The 2 American qualifiers will be: Kansas City Wizards or Los Angeles Galaxy and D.C. United or New England Revolution. I think it'd be better for L.A. and D.C., just because their names are more known than the other teams, and they're the only 2 previous winners of the Champions' Cup. This may be a "not care" thing for MLS, but if an American club gets to the FIFA Club World Cup next year, I think MLS might be able to gain some "street cred". Same for a Mexican league team if it wins and goes on to Japan. The 3 Central American qualifiers will come from the following 4: F.A.S. of El Salvador, Municipal of Guatemala, Olimpia of Honduras, and Saprissa of Costa Rica. The Caribbean qualifier will be either: Intermeongetapoe of Surinam, Harbour View of Jamaica, CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh of Trinidad & Tobago, or Tivoli Gardens of Jamaica. The 2 Mexican qualifiers? I've no idea, anyone?
UNAM Pumas will be one of the MFL teams... PS: If the spots are awarded like last year, Columbus gets in as the Supporters' Shield winner.
not necessarily, the MLS Champion usually gets a spot. I think the powers that be would decide if it will be the supporst shield or the Open Cup champion.
In fact could someone please post a link or something where it says for sure who gets to go from the MLS. I cant find anything!
I don't think there is such a link, because CONCACAF does not yet know who will be going or what the criteria will be. This is the last word from CONCACAF: http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?lang=en&id=2730 (which merely gives the dates of the competition in the spring of 2005, and the date of the "Draw" as "early 2005"). Kansas City as the Open Cup winner is definitely going. The confusion arises as to what will happen to the choice of the prospective 2nd US rep if KC wins the MLS Final. No word about that, and that may be intentional, as they may want to pick a team without having to be bound by criteria. For instance, if KC wins the Final in Carson, then MAYBE they will want the Galaxy in, even if they would be semi-losers (rather than the Eastern finalist or the Shield-wining Columbus who got knocke out in the quarters), because of the prestige of having a high profile LA entry (they are enticed by rosebowl-coloured glasses). There is always the perennial confusion as to how the 2 Mexican representatives will be chosen, complicated by the fact that there will be THREE (for the new 2005 format: http://www.conmebol.com/articulos_ver.jsp?id=56864&slangab=S ) Mexican Libertadores reps who will not participate (and maybe the CONCACAF comp will now be considered more desirable than in the past because of the World Championship in Dec 2005). CONCACAF will often change things such as format at the last minute for financial reasons, which is another reason why the clarity is not there. We know LD Alajuelense (defending champions) will be one of the three representatives from Central America. The second round of the Central American final qualifying round robin tournament for the other two will be in early December, as will the two-leg final for the one Carribean rep. see: http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/cacups05.html
It hasn't in the past. It's been the Open Cup winner and the MLS Championship Final winners last year, which was the first year of the current (roughly format). If Kansas City wins the Championship, then things will be up in the air, I believe no criteria has been set yet. The Competition has not had a setlled format, so precedence is of little import. In fact, CONCACAF had a competition in the 90's, largely disaterous. called the "CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup" where the US Open Cup winner attended. In 2003 there were 4 US reps in the Competition: 2002 U.S. Open Cup final winner, and three other Champions Cup positions went to the winner of the 2002 MLS Cup, the 2002 MLS Cup runner-up and the winner of the 2002 Supporters’ Shield in MLS. !
This is incorrect. The US Open Cup winner is the US's fourth choice behind MLS Cup Champion, Supporters Shield Winner, and MLS Cup Runner-up.
Alajuelense didn't even qualify for this year's preliminaries. Four teams will compete for three Central berths: Deportivo Saprissa, CD F.A.S. (SLV), CSD Municipal (GUA) and CD Olímpia (HON). http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=2792 List of all teams in Central and Carribbean: http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?lang=en&id=2727
Sorry, I got confused from the rsssf page statement that only the top two from the final in December for Central Amerivcan qualifying advances.
I do, at least for last year: http://www.mlsnet.com/content/04/datastore/chi0114ccc.html There hasn't been absolute word on the 2005 version, but US Soccer usually hasn't changed their qualification criteria as long as the tournament format stays the same.
Mystery solved... MLS Cup 2004 champion and runner-up to represent United States in 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup: http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_...05&content_id=18380&vkey=mlscup2004&fext=.jsp
Should the MLS teams once again fail miserably next year (as they have since 2000), one has to question whether two direct spots are justified. Costa Rica for example has a very good argument for a fix spot...
Thanks, geuss they made uo their mind because of our discussions. It would suck if the US Open Champion does not attend. If an A-League or other non-MLS team had won, i would be really pissed off. Now, does anybody know what the current situation concerning Mexican reps is?
According to this thread it's UNAM Pumas and the winner of this Apertura: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139398
I'd say. Alajuelensue and Saprissa have had some really good results in recent tournements. MLS can't really say the same.
I wonder if they'll actually play adu against some of these central american teams. Should be interesting. Anyways, I'm really looking forward to the next champions cup. Intensity should be higher since a place in the World Clubs Championship is on the line. I only hope I get to see some games televised. Hopefully Telemundo or Gol TV will provide.
D.C. United & K.C. Wizards qualify to 2005 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup: http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=2804
Why wouldn't they play him? You don't think that United would love to be in an international tournament like the World Club Championships? You don't think that MLS are telling Nowak that he needs to take this tournament seriously (if he doesn't already believe that)? KC and DCU are gonna fight their guts out in this. The funny thing is that I already believe that KC is better positioned for this. United has the potential of having a HUGE hole in the backline to fill, and I'm not sure we will be able to fill it adequately by the start of the CCC. I believe that KC has the core of their team locked up, and they are fairly young ............. and can only be better next year.
Nothing else, the Club World Championship money would help the MLS bottom line (even if it's just a little) and a U.S. presence can help make the MLS look more favorable in Europe. I don't hold illusions that an American team can beat a South American or European club (assuming that those continents send their champions), but I think an MLS team could definitely beat the Oceania team, and at least have a tossup with the African and Asian representatives. A Mexican team could make the final 2 on a good day I think.
I think that no team deserves to be seeded, this is my utopic champions league for Concacaf Group A *Mexican Team 1 *Alajuela CR *Fas ES *Caribbean team 1 Group B *US team 1 *Comunicaciones GUA *Motagua HON *Esteli NIC GroupC *US Team 2 *Saprissa CR *Tauro PAN *Caribbean team 2 Group D *Mexican team 2 *Municipal GUA *Real espana HON *Boca Junior of Belize BEL Or something like that..... with a group stage before.... at least minors teams will play 3 good games, that will help them to improve, anyway as i said before, that is an utopic league Utopia>something that will be awesome if happens, but will never happen...