I was all for superliga last year and the games were great, but at this point with CCC, MLS season + playoffs, and CCL pretty much lasting year-round, I'm like super-what?
Someone tell me how the hell Houston/Revs/Chivas/DC are going to be able to play 25 games in 2 1/2 months. Where the hell will USOC even fit in the schedule? IMO, Superliga will be Dallas, Chicago, NYRB and Galaxy this season because otherwise the top 4 teams will play their reserve squads and take a lot of luster off of the tournament and SUM knows this. If for some reason the top 4 are in Superliga this year, they definately won't be in 2009.
I can already see the meltdown on MLS N&A should Toronto eliminate USSF 3 or USSF 4 in the preliminary round...
Looks like a reasonable enough format, the question will be whether the group stages work out financially and in terms of teams not losing interest after losing a few games. As for teams being in too many competitions, they'll just have to learn from the South Americans and prioritize.
Good news: MLS team will be in mid-to-late season-form for the preliminary and group stage games. Bad news: if an MLS team makes it to the quarterfinals, the games are played in the pre-season and we've seen how MLS teams tend to struggle in international competitions held prior to the regular season. Also, the MLS team that qualifies for the quarterfinals may look significantly different personnel-wise than the one that actually plays in February. As an example, look at how much the Revolution, DC United and Houston Dynamo have changed/are changing in the current off-season.
Plus the fact that the 2007 MLS Champion could finish in last place in 2008 and win the Champions League in 2009.
question: how do cup-tied players work in this setup since the cup actually covers 2 MLS seasons (or parts of)? im pretty sure you cant play for multiple teams within the same tourney. i know for a fact you cant across the pond.
That's why I think we'll see different teams in Superliga possibly this season and definately in 2009. SUM doesn't want the top 4 teams reserves playing, they'll make much more money with Chicago(Blanco), Dallas(Davino, Toja, Alvarez), Galaxy(Beckham), and Red Bulls(Angel).
And i'd agree with boomer that that is a stupid way to run this. having the better teams play in all of these international competitions, only to play their reserves because they are playing too many games, is simply dumb. It's better for MLS to be the one prioritizing, by determining which they think is the biggest, and filling the most deserving teams with those spots, and then determining which is next, and figuring which teams get spots down from there. That's a much smarter way of doing it than overloading a few single teams and expecting them to prioritize and throw reserves out for fairly big competitions. I like DC as much as the next guy, but thinking that DC's reserves are the better choice to play (for the sake of argument) Chivas in the Superliga, as opposed to NYRB's or Chicago's STARTING team .............. well, that's just delusional. MLS needs to make some decisions here, and those decisions seem quite easy to me.
IMO, here's how the qualifying should go, and if 1 team can fit in both spots then you give the highest team in the table the extra spot. MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, USOC and 2nd in the table go to CCL. 3rd, 4th, 5th and USOC runner up to Superliga. That seems pretty fair, especially once the league is 16-18 teams.
ESPNDeportes is reporting that TFC CAN NOT participate as the team from Canada, because it is a team from MLS.
don't know if that's true. i would suspect they intended to say that TFC can't earn a spot through MLS. MLS is reserved for the US mechanism for CCL qualification. TFC, it would seem, could likely qualify in the Canadian spot through some other (non-MLS) route.
In case anyone needed the logo again (they changed the logo to a photo on CONCACAF's site): Not bad when you compare it to:
Is there any talk coming from CONCACAF about away goals and the ruling for deciding matches with away goals or extra time? As a Houston supporter this is a massive point as had the away rule been in effect in North American football for our Champions Cup...who knows what happens after we knock out Pachuca last March! If the CCC had it is FIFA going to come in and set CONCACAF straight as the only Confederation to not use the away goals for breaking ties over 2 leg match fixtures???
Atlante (Mexico) Champion Pumas (Mexico) Runner up the other two will be determined during the current tournament being played atm
I'm not sure where I heard it but I remember this being mentioned as one of the changes between the Champions Cup and the League. Every other Champions League and the Copa Libertadores use away goals so I do not see why not.
I'd assume Central American Apertura 2007 winners are in... L.A. Firpo (El Salvador) Jalapa (Guatemala) Marathon (Honduras) San Francisco FC (Panama) (They do a Clausura for the later half of the year). So I assume all these will be qualified now with Atlante Pumas Houston DC For Sure and likely Chivas USA and New England.
2007 CFU Champion: Harbor View (Jam) 2007 CFU Runner-Up: Joe Public (Jacky Boy's Team) 2007 CFU 3rd place: TBA: Puerto Rico Islanders (PR) vs San Juan Jabloteh (TT)