How to include USA/CAN in Copa Libertadores

So you think that we could take that Patriotic zeal and transfer that to Colorado and LA and Columbus? You're crazy.

The Patriotism exists because, for many an American soccer fan, the USMNT is their club team.

 

MLS best clubs vs Best teams in the World

=

USA vs Rest of World

 

I'm all for it. Where do I sign up?

The confederation could have its tournament the same years as the euros, with a qualifying campaign and you could still call the tourney the Copa America. Then Americans would have a reason to follow the team in a continuous basis. They might even get interested in MLS!

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves...

 

That Copa America would take too long. Groups of 5 require 5 matchdays with each team having 1 matchday off. Even if you went from 20 teams down to 8, that's three rounds after the Group Stage, for a total of 8 matchdays. That's one more matchday than the World Cup, and World Cup 2014 takes 32 days. The last Copa America took 24 days and the last Gold Cup took 22 days. You're proposing a tournament that would take about 50 percent longer than that.

 

So have five groups of four teams then. Group winners plus three best second-place finishers advance to the quarterfinals. Done. But these details can be worked out later...

 

I don't think this will work. I am as patriotic as they come, but I don't really care how well Seattle does against Communicaciones in the CCL. Seattle is a part of America, not America. It doesn't translate for me, and I doubt it translates for anyone else.

 

I hope every MLS team chokes and breaks all their legs while playing internationally (and domestically, really) except mine. I want my team to kick ass (even though they aren't now) and hope you all fail and have miserable lives.

 

Agreed. The only reason to cheer for MLS teams in such intl tournaments is if you don't have a MLS team of your own and you are a fan of MLS as a whole (whatever that means).
I have no reason to hate other teams in CONCACAF, DC United doesn't play them enough for hate to develop. On the other hand for some teams in MLS I've been building the hate 2-5 times a year game by game for 18 years.

 

Just wait until you play Arabe Unido. ..you'll hate them with a passion

 

Strongly disagree and I have a feeling that once you experience seeing an MLS side deal with the madness of a place like the bombonera you will come around too...

 

This would be a good time for somebody to bring up MLS's single entity structure. I'm not gonna be that guy though...

 

It needs to happen.

 

That flight from Montreal to Sao Paulo would be nice.

 

Better yet, how about a home-home qualification for the eight lowest rated teams. That gets you to 16.

In any case, the Euros have already expanded to 24 teams, so 20 is quite doable.

 

MLS is so close in terms of team parity that international tourney injuries can ruin a season. The Champions League is good because it's only 4 games in the group stage which can give teams extra revenue and hopefully not tire them out enough to injure themselves. Copa Lib is much more intense. I don't think MLS will get involved until this parity thing dies down a bit.

 

I can promise you that almost no one makes money on group stage CCL matches. Even the knockouts might be dodgy when speaking about profit, even for a winning club.

 

The solution to that is to make the Copa Lib a little less intense, to accommodate CONCACAF clubs...

 

Two things
(1) CONCACAF CL should be knockout only. That was how the UEFA CL built its following. The group stage was introduced as a way to make even more money out of something that was already profitable. More games for Real Madrid = more money. More games for Antigua Barracuda = more losses.
(2) Merging the two competitions is actually not a bad idea. I think one that might be workable would be (a) to remove the Mexican teams from the Copa Lib; (b) for the winner of the CONCACAF CL to enter the Copa Lib quarters or semis (stagger it so they schedule finishes a little earlier in CONACAF). That way, only one team suffers through the travel. Having 4 CONCACAF teams vs. 4 CONMEBOL teams would be awesome, I just don't think CONMEBOL would go for it at this juncture. Maybe - just maybe, you could do 2 CONCACAF and 6 CONMEBOL.

I'd also like to see a Copa Lib Final as a single game, but I don't think they'll give that tradition up.

 

They will for enough $$$

 

Watching the game tonight made think of how awesome it would be to see an MLS team in a Copa Lib final at the Maracana. Probably won't ever happen but one can dream.

 

I think maybe take some inspiration from Euro 2020. Have cities bid to host groups. LA, Miami, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Santiago. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and US guaranteed to have at least one city win a bid, and guarantee of at leas one non Brazil and Argentina city in South America to get one. Top qualifying seed from each country that has a city win a hosting bid gets to play there. The rest of the teams are seeded into pots and drawn at random. Play 3 games in a week. That gets you down from 32 to 16. Last 4 rounds are two legged match ups. 11 games for the finalists. Way less travel for everybody, but not everyone gets to see their team play at home, but how much are you missing if your team is going out in the group stages anyway?