Basically, in 2001 CONCACAF invited a handful of clubs to a tournament, with the finalists going into the 2002 CONCACAF Champions Cup. In the first round, in April, we played Jamaica's Arnett Gardens, beat them something like 6-1 on aggregate. Then, in August, we beat Communicaciones 2-1 to advance to the final, where we lost 2-0 to America. The tournament was a huge failure at the gate and never repeated.
CONCACAF was going to have a "Clubs Cup" that decided the spots in the Club World Championship -- that cup was going to be among the top finishers of the Champions Cup and the Giants Cup. As Lanky said, DC finished as runner-up in the only Giants Cup. http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=281 When CONCACAF decided not to have the Clubs Cup and nixed future Giants Cups, they honored the promise that the Giants Cup winner and runner-up would have a shot at the Club World Championships (as they were then scheduled to happen). Since they were only going to have the Champions Cup (not a Clubs Cup), DC United's Clubs Cup berth was converted into a 2002 Champions Cup invite, which is why DC was in the '02 Champions Cup despite not having been an MLS winner or runner-up since '99.
Attendance and past performance, I think were the stated criteria. Columbus were also invited, and they had never been anything but our bitches, and their attendance was nothing special, so there was always some wariness about that. I think they were trying to create a UEFA Cup-like tournament with the second-tier teams, but, as befits CONCACAF, they screwed it up in a number of ways. That home game against Arnett Gardens was fun, though. That was the first of Lisi's late game-winners.
Yes, that was the premise... they handpicked the "biggest" clubs from each association around the confederation for a tournament of "giants". http://www.concacaf.com/view_archive.asp?id=168 Clubs in the only Giants Cup:
Columbus had the "new stadium spike" in '99 (first in attendance that year by a handful), so if that was in the mix there was a bit of a case for them. Still, I think DC & LA would have still been the top two over a 99/00 two-year period.
Columbus' attendance in 2000 was 15,451, down about 2,200 from 1999 (the first year of the Erector Set). LA had increased from 17,632 to 20,499. LA didn't need to be in the Giants Cup, though, because they had already won the 2000 CONCACAF Cup, which wasn't played until January 2001. It would've made more sense to invite the Metros, who were 4th in attendance in 2000 and had their best-ever team at the time (as opposed to Columbus, who only had a slightly better record than us in 2000).
LA's '00 Champions Cup win was supposed to get them (and the runner-up) into an earlier version of the Club World Championship (the one in Spain), but the '03 Clubs Cup was to be for the '01 and '02 Champions Cup winners (there turned out not to be an '01 Champions Cup) and the '01 and '02 Giants Cup winners. So, I think LA was still going to need to earn their way into that '03 Clubs Cup. Not sure why they didn't participate, though.
i find it impossible to believe something promoted by the genius of CONCACAF could end up a failure with poor attendance. jack warner is the new messiah. i think you are part of a conspiracy to smear him
I thought there was a 2001 Champions' Cup. I seem to recall KC getting slaughtered somewhere in Central America sometime in mid-season...
When have I ever claimed the contrary? That said, I don't think a UEFA Cup-like competition for the second-tier teams in CONCACAF is a bad idea. But they should sort out their continuous problems with the CCC before adding another competition.
Maybe when the region improves. The quality of teams is heavily skewed towards the top, and UEFA-Cup-equivalent tournament would make for some pretty soporific viewing. And coming from someone who'll watch pretty much any soccer, that's saying something.
Eliminate the obligatory Carribean team (which won't happen under Warner, though) and I think it's much better.
No, the 2000 one got pushed to early '01 and there was no '01 edition. KC was in the '02 edition -- that 1-6 loss (2-7 on aggregate) to Morelia (after KC had advanced two rounds) was then. List of winners here. Box scores from KC's 2002 Champions Cup games here.
Those are very cool. What a ride Brian Carroll has had. Not even a sniff of a game three seasons ago to the top of every couple of pages on the website.
Yeah those headers are VERY nice-bridges the incredible success of the old days with the current players