Hi everyone, No better time to kick off our thread than with the draw this evening - and I'm not surprised that TUDN is dedicating a whole hour to coverage, given the involvement of... you know who (still can't believe that there'll be two Florida teams in this!!! )
And here we go! Worth keeping in mind: 1. All rounds except the Final are home-and-away series. The higher seeds will host the 2nd leg in Round One; the five teams with a bye, and the winners of the R1 series involving the top three preseeded teams (América, Monterrey and Tigres), will host the second leg in the Round of 16. In the QF and SF, the team with the better record from previous rounds (not including Round 1) will host the second leg. 2. As for the Final, Concacaf gave itself unprecedented leeway in the regulations, allowing it to choose either a neutral venue or letting the finalist with the better record do the honors 3. The away goals rule remains; but for the first time in years, two-leg series that remain tied after 180 min. will go to extra time, with away goals no longer counting, and each side allowed an additional sub.
We haven't even gone a week since the draw, and there's already been a venue change Club Statement Regarding 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup Round One Venuehttps://t.co/rTEQKSPfjH— Cavalry FC (@CPLCavalryFC) December 15, 2023
Not playing at home in Alberta kind of sucks for their fans. Didn't Canada play Mexico in Edmonton for a WCQ match last time? That game was so much fun in the extreme cold with snow in the ground.
I'm surprised clubs from the same country are not separated in Round One. Houston plays St. Louis, and the winner plays Columbus.
With 8 of 10 MLS teams on the same side the bracket, it's pretty hard to keep them separated. I guess they could have swapped STL for Comunicaciones. They were both Pot 2 teams. STL/HOU is now guaranteed 4 matches this year, possibly more depending on Leagues Cup, Open Cup & MLS Play-offs.
For those of us in the US, here's the full TV schedule for the first round in English; as far as I can tell, TUDN is only putting the Real Estelí-Club América match on their channel this week, with the rest available on their streaming service ViX.
...and based on their current TV guide, TUDN will take the same approach next week: Chivas/Forge on TV, the rest on ViX. (cc' @newtex )
I can't get that link to work. Thanks for the extra info. Figuring out the tv schedule for Concacaf competitions is always a guessing game with Unvision involved. And I messed up on what Fox was doing. I didn't even know I could get Tubi. Or how it works. This should be interesting.
Thanks for the heads-up The 2024 @Concacaf Champions Cup kicks off Tuesday with Round One play featuring eight teams from @MLS and five teams from @LigaBBVAMX! 🏆Broadcast schedule for the first round of matches: https://t.co/GI2NiyzDAl pic.twitter.com/srWrzHrKcI— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 5, 2024
So far only America has failed to win from the Mexican teams. Heridiano getting a red card early on hurt them vs Toluca
Really surprised at how that ended... Herediano scoring two on the road is highly unlikely, but the comeback is within reach! And Gignac, what more can we say
And y'all thought Concacaf had left CCL-era chaos behind for good and went corporate... oh ye of little faith WHAT an upset! Not only did we witness the first Mexican club ever to fail to reach the Round of 16; but for the first time since a Round of 16 has existed in a Concacaf Cup/CCL (ever? Paging @EvanJ & @Roger Allaway for confirmation), we'll have a series at that stage without a single North American team involved, as Herediano move on to face Caribbean champs Robinhood.
I don't have any knowledge about the CCC or CCL that everybody else can't find also, but I made a note to look at Wikipedia.
2014-2015 had a Quarterfinal between 3 seed Herediano and 6 seed Olimpia. Seeds came from a ranking of the eight group winners. Costa Rica had three clubs in that Quarterfinal, which was more than Mexico (2), USA (1), Canada (1), and Honduras (1).
Quick update for those watching in the US: this week, TUDN will show the return leg of Philly/Saprissa tonight on TV, and the rest of the games on ViX.
Man, "Liga" bellying up like they did was a massive disappointment... but based on what I've watched in Costa Rican sports media leading up to yesterday, not entirely unexpected. I just hope Concacaf has the good sense to leave the current format for at least a couple years before considering adjustments - specifically, whether to continue to give top seeding to the CentAm and Caribbean champs. For their part, Robinhood didn't embarrass themselves, and frankly should've walked out with an away goal if they had been more opportunistic (or hadn't complicated Shaquille Cairo's availability).
I have to say: It's really obvious how CONCACAF is trying to gain artificial popularity in the USA by affecting the rest of the countries by undeservingly qualifying MLS clubs in large numbers in the most important continental competition. 9 MLS clubs through the Leagues Cup (a fake tournament) and direct berths. Today we saw how the Mexicans did not give the American clubs a chance. We have seen this in the past and we will see it again! Don't get me wrong I like watching MLS but what has CONCACAF done...instead of progressing they are closing this competition only around America. I would like to see more clubs from Costa Rica, Honduras or the Caribbean in the Champions League and not just one team in the round of 16 or a preliminary round. It's too unbalanced.