US Open Cup Winner to Take Part in CONCACAF Champions Cup

I think it's a very good idea to reward the US Open Cup champion. While I want my beloved Galaxy to win this year's Cup and every one hereafter, how cool would it be for an A-League or USL team to play in the Champion's Cup?

 

Assuming LA wins the Open Cup, the other teams would most likely be New England (MLS Cup Runner-up), Columbus (Open Cup Runner-up), and San Jose (Supporter's Shield Runner-up).

Here's how I would dole out the berths:

1. MLS Cup Winner
2. Supporter's Shield Winner
3. Open Cup Winner
4. MLS Cup Runner-Up
5. Supporter's Shield Runner-Up
6. Open Cup Runner-Up
>7. MLS Season final standings

Of course this would make too much sense, so who knows...

 

Interesting situation as LA may win the US Open Cup too...

So maybe you take the runner-up of each competition (Columbus and New England) plus last year's MLS champion (San Jose). Obviously 2003 US Open Cup and MLS Cup champions will be undecided by the start of the competition next year. Any other guesses about teams possibly eligible?

 

That's a nice incentive - for Columbus.

Would US soccer have been so generous if an A-League team had snuck into the final?

 

Four US entries defined

From http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=23438

In addition to the automatic berth for the winner of Thursday’s 2002 U.S. Open Cup final, three other Champions Cup positions will go to the winner of the 2002 MLS Cup, the 2002 MLS Cup runner-up and the winner of the 2002 Supporters’ Shield in MLS. With the Open Cup finalist Los Angeles Galaxy already earning a spot as both the champions of MLS Cup and the Supporters’ Shield, the San Jose Earthquakes will take their place as one of the four U.S. representatives in the tournament as the team with the second most points in the MLS regular season. Should Los Angeles also qualify for the tournament via a third route as 2002 U.S. Open Cup champions, the fourth U.S. position will fall to the Dallas Burn (who had the third highest point total in MLS). The upstart New England Revolution qualified with their late run to the 2002 MLS Cup final, where they fell to L.A. 1-0 in sudden death overtime on Sunday.

 

Exactly. Remember that Rochester Rhinos weren't let in the year they won it, and at or around that time there was at least informal provisions for the Open Cup winner to go to the Champions Cup following the demise of the CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup.

Call me a pessimist, but I don't put it past US Soccer to screw over the USL should a non-MLS team win the Open Cup again in the future.

 

I say you take DC United just because they won some championships a couple of years ago and havent smelled the playoffs since.

 

Re: Four US entries defined

So the four are:

LA
SJ
NE
CMB (if the Crew wins tomorrow) or DAL (If LA wins tomorrow)

 

DC can barely beat an A-League team right now. Okay, the team would probably lose. Lets be realistic.

 

Screw the A-League. Letting them in makes the sport look bush-league, we do have appearances to keep up.

Do division 2 teams get into the Champions League? I think not.

 

But divison 2 teams do make it into the uefa cup if they win their domestic cup

 

I personally don't understand why a 3rd place regular season squad would get the nod over a cup runner up in this system, but oh well. If Columbus wins it won't come down to that.

 

No, but they do qualify for the UEFA Cup on a not so irregular basis. Heck, a 4th division French side was a game away from qualifying a few years ago. Besides, it's called the Champions Cup, so what's wrong with letting the winner of U.S. Soccer's oldest competition in if they make it in on merit?

 

MLS and US soccer need to stop switching this up, they need to set the qualification standards in place and then leave them so its not a guessing game each year as to who makes it...this will also give teams more incentive, for example if it was known that the fourth place team had a chance to grab this then maybe it would have caused a bigger fight for that spot or with the winner of the open cup going maybe some coaches would have played their games in a different manner

 

Re: Re: Four US entries defined

That's too bad. I think Colorado should get the fourth spot if Columbus loses tomorrow, rather than Dallas. I think that winning the playoff series is a better tie-breaker than regular season goal differential.

 

The Domestic Treble

It's about time that USSF started treating things as they are, three separate tournaments.

Think about it.
1) MLS League
2) US Open Cup
3) MLS Cup

Three separate trophies for three separate tournaments, it makes sense that berths to the Champion's Cup be granted based on this. Granted that the MLS league qualifies teams for the MLS Cup, so that there is a high likelyhood of having the same situation we have this year with the same team taking both the Supporter's Shield and the MLS Cup, take the second place team from the tournaments in that same order.

For example, assume that LA will beat Columbus in the Open Cup and take the Treble. Then LA would qualify as winners of the League first. Since they've won the Treble, second-place teams would qualify for the remaining three spots. So the Champion's Cup participants would be:

1) LA
2) SJ
3) Columbus
4) NE

If Columbus wins the Open Cup, then the qualifiers would look like this:

1) LA
2) Columbus
3) SJ
4) NE

If New England won MLS Cup and Columbus won the Open Cup, the qualifiers would look like this:

1) LA
2) Columbus
3) NE
4) SJ

Not a bad system if you are going to stick to it.

 

What informal provisions? Never has the USOC winner - much less a runner up - even sniffed the CCC!

The U.S. entrants year-by-year since MLS started...

1997
WSH - 1996 MLS CH
LA - 1996 MLS RU (entered in prelim round)

1998
WSH - 1997 MLS CH
COL - 1997 MLS RU (entered in prelim round)

1999
CHI - 1998 MLS CH
WSH - 1998 CCC CH
LA - 1998 MLS SS (entered in prelim round)

2000
WSH - 1999 MLS CH
LA - 1999 MLS RU

2001 (combined with 2002)
KC - 2000 MLS CH
CHI - 2000 MLS RU

2002 (combined with 2001)
SJ - 2001 MLS CH
WSH - 2001 Giants Cup RU

2003
LA - 2002 MLS CH
NE - 2002 MLS RU
SJ - 2002 MLS SS RU
DAL/CLB - 2002 MLS SS 3P/2002 USOC CH.

Only once in the last seven years has a USOC finalist even been given the opportunity to take part in the CCC. That would be for the 2003 CCC.

Where was Dallas in 1998 for winning the USOC in 1997? The 2nd spot went to Colorado.

The U.S. got three spots in 1999. Why wasn't Columbus allowed in as the 1998 USOC RU (Chicago won the USOC in 1998)? Well LA took their spot as the SS CH.

What makes you think Rochester should get a spot in the 2000 CC for winning the 1999 USOC? The U.S. was back to two entrants. Maybe if the U.S. had three Rochester might have had a sniff.

2003 will be the second year the U.S. will have more than two entrants based on a previous season's results (2002 was based on 2001 and 2000). By no coincidence at all, it is the first time a USOC CH could get in.

By the way, my early prediction for the 2003 CONCACAF Champion's Cup final...Los Angeles vs. New England, with LA winning.

This would make it three years in a row that LA will defeat NE in a cup final: 2001 USOC, 2002 MLS Cup, and 2003 CCC. It's a pretty nice progression too - the stakes are bigger and bigger.

 

where will the us open cup final be played? please tell me that it will not be played in fullerton again please!

 

1. MLS Cup Winner - LA
2. Supporter's Shield Winner - LA
3. Open Cup Winner - LA
4. MLS Cup Runner-Up - NE
5. Supporter's Shield Runner-Up - SJ
6. Open Cup Runner-Up - Crew
>7. MLS Season final standings


I have to agree entirely with what acjschlos posted here, there must be a set standard. Also have to agree with having the A league champion take one of the 4 spots .

 

It took me a while to figure out who WSH was.

We usually say DC, that being the team name.

 

What are you smoking?

As regularly seen in the USOC, A-League teams get smoked by mid-table MLS teams. What is the sense in putting the AL champ into a tournament where the competition is even higher (allegedly) than the OC? They'd just get smoked even worse there (supposedly). The only way that an A-League team should get in is by winning the OC.

Rochester, the year they won the OC was an abberation. I seriously doubt that we will see an A-League team sniff the semifinals of the OC for a long time.