The schedule is in: First leg (home team first, all times Eastern) Tuesday, February 23, 2016: Querétaro FC (MEX) vs. DC United (USA), 8:00 p.m. Seattle Sounders (USA) vs. Club América (MEX), 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 24: Tigres UANL (MEX) vs. Real Salt Lake (USA), 8:00 p.m. LA Galaxy (USA) vs. Santos Laguna (MEX), 10:00 p.m. Second leg Tuesday, March 1: DC United (USA) vs. Querétaro FC (MEX), 8:00 p.m. Santos Laguna (MEX) vs. LA Galaxy (USA), 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 2: Club América (MEX) vs. Seattle Sounders (USA), 8:00 p.m. Real Salt Lake (USA) vs. Tigres UANL (MEX), 10:00 p.m.
Is this the first time all 4 US based MLS teams have made it to the quarterfinals? I know I could look this up, but figured someone here may just know this information Edit: I looked it up and yes. I figured there is no way this had happened before.
Exciting matches. Hopefully the MLS sides can show up somewhat game ready. When will they report back from the offseason?
Yes - the US has always had at least one team crash in the group stage in previous editions. Our previous best was three US teams in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 editions of the CCL.
So, those of you who follow LigaMX closer than I do, how are those four opponents? Where do we stand our best chance of advancing? I assume Club America and Tigres are heavy favorites but I don't know about the other two.
Give me an honest assessment: Do even the best in MLS have a chance of eliminating a Mexican team when our best are shaking off the off-season cobwebs and they're in mid-season form? I think our teams have knocked out Mexican teams twice, but I think it's always been in the semi-final round, after the MLS club had more of a chance to find their footing. ------RM
Agreed on América and Tigres, both of whom are still alive in the current Mexican Apertura playoffs. As for Santos Laguna and Querétaro...things can change significantly over a couple months in Mexico, but right now neither of them scare anyone. Santos Laguna abused a naïve Saprissa in their last game of the group stage, but other than that have been downright horrible this semester, finishing second-to-bottom in the Mexican Apertura. Finally, the only reason that Querétaro are still with us is that in their group, San Francisco of Panama succumbed to a historic upset at Verdes FC of Belize when San Fran had the inside track on first place. They have a couple good pieces (e.g. forwards Emmanuel Villa and Edgar Benítez), but nothing to write home about. In the CCL era, the two MLS triumphs over Mexican opposition have been at this very quarterfinal stage: Seattle Sounders took advantage of Tigres coach "Tuca" Ferretti's decision to send up a reserve team (until recent pressure from Tigres' FO forced him to change course, Ferretti would regularly punt on international competitions) and pulled off an incredible comeback to win the series 3-2 in 2013, while Montreal eliminated Pachuca in this very calendar year. Montreal in particular proved that MLS teams can get into a good enough form to handle Mexican teams in February with the right preparation and commitment.
As Paul Calixte posted, you're wrong. The two MLS clubs that advanced to the Final were Real Salt Lake, who beat Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica in the Semifinals, and Montreal, who advanced over Alajuelense of Costa Rica on away goals in the Semifinals in April.
I think a re-tooled Galaxy defeating Santos Laguna is the best shot for MLS advancement. If Seattle can turf America in the first leg, that might be interesting as well. D.C. is going to need to upgrade their attack, but they do have the moxie to make it hard to score against them. RSL are probably in trouble against Tigres.
Looking at the FS1 Big East basketball schedule, there are no games on Feb 23, so there might be an available timeslot on FS1 for the 10pm Seattle/America match. Feb 24 has a Villanova/Xavier game at 7pm on FS1, but you can slot the 10pm Galaxy/Santos Laguna match after it. If there's ever an opportunity for Fox to build exposure for the Champions League in hopes of growing its audience in the long run, two MLS vs Liga MX matches on FS1 featuring MLS' two marquee franchises is about as good a chance as they'll get.
If these matches weren't during Feb sweeps period, I'd argue FOXSports should consider just putting some of these QF games on broadcast FOX. These matches could be bigger than the MLB or NHL post-season. It's a pipe dream, admittedly. I'd guess that Univision will opt to have a few of these (or maybe all of them) on UniMas and not relegated to the cable/pay household subset that gets UDN or Galavision.
@Ismitje Can this topic be stickied? If it doesn't get stickied somebody could start a duplicate topic closer to when the games are played.
Bump to paste a pertinent new article. CCL Countdown: MLS's four clubs face daunting tasks soccer America
IMO, only LAG look like a favorite to win. They're looking pretty decent in friendlies. The new signings are very experienced and injury free. But most of all, Santos Laguna hasn't been very good this season. All the other three MLS clubs look very much like projects.
That's for the first legs. I see all the second legs listed on FS2. Hopefully that will change to FS1 for some of them.
We are? We struggle to beat an Armenian side, we lose to Toronto FC and then we look terrible against Xolos "B" Team in a 0-0 draw. Doesn't fill me with confidence. At least we now have our whole team together for the first time. De Jong and Sebastian Lleget will hopefully see their first minutes on Saturday's friendly.
They're playing the 2006 World Cup All Star Team ... (oh wait never mind ... NYC is the 2006 World Cup All Star Team)
Unfortunately, NYCFC did not qualify for the 2015-16 CCL as they did not participate in the 2014 US Open Cup or 2014 MLS Season and Playoffs.
DC did upgrade their attack. Will it be enough? Acosta hasn't even been officially announced yet, so he won't have much time to practice with his new teammates. With Hamid hurt, I doubt it, but I'm hopeful. Just would like them to come back to RFK with a shot.