Real Salt Lake claims CCL Group Stage berth

November 24, 2009

Real Salt Lake will join the Columbus Crew in the Group Stage of next season’s CONCACAF Champions League, earning the second spot in the main phase of the continental club championship with its victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup final.

Sunday’s 5-4 victory on penalties after a 1-1 draw marked the first time in the 14-year history of Major League Soccer that a team with a losing record in the MLS regular season has won the title. The Galaxy will play in the Preliminary Round along with the Seattle Sounders, which clinched its berth in the Champions League with a 2-1 victory September 2 against D.C. United in the U.S. Open Cup.

Columbus, which will face Toluca in the quarterfinals of the this season’s Champions League in March, claimed its spot in next year’s Group Stage by finishing with the best record in the MLS regular season.

Twenty berths remain to be decided for the 2010-2011 Champions League, six in the Group Stage. Mexico will determine its first two entrants with the conclusion of the Apertura Liguilla in December.

The winners of the autumn tournaments in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama will be assured of at least Preliminary Round berths with the remainder of the spots to be chosen early next year.

Real Salt Lake, in its fifth year of existence, is only the second expansion team to win the MLS Cup and will be the ninth different team from the U.S. league to play in the Champions League since its inception.

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Tags: autumn, berth, CCL, COLUMBUS, columbus crew, concacaf, concacaf champions league, continental club, Costa Rica, d c united, D.C., existence, expansion team, group stage, Guatemala, Honduras, inception, liguilla, Los Angeles, los angeles galaxy, Major League Soccer, Mexico, mls cup, Panama, quarterfinals, real salt lake, remainder, Seattle, seattle sounders, U.S. Open, victory

Domestic hopes fading, Champions League gains even more meaning for Altante, Cruz Azul

April 16, 2009

Trying to preserve resources for the Mexican Clausura while also seeking the CONCACAF Champions League crown is becoming less necessary for Cruz Azul and Atlante.

Having made it to the final of the confederation championship while balancing the two competitions, both can focus on one with their domestic title hopes all but completely faded.

“The way things are going, I think we do not have any other option but to go for the (Champions League),” Cruz Azul striker Alfonso Blanco said. “At the beginning we opted for both, but we are in the finals, and it’s time to start thinking of that.”

Cruz Azul will host the first leg of the title series on April 22, then travel to Cancun for the second leg a week later.

With one win its last 11 league games, Atlante has fallen to 14th in the Mexican league, although only four points out of the last “Liguilla” playoff berth.

Cruz Azul is winless in its last six in the league, and is 16th in the 18-team league.

“Cruz Azul is a good team, and while mathematically we are not eliminated, the team must continue to work,” Cruz Azul manager Benjamin Galindo said. “I think it’s two different tournaments, where the team has worked well since the first game of the (Champions League). I think it takes a little poise to be in the final and win it.”

This is Cruz Azul’s first trip back to the title game of the CONCACAF club championship since 1997, when it won the last of its five crowns.

Atlante has raised the trophy only once, in 1983, and hasn’t been this far since it reached the 1994 Champions Cup final, when the club lost to Costa Rican side Cartagines.

“We’re going to prepare intensely for the away game at Cruz Azu, because it’s evident that it’s not every day you get to these moments and finals, which you have to play them to win them,” Alante coach Jose Cruz said. “It’s not the same to get to a final and lose it, that’s clear.”

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Tags: Alfonso Blanco, atlante, azu, Benjamin Galindo, champions cup, concacaf champions league, CONCACAF Champions' Cup, confederation, cruz azul, first game, first trip, five crowns, four points, jose cruz, league crown, league games, liguilla, mexican clausura, playoff berth, poise, striker, title game

Latin American complexities — Part three: Mexico

March 9, 2009

This is the fourth instalment in our look at the wacky world of Latin American championships having started with an introduction and then analysed Peru’s interesting league system and moved on to Uruguay.

Today, we’ve reached Mexico and it’s a goody.

Mexico has some of the finest stadiums in Latin America and pays some of the highest wages. It is also notable for having a system in which the championship’s best team repeatedly fails to win the title.

Like several countries, Mexico holds two championships per season, the Apertura and Clausura. There is no overall champion.

Each championships consists of a qualifying stage follow by a knockout stage, known as the Liguilla.

In the qualifying stage, the 18 teams play each other once — but are curiously divided into three groups. The top two teams in each group qualify for the quarter-finals while the two best teams from the remainder, regardless of group, also go through.

There are two major drawbacks: some groups often turn out to be much stronger than others and it is possible for a team to finish bottom of their group and have more points than the leaders of a different group; it is also common for the best team in the qualifying stage to then get unceremoniously dumped out in the quarter-finals.

Of the last five champions, only Pachuca also had the best overall record in the qualifying stage.

To complicate matters further, relegation is decided over three full seasons — which means six championships. This makes it theoretically possible for a team to win the championship and get relegated at the same time.

Tigres UANL came close to achieving this unique feat. They were relegated in 1996 and also qualified for the play offs, but lost to Necaxa in the quarter-finals.

PHOTO: Toluca’s Carlos Esquivel looks surprised during a Mexican League match against Tigres at the Universitario stadium in Monterrey November 8, 2008. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

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