D.C. United opened their 2014 CONCACAF Champions League campaign last night at a soggy RFK stadium, riding an early Eddie Johnson goal to a 1-0 victory over Jamaican side Waterhouse FC.
Johnson’s fifth-minute goal was the highlight in a largely forgettable match, so instead of rehashing the events of last night’s opener, we think it’d be better to give you a primer on just what CONCACAF Champions League (CCL for short) even is.
Alright. So what is CONCACAF Champions League?
Put simply, it is the club championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The competition consists of two phases. The group stage, played from August to October, narrows the field down from 24 to eight teams. The knockout round actually begins in March of the following year, and the tournament concludes in May.
How did DC United get here?
United qualified for the competition as winners of last year’s US Open Cup. You remember that, right? Towards the end of their 2013 season, the worst in MLS history, DC shocked everybody by emerging victorious in the USOC final, booking their spot in CCL play.
Four teams qualify from the U.S.: The winner of MLS Cup, the winner of the MLS Supporters’ Shield (awarded to the team with the best regular season record), the team with the next best record in the opposing conference and the winner of the Open Cup.
That’s great. Does anybody care about this competition?
It’s hard to answer that question. Die-hards certainly do (I also do) but attendance numbers often suggest otherwise. Last night’s crowd of 3,330 is a prime example; MLS teams often put little effort into publicizing these matches and field reserve team lineups for the early games. The resulting apathy is pretty predictable.
The way the tourney is scheduled does teams from the U.S. no favors, as group stage games fall in the middle of the playoff race for many teams. United, for example, had to face Waterhouse in the middle of a seven-game month of August, giving them little choice as to the type of lineup they’d be fielding.
The knockout round is even worse: MLS clubs enter it in pre-season mode, while their Mexican and Central American opponents find themselves in mid-season form. Combine this with the fact that most Mexican clubs carry a 35-man roster and outspend MLS sides 10 to 1, and it makes winning the tournament a very, very tall order for an American club.
Oh, one other thing: a U.S. side has never won Champions League in its current format. In fact, only one has even made the final – Real Salt Lake came painfully close to winning the 2010-2011 edition of CCL, losing in the finals to Mexican powerhouse Monterrey.
So what happens if United does the unthinkable and wins this thing?
The winner of CCL gets a berth into the FIFA Club World Cup, where the winners of all of the continental club championships (EUFA Champions League in Europe, Copa Libertadores in South America, CAF Champions League in Africa, etc) meet to decide once and for all WHO THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE ENTIRE WORLD IS. (Disclaimer: even fewer people take that tournament seriously)
What’s next?
DC return to league action on Wednesday when they take on Sporting Kansas City – they’ll travel to LA to face the Galaxy on Saturday as well.
As for CCL action, they’ll head to Jamaica to take on Waterhouse in Kingston on September 16th. Later on the following month, they’ll take on Panamanian side Tauro FC back at RFK, before rounding out the group phase with a visit to Panama City on October 21st. Exciting stuff.
