AS Blainville qualifies for 2018 Canadian Championshiphttps://t.co/dqJs17GOgt #canChamp pic.twitter.com/N9erwPsKLE— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) October 2, 2017 Congratulations to AS Blainville who are the PLSQ (Première Ligue de Soccer du Québec) champions. They qualify for next year tournament.
gotta wait the L1O winner... It would be interesting if an 8th club could join it like a Challenge Trophy or Canadian Soccer League champion (YR Shooters)
I thought CSL was unsanctioned. The Challenge trophy winner would be an interesting pick to round out an eight-club field.
CSL was unsanctioned for ages, no worries. It was just an idea. Also would be interesting a play-off match among CSL winner x Challenge Trophy winner to take this last spot.
I'm curious what the format will be. One of L1O and PLSQ against each of Ottawa and Edmonton in a first round, perhaps?
I would agree with that. Round 1 PLSQ vs. Ottawa Fury L10 vs. FC Edmonton Winner of those 4 face an MLS side Round 2 Round 1 winner vs. TFC Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps CPL teams are expected to enter the tournament at the same time as MLS Clubs once they start
I imagine the format will also depend on how many CPL clubs there are. They'll want something that makes a neat bracket which could be a bit awkward with five clubs (MLS and D3) plus X number CPL clubs. It wouldn't surprise me to see some CPL clubs enter earlier than others.
They could always allow more D3 teams to enter to balance things out. CPL will start with no less than 6 teams, but 8 teams seems more likely
Any even number of CPL teams would be awkward unless, as you suggest and as would be likely, they add more D3 teams to get an even number. Even with that, however, I still think it's likely that some CPL clubs would enter at an earlier stage than others. For example, a six team CPL could lead to: Round one: three D3 and five CPL Round two: four winners, one CPL (top team?), three MLS Play down from there. An alternative would be a 16 team knock out bracket but that would presumably pit MLS teams against D3 teams which would be an even bigger waste of time than CPL versus D3.
As the CSA will be a major shareholder in CPL, it's highly unlikely that they will optically put CPL teams in a situation advocating they are "lower" than MLS in status. The best way to go around it is a random draw with all parties involved
CPL team at Voyageurs Cup sounds confunsing. Coz if CPL winner advances to Concacaf Champions League, why it should play the Voyageurs? Unless if Voyageurs becomes an "Open Canada Cup" like Lamar Hunt US Open..
CPL will ask for their champion to go to the champions league. Until the confederation agrees to a second spot for Canada, the V Cup will be the only way to qualify
It's the only way for the Canadian MLS clubs to qualify as well. TFC winning the Supporter's Shield this year does not open another spot for another Canadian club.
I imagine that they'd want to keep it to an even number of 16 teams, so in order to give Canada an additional spot, they'd have to take one away from someone else. There are only one and a half spots for the entire Caribbean, 5 of the 7 Central American countries have one spot each, plus another half spot for the entire region. Very doubtful that any of those could get taken away. That leaves the 4 spots each for Mexico and the USA. I don't see much hope in either of them giving up a spot to us. The only real possibility I see is the US moving to 3 full spots and then having their fourth spot (say for example the Lamar Hunt winner) playing the CPL champ for a berth. But even that's a long shot. The only real possibility I see is if they make it a 24 team tournament.
I suppose the CSA could do that but it seems silly. Optics or not, the MLS teams are going to be stronger than the CPL teams, especially for the 2019 Canadian Championship. There's also scheduling to consider. If they keep the home and away format, a 16 team knock out means eight games for the teams that make the final. Currently, in practice, no team plays more than four games.
I don't disagree with you on MLS being stronger than CPL at first, but that doesn't change that it's in CSA interest to see CPL succeed by selling the league by any means necessary. There's nothing silly about that approach, it's really just plain common-sense
It's silly (to me, anyway) if we end up with an unwieldy tournament just to put optics ahead of reality. The tournament format has already been modified to suit changing realities. They should be able to acknowledge the 2019 CPL/MLS reality and adjust later if/when circumstances dictate.
Well, they don't care about naysayers and they know fully well that soccer experts and fans see the difference. However, CPL success will heavily rely on their ability to draw casuals and non-fans, and for that, marketing is everything. Selling yourself short is total non-sense. Besides, MLS has been doing it for years as they don't shy away from advertising themselves as a world class league. And besides, why can't we do like England where Championship clubs meets Premier League clubs early on? Way more entertaining than the US Open cup and current V Cup.
I get that. I just don't see promoting the CPL as the primary goal of the Canadian Championship. I'd rather see a good tournament first and consider the format's impact on the CPL second. I'm also not sure pretending CPL teams are the equal of MLS teams is going to draw fans. When I was in Ottawa for the Ottawa/TFC game this year many of the Ottawa fans were excited precisely because they knew the Fury were the underdogs. I see MLS promoting themselves as the best league in Canada and the US. I see them openly aspiring to be a top world league. I don't see them claiming that they are. We certainly could and those sorts of matchups will happen anyway. Putting the CPL teams on par with the MLS teams, however, would be like the English treating Championship and Premier League clubs equally for some reason of optics.
Bottom line is, if MLS teams are truly superior, the tournament's format is truly irrelevant, just like in England. What matters is a fun and exciting tournament and one of the best way to do that is just have ourselves a random draw
Would you include D3 teams in a random draw, too, or seed them? Even if they are treated equally, would you prefer to see the CPL and MLS teams "seeded" to maximize cross league matchups and avoid (as much as possible) CPL or MLS teams facing each other?