Sydney FC lost to Queensland on Friday in the A-League playoffs and will be the 4th team in the inaugural Pan-Pacific Championship. Goal.com Schedule of Matches Wednesday, Feb. 20 LA Galaxy v. Gamba Osaka, 6 pm HST (11 pm EST) Houston Dynamo v. Sydney FC, 8:30 HST (1:30 am EST) Saturday, Feb. 23 Losers, 6 pm HST Winners, 8:30 pm HST All games at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, HI. Here in Houston we've hear rumors that the games will be on ESPN Classic.
I don't really get the feeling that any of the teams is taking this too seriously, but I hope it's good. Has there been any word on TV? And why did they change who got in from the A-league. I thought it was going to be the loser of the Preliminary final? That game is on 2/17 which is cutting it close, but would allow for the team to go to Pan-pacific on 2/20.
I found the reason. Originally the Preliminary Final would have been played on Sunday, Feb. 10, before the Grand Final on Feb.17. That was changed to accommodate the Australia-Qatar World Cup Qualifier on Feb. 6. When they pushed the Preliminary and Grand finals back one week they decided to just send the loser of the Minor SemiFinal. The Pan-Pacific Championship people want the teams in Hawaii by no later than Sunday, Feb.17, so waiting for the Preliminary Final was not going to work.
Basically. Although you'd expect that Sydney and, to a lesser extent, Gamba Osaka will have a fitness advantage at this point. Anyway, I think the interesting question for Houston is whether our squad looks can fill in some gaps as we get ready for Municipal in the CCC a couple of weeks later. I suppose the interesting question for LAG is how they're generally coming together under a new coach and with some new players. It's hardly a big deal of a tourney, but it'll pose, and maybe even help answer, some questions for the MLS teams beyond the usual February pre-season stuff.
Sombody somewhere said these games might air on ESPN classic which seems unlikely to me but I certainly hope is true.
FWIW, Glenn Davis mentioned in his blog a couple of weeks ago that ESPN Classic would carry these games (I posted the link with quote in the PPC thread in the Houston forum).
The games will be shown on ESPN Classic. My on-screen menu already has listings for live soccer from 10:00p-12:00a cst and 12:30a-2:30a on 2/20 and 12:30a-2:30a and 2:30a-4:30a on 2/24.
They probably should have had the MLS teams play each other to assure one makes the final. Only half-kidding.
The same way every team did... they were invited. There was no qualification. Don't be fooled by the name of the tournament. Its just an exhibition.
MLS teams in the 1996 US Open Cup didn't qualify, but were invited, and I don't see anyone handing that trophy back. Same goes for Sudamericana and 2007 Superliga. Nearly all competitions involving MLS have some rinky-dink dubious crap going on that doesn't exactly project confidence. At least the Pan-Pacific is at a neutral site, which is a step up from Superliga.
My issue is not theat these teams were invited. the issue, IMHO, is that "champions" should be invited. Dynamo, yes. LA & Sydney, I wouldn't have a problem with if they would have won SOMETHING last season.
Houston qualified by winning the MLS Cup. It was reported before the Cup was played that the MLS Cup winner would participate in the Pan-Pacific. It was incidental that Houston won the Cup.
I don't get the "I don't care" attitude, it's been a long cold winter, I can't wait for the games, it's not about how great that tournament is, it's just about getting some of OUR soccer on TV, no one is comparing it to the EUFA champions cup, it's just a great preseason couple of games.
I read somewhere, maybe the announcement for the tournament, that LA qualified by being the highest MLS finisher in SuperLiga. Guess we will have to wait until next year to see if the same holds or if it is contrived.
That seems to have been reported after the fact. This article from Australia indicates that LA is there as a host and that they will be there in the future as well.
Sydney qualified by losing the Minor Semifinal in the A-League playoffs. If they had won that series, then the Queensland Roar would be heading to Hawaii. The popularity of Sydney FC had nothing to do with it.
Okay, fine, they "qualified" by meeting the incredibly rigorous standard of being the fourth best team in an 8 team league league, that was the first team eliminated from the playoffs (having failed to score in two games), thus making them available because the better teams had more important games to play. A stunning achievement, to be sure. (And yes, I realize they were third in the regular season table, regrettably underachieving from that heady standard to get bounced out of the playoffs.) Even the Melbourne paper derisively used quotation marks to acknowledge Sydney's accomplishment in its report: At least they have a sense of humor in Melbourne. But if it makes some of you fell any better, I'm sure MLS could put out a press release that the Galaxy similarly "qualified" by deftly losing to Chicago in the final game of the regular season, thus knocking them out a playoff spot and freeing them up to focus on Hawaii. Whew. Link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/a-league...p/2007/11/05/1194117959688.html?page=fullpage