 3-1, and then won tonight.

The approach Kinnear has been taking is to mix up "regulars" with rookies/reserves in these 3 matches, with none of the regulars playing more than 45 minutes for the most part (some of the regulars played 50-60 minutes Friday night). It will be interesting to see how this works out for them on Wed.

The good news for Houston is that Robinson and Clark were in USMNT camp during January and Clark should be match fit given his playing time in the USMNT matches. DeRosario was in camp during January with the Canadian men's national team; I don't think they played matches, but DeRo should have a head start on his fitness.

The bad news is that Mullan left the USMNT camp in January with tendonitis in his knee, although he has been training the past 3 weeks and seems to be fine. But his fitness may be questionable. Also, Ching is not going to be fit, as he has had to rest his knee and that's why he turned down the invite to the USMNT camp. He took the first week of Dynamo training easy, but he's been going pretty full bore the past 2 weeks.

The Houston starting lineup should be the same lineup they used much of last year. The only player they don't have from last year that started quite a few games is Adrian Serioux, and he was out for a couple of months. So Ryan Cochrane, who should start at central defender, had a lot of playing time last year. Expect the lineup to be the same lineup that started MLS Cup, except Rico Clark will be in at central midfielder where Serioux played (Clark was not able to play MLS Cup due to yellow card accumulation). The only question is whether Ching will start, or come on in the second half, as it's fairly certain he won't be able to go a full match.

--------------- Onstad --------
Waibel -- Cochrane -- Robinson -- Barrett
-------==----- Clark ------------------
Mullan ------------------------ Davis
------------ DeRosario -------------
----- Ching/Moreno ----- Dalglish -------

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Obvisouly Houston and DC started camp before everyone else. They had some players in national team camps, so they have a leg up. Though, I am worried how many players will really be able to go the full 90. You just said some of the regulars went 60 at most. So no one has gone full 90?

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

That's correct.

I think the dilemna was that the games were so close together, and then Sunday's game was so close to Wednesday's CCC match in Costa Rica that Kinnear did not want to push anyone to go the full 90 in any of these games. So far only Ricardo Clark (USMNT match) has played a full match.

Houston started training Jan 29; they spent the first 2 weeks in Houston, and then headed to Orlando this past week. Wednesday's scrimmage with the University of Central Florida was their first match.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

DC's first round opponent, Olimpia, lost 2-1 in league play to their groundshare rival Motagua. There was a bit of talk about DC United and they even read squad list from the CONCACAF site (which Steve Goff says is wrong) on the air and discussed "La Liga Estados Unidos" and DC United, as being 'very good and not to be underestimated.' They also discussed to security issues at that day's match involving Motagua supporters throwing rocks. If anyone wants to hear the match i saved the audio and archived it. (send me a private message if you want to hear it, it's in Spanish).

And it doesn't look like the Olimpia Barra Brava are happy with Emilio's return in a DC shirt. Earlier on a forum for Olimpia supporters i read what looked like a discussion of plans for Olimpia's Ultra Fiel to throw stones at DC United's Emilio who came to United from Olimpia.

fwiw

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

DC's first round opponent, Olimpia, lost 2-1 in league play to their groundshare rival Motagua. There was a bit of talk about DC United and they even read squad list from the CONCACAF site (which Steve Goff says is wrong) on the air and discussed "La Liga Estados Unidos" and DC United, as being 'very good and not to be underestimated.' They also discussed to security issues at that day's match involving Motagua supporters throwing rocks. If anyone wants to hear the match i saved the audio and archived it. (send me a private message if you want to hear it, it's in Spanish).

And it doesn't look like the Olimpia Barra Brava are happy with Emilio's return in a DC shirt. Earlier on a forum for Olimpia supporters i read what looked like a discussion of plans for Olimpia's Ultra Fiel to throw rocks at DC United's Emilio who came to United from Olimpia.

fwiw

BTW: anyone interested in this thread ought to check out scareyice's analysis from last year. Very good read. Perhaps he can update it for this year?

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Yea, Mexico bought the spots. They're Mexico's.

MLS could buy, say Peru's spots if they were willing to shell out.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Does anyone know if there are betting lines/odds available for the Houston and DC games? Links would be helpful.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Ching at the '60 minute mark might be just the ticket. Who knows...

Best of luck. The rest of MLS will be watching and rooting you on (at least most of the rest of MLS...)

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

I expect Dalglish to come up big this season including the CCC. If only we had one really good defender i wouldnt worry so much. As for Cha Ching expect him to start the second half. If he starts the game more than likely hell play the whole game.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Whether they buy the spots year by year doesn't have much meaning. I'm sure that Mexico doesn't have the right to buy spots in Conmebol's events in perpetuity, which means that Conmebol could eventually boot them out, whether this year, the next, or the year after that.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

But why would they boot out a money maker in favour of the MLS?

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

SUM could bid higher knowing that, as the organizer of the Interliga, they make a lot of money off the event.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

I might be wrong here. but the MFL teams got invited to those Tournaments first.,so MLS teams would need an invite.
I know that the Libertadores used to be strickly South American teams only,and then extended an invitation to the Mexican teams. Copa America was the same thing.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Wait, I thought Mexico originally bought spots but, after they proved their value (both in play and added revenue) they were awarded spots by CONMEBOL and are no longer buying an individual nation's spots. I don't know if they are paying CONMEBOL for their spots, but if they are I wonder if it isn't through guaranteed TV revenue and not actual cash out of FMF's pocket.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

What exactly is SUM Ive seen this acronym kicked around but I havent figured it out. Is it some kind of sports marketing firm?

I just dont see the point of trying to play in the copa libertadores when we can push for a better CCC. I stand by my point that it will take a toll on flying to place like Buenos Aires or Santiago and I dont think clubs like Boca Juniors would look forward to making the same trip to New England or Chicago.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Here is a link with some head to head info:

http://www.soccerway.com/match/conc...ashington-district-of-columbia-united/435551/

Olimpia's last 8 matches:

Feb 18, 2007 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Motagua 1 - 2
Jan 31, 2007 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Marathon 0 - 1
Jan 28, 2007 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Hispano 1 - 1
Jan 17, 2007 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Real Espana 0 - 2
Dec 17, 2006 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Motagua 1 - 3
Dec 06, 2006 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Marathon 2 - 0
Nov 26, 2006 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Platense 0 - 2
Nov 15, 2006 Liga Nacional CD Olimpia Olanchano 1 - 0

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Soccer United Marketing, it's a subsidiary of MLS, probably the best thing they've ever done.

http://www.sumworld.com/

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Good call lets get back on track:

Here are Puntarenas's last 10 matches.
Feb 3, 07 Santacrucena 1 - 1 Puntarenas (Primera Divi...) i
Jan 28, 07 Puntarenas 2 - 1 Perez Zeledon (Primera Divi...) i
Jan 20, 07 Santos 0 - 2 Puntarenas (Primera Divi...) i
Jan 14, 07 Puntarenas 1 - 1 San Carlos (Primera Divi...) i
Dec 17, 06 Dep. Saprissa 2 - 0 Puntarenas (Primera Divi...) i
Dec 10, 06 Puntarenas 1 - 0 Dep. Saprissa (Primera Divi...) i
Dec 3, 06 Puntarenas 1 - 0 Cartagines (Primera Divi...) i
Nov 26, 06 Cartagines 0 - 1 Puntarenas (Primera Divi...) i
Nov 19, 06 Santacrucena 0 - 2 Puntarenas (Primera Divi...) i
Nov 15, 06 Puntarenas 1 - 1 Herediano (Primera Divi...) i

Based on the above: Puntarenas will probably be harder for Houston to get a win on the road against than DC getting one at Olimpia. I'd hope that DC comes out swinging to get an early goal or at least be one up before the half. Time is not on the MLS guy's side, if they can get some early goals instead of bunkering early then they can buckle down later and weather the storm when they begin to tire. They need to use the time to their advantage early and late otherwise they may find themselves out of condition and out of breath at the 65th minute chasing a game.

I've hard people say, 'well its ok if we lose on the first leg so long as it is only by a goal we can beat them at home'. I would hope that that is not the attitude of the teams, the other teams in this competition try to win both legs and there is NO guarantee a call is going to to go our way when matches are played on the US leg. Either team is one Abbey Okulaja away from problems here.

They need to push forward early to try to get an early goal then tighten up and try to score on counter attacks. Don't just sit back once they're 2 up either.

After all, remember what happened to LA last year?

I think both MLS clubs can and will get through to the semi-final if they come out the gate getting some good shots on goal, earning corners and playing to win on the road rather than playing not to lose.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Agreed, also interested in the atmosphere at Puntarenas: Stadium holds 9k, and the stands are on top of the pitch...great for throwing objects at much hated gringos

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Puntarenas will win at that stadium. Probably like 5-1. DC better win big at RFK/Soccerplex/Someone in Virginia's backyard.

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

Except Puntarenas plays Houston...so I guess the Dynamo need to win big in Texas is what you ment?

 

Re: 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup (MLS Edition)

exactly. they're gonna have an experience, thats for sure. if the crowd is as hostile as Saprissa's got last year then Houston will be lucky to get a draw.