ouff Club Leon and if advance, Cruz Azul! tough games at all Cruz Azul (MEX) x Arcahaie (HAI) Forge or Toronto x Club León (MEX) Monterrey x Atlético Pantoja (RDO) Columbus Crew (USA) x Real Estelí (ELS) Philadelphia Union (USA) x Saprissa (CRC) Atlanta United (USA) x Alajuelense (CRC) Club América (MEX) x CD Olimpia (HON) Portland Timbers (USA) x Marathón (HON) https://canplbrasil.blogspot.com/2021/02/concacaf-define-adversario-canadense-na.html
An unfortunate draw, indeed. I would have preferred a softer start, especially given how early in the season the CCL starts.
https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2021...fc-will-compete-in-concacaf-champions-league/ Canada Soccer announced that Toronto FC will be the Canadian representative in the 2021 Concacaf Champions League
Except TFC beat Montreal in this year's MLS side of the Canadian Championship bracket to make the final. Otherwise it'd be Montreal versus Forge for the final. In that case sending Montreal would make sense.
Those were league games earning you the right to get to the finals not CCL. That final being played later this year means that this CCL berth was arbitrarily gifted to TFC. The reigning Canadian Champions are still CF Montréal. Saying that leagues games from an American league holds more weight just shows how much the CSA people have no clue what they're doing. I'm not advocating for Forge whatsoever
A top CPL squad might be able to eliminate one of the worst MLS squads on a good day. But I have no idea how Forge was going to be able to beat Toronto in eight days time, given they haven't even yet started individual training, and seem unwilling to go play to the USA to train and play the game. Also the Canadian Championship is still to be played. Also, I'm surprised you are unaware that CSA has sanctioned MLS - which makes it also a Canadian league!
The CSA sanctioned the 3 clubs and also granted them special rights to play in an American league. They do not sanction the MLS
True. But whatever the CSA decided for this year (assuming the game wasn't played) was going to be arbitrary. Picking Montreal as reigning Canadian champions would also be arbitrary but plausible. Giving it to Forge as reigning CPL champion would have been another arbitrary but at least nominally defensible option. There were a number of choices that were possible with pros and cons for all. This is the one they made. The reigning Canadian Champions are still CF Montréal. Dismissing them as "games from an American league" misses the reality. They were games from a mini-tournament involving only Canadian teams and, in reality, involving the best three club teams in Canada. But you know that.
So TFC goes to CCL based on that...yet they will play the Canadian Championship final later this year where most anticipates that the winner goes to CCL again. If you can't see how this is an unfair situation, don't know what to say. Montreal weren't happy about how this went down. There's a reason for all this criticisms towards the CSA -it was the wrong resolution to this problem. What's done is done, but you get the sense that #CFMTL didn't like the #CanChamp/#CCL decision after listening to @Olivier_Brett's interview with Kevin Gilmore. KG said MTL had no idea about the decision until it happened & that the club is disappointed with it.— Tristan D'Amours (@tristandamours) March 13, 2021
The point I've been trying to make is that in a scenario where a CCL contestant is picked rather than just playing the games on the field, there is no perfectly fair way to do it. Someone will always have a valid reason why the method used is unfair because it always will be unfair to someone. If you mean that most people anticipated that Montreal would go again as the 2019 winner then, no, that simply isn't true. At no point was that possibility mentioned in anything from the CSA. None of the articles I've read or things that have been posted here or tweets that have been retweeted suggested that was a consideration. They all talked about Forge and TFC. Maybe someone (Joey Saputo perhaps ) threw out Montreal as an idea somewhere I didn't see but it was certainly not what most people were anticipating. If the 2020 Canadian Championship hadn't been played at all, then I could see a reasonable case for the Impact going again as reigning champions. Under those circumstances, it would probably even be a good idea. The fact is, however, that all but the final game was played. Montreal (and eight other teams) had their chance and were eliminated on the field of play. We don't yet know who the 2020 Canadian champion will be but we do know it will be either Forge or TFC. The most fair resolution of this imperfect situation is for one of those two teams to go to the CCL.
I think you are splitting hairs here. It's the league that the top Canadian clubs play in. Based on being the top Canadian team in MLS last year - measured by not only the rules that MLS defined, but by every other measure too last season. Not sure the big deal ... no CPL team was going to be ready to play in Mexico in April, including Hamilton. It's not even a big surprise, there was media speculation two weeks ago, that Hamilton Forge would forfeit last week. I'd assume that if there is no Canadian Championship this year (and I haven't heard any indication there won't be), that the top 2021 MLS team would play in the 2022 Champions League. I don't see any other possible resolution. I don't think anyone would dispute that the top Canadian team is going to be in Champions League. Given that round one is against the last Mexican champion, and the home game can't be played in Canada, it's a bit of a booby prize.
which is sanctioned by the USSF and not the CSA. THE CSA has ZERO authority over MLS. I was never advocating for Forge to get the CCL berth, just that we should have went the same route the USSF did, awarding the CURRENT Voyageurs Cup champions the CCL berth since the 2020 final has been delayed not cancelled. Which contradicts Bob Young's tweet denouncing the CSA. No, the Forge vs TFC finals will most likely determine that, which is the whole point of my argument. This is a double gift to TFC who were gifted the 2021 CCL berth without earning it (Montreal did). Yes they accumulated the most points in the MLS Canadian match-ups but they are being rewarded for it with the delayed match against Forge FC later this year. They shouldn't be rewarded twice... this make no sense. Should have been Montreal who went through the previous tournament and won the cup. They are currently the reigning Canadian champions but we arbitrarily gifted the berth to TFC. I understand the decision but most disagrees with the logic.
Except Montreal didn't earn the 2021 CCL berth. They earned and received the 2020 CCL berth. But rewarding Montreal twice by giving them a second CCL appearance would make sense? Something's going to be unfair but it's less unfair to award it to one of the two teams that are still in contention.
So the USSF was wrong to cancel the 2020 US Open Cup and award the birth to the current champions - Atlanta United?
I didn't say that they did. I think you are lawyering this too much. The bottom line is the top quality Canadian teams, in it's biggest cities, play in MLS. Young was not advocating that Montreal go. He seemed more concerned about the Canadian Championship, not the Champions League. With his complete failure to get Hamilton training ahead of time (he could have moved the whole operation to Florida to prepare for the game there if he wanted to), it was quite clear that they weren't going to be playing that Champions League spot I agree that Toronto (nor Montreal or Atlanta for that matter) should be rewarded twice. And I've heard absolutely no mention of that 2022 spot going to the winner of the Toronto/Hamilton game - which seems pretty unlikely to me. If there's no Canadian Championship in 2021, I'd expect the 2022 spot to either go to the top 2021 Canadian MLS team, or the winner of that team and the top 2021 CPL team. Should have been Montreal who went through the previous tournament and won the cup. They are currently the reigning Canadian champions but we arbitrarily gifted the berth to TFC. I understand the decision but most disagrees with the logic.[/QUOTE] I don't think they were wrong to cancel the 2020 US Open Cup - but I think they were wrong to give the spot to the 2019 winner - it's too long ago (and they played last year!). Especially given how poor Atlanta was last season. Usually the 2020 US regular season champions of either the Eastern Conference or Western Conference which were not the Supporters' Shield champions would get a 2021 Champions League spot - but they didn't because that spot was instead given to the winner of the MLS Covid is Back tournament from last summer. Personally, I'd have replaced Altanta with the 2020 Western Conference champions - Sporting Kansas City. However, what USSF does is there business - and they did announce this back in December. Making such a call after one team has been in training for over a month to prepare for the Champions League (and Voyageurs Cup) is way too late. Looking at the final 2020 MLS standings and seeing which teams made the Champions League, that Atlanta probably shouldn't be there, does jump out!
I don't disagree with that statement, but that shouldn't exempt them from earning their berths to CCL. Had the 2020 Canadian Championship being canceled and gave the berth to TFC based on Forge not being able to train and TFC winning on the MLS side can make sense but 2021 better have a new Canadian championship, not gifting TFC with a final berth and be 1 win away from CCL - again... Agree to disagree on this, all I'm saying is that we should have followed the USSF logic on this one. This is 100% a double gift to TFC Not sure where you get your info from but CPL did everything it could to get the green light from the province. This is on the province of Ontario and the CSA who could have seek alternatives like playing on neutral ground in a province that might have allowed it. Forge and CPL did everything by the book Nothing surprises me anymore. That final will be for the 2022 CCL, hence rewarding TFC twice...massive doubt we see a V cup this year either count me in! Hence my main thought of this mess being a CSA responsibility I understand your point of view... bigger issue is the double gift to TFC, not the one time gift to tfc.
The difference is they cancelled the 2020 USOC and then had to come up with some way to fill that CCL spot. We played all but the final game of the 2020 CC. So the USSF wasn't wrong to do what they did but they would have been wrong if they'd played all but the last match of the USOC, had Atlanta eliminated somewhere along the way, then still awarded the slot to Atlanta. (And by wrong, I mean less fair. They chose to advance the 2019 USOC winner but could have picked, I don't know, the MLS Cup runner up or the highest points in the standings that wasn't already going, etc.) Also, I haven't heard or seen anything about this year's winner going to 2022. I hope not as I want to see the CC played this year.
Wait - the president on CF Montreal wants Montreal to be given a spot in the CCL? Well then, that's obviously the way to go. (Here is an article with a more filled out statement from Gilmore: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021...sagrees-toronto-fc-getting-concacaf-champions )
There is no double gift to Toronto - no one anywhere has mentioned that's how the 2022 spot will be chosen. But hang on ... let's step back in time a bit. - Montreal won in 2014 and went to the 2014-15 Champions League - Vancouver won in 2015 and went to both the 2015-2016 and the 2016-2017 Champions League - Toronto won in 2016 and was supposed to go to the 2017-18 Champions League, but they rearranged it the schedule to start in 2018. - Toronto won in 2017 and went to the 2018 Champions League - Toronto won in 2018 and went to the 2019 Champions League - Montreal won in 2019 and went to the 2020 Champions League. Seems to me, Toronto already lost out on one Champions League spot. And now you suggest they should lose out on a second?!?