CONCACAF Champions League - Announcement 28.01.08

I think Costa Rica got screwed--their league is MUCH but than El Salvador's and yet they got the same number of spots and of byes.

 

That is quite a compressed schedule for the 6 group matchdays.

 

Maybe down the road the USOC winner will get one of the 4 spots.

 

6 mid-week games in 7 weeks for two (if not four) MLS teams as the playoff races should be hitting full stride in mid-Sept to October.

Houston, DC (and likely CUSA and NE) will need to work on their roster depth if they hope for success in both MLS and CCL.

although, it is difficult to know how the groups will stack up and how difficult the opposition might be.

realistically, I would think MLS would hope for (and expect) 3 or 4 teams to reach the quarterfinals.

 

The revs would have to make the travel anyway. The team that wins the first game will play defence in the second leg. If the fans cared they could make the trip. Mexican fans would travel, why not us?

 

It seems fair enough as long as Mexico 3 and Mexico 4 don't have to play each other in the preliminary round.

 

I agree, This would add importance to the USOC. I think fans would take it more serious and teams would too.

 

Those group days are way too compact. CONCACAF ever heard of November, December, or January? If its not too cold for the NFL its not too cold for this.

 

It must suck to be a fan of a team that plays bunker ball!
and NO, not all teams that win the first game play defense, specially if away goals are worth more!

and yes travel is possible! but you know that all fans that care, can not always make a trip! besides playing in your own stadium should be a home field advantage!

As a Chivas USA fan, I would rather have a team come and play at the HDC then Chivas having to go play in a field that maybe too narrow, turf or any other type of surface that we may not know of.

 

In Regards to Canada, It is up to the Canadian Soccer Association to determine who will represent Canada.

 

That could mean some serious traveling for some team with group stage matches, end of regular season, beginning of playoffs

 

The cultured approach, and the one of which DC United seems might consider making is chosing whether to give the MLS Season, playoffs or the most importance.

In MLS you can not reasonably build depth to compete in both the MLS season, playoffs and international tournaments with the rules currently in place so smart clubs will make the choice on what is their #1 priority.

It would not bother me if DC chose to focus on winning everything they can internationally this year (Champions Cup, Champions League, Superliga and either Copa Sudamericana or the Club World Cup) and give the US Open Cup and MLS regular season a pass, who needs another Supporters Shield if you are the Champions of CONCACAF?


The strategy should be:

*finish in the top 4
*play reserves in the open cup
*rotate in reserves during regular season games/rest key players
*make the playoffs
*win everything internationally

 

I agree with you. At a minimum, I would have given them two of the automatic spots into the group stage taking away El Salvador's, and reduced Costa Rica's spots in the qualifiers (and increased El Salvador's).

That would still Costa Rica and El Salvador the same number of teams in the tournament, but all three of the El Salvador teams would go through qualifiers and only one of the three from Costa Rica would, but given the historical performances of Saprissa and LDA, two automatic slots in the group stage isn't unreasonable.

 

Yes, you are correct of course, but it does seem to me that the underlying premise of a "Champion's League" competition is to include, well, champions of the domestic leagues. Not division 2 sides. Not teams that might finish in the bottom half of their league, but teams that have performed well againt the best local competition they could face.

 

You also need to make it to the MLS Cup. If you sacrifice the Supporter's Shield or SS runner-up, you still have to ensure yourself a spot in the following year's CCL

 

But what do you think the Revs should do?

 

So it looks to me like the MLS champion will have to wait A FULL YEAR to play in the Champions Leaugue, correct?

 

I definitely would like to see the USOC winner get one of the four spots. Then the MLS Cup winner, and the two teams with the most points in the regular season. The latter would get the group stage spots, and former would get in directly.

I much prefer the idea of having to win your way past the group stage, and at this point, the Supporter's Shield isn't really considered "winning anything" for fear of sublimating the MLS Cup. Although, this might be better done down the road aways, and the SS winner would get in first at this stage. I definitely want the USOC winner to get a spot, though.

1)MLS Cup Winner
2)Supporter's Shield Winner
3)USOC Winner
4)SS Runner-up.

 

...eh....are you refering to mexican fans traveling to the games in the United States?...

Whoever wrote this needs to make up his/her mind about what to call a soccer team.

 

who knows how US Soccer (and MLS) will work this out in the long run (if the CCL keeps this current format).

but your list of 4 could actually be 2 teams (if the MLS Cup winner is the USOC winner and one of the top two in the Supporter's Shield table). i'm sure some tie-breaking or secondary qualifier would be found, and the idea of giving a USOC winner a spot in the CCL seems like a decent idea (but who knows if we'll ever see it or how it would work out in practice.

 

So for calendar year 2008, you're potentially going to have one or two MLS clubs playing in all of these:

- CONCACAF Champions Cup
- MLS Regular Season
- Superliga
- US Open Cup
- Copa Sudamericana
- CONCACAF Champions League
- MLS CUP Playoffs

...with little to no depth to speak of. Eat your veggies and get plenty of shut-eye boys, it's going to be a long season ahead.

USOC's going to get even more marginalized than it already is, unless they offer a CCL spot to the winner.