The 2010 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders will kick off their second consecutive campaign in the CONCACAF Champions League Tuesday evening with a first leg match against San Francisco at Estadio Rommel Fernandez in Panama. The match is the opening contest of the 2011-12 edition of the CCL event, now in its fourth year as the new version of the confederation’s club championship. Current semifinalist FC Dallas is slated for its CCL debut.
Currently in the midst of an 11-game unbeaten streak in league and Open Cup play, the Sounders have already booked a trip to the Open Cup semifinals in a bid to win a third consecutive tournament and are only third overall in the league table, four points back of first. With the postseason seemingly firmly in sight, the club may have an opportunity to seek redemption for its unfortunate results from a year ago.
In Seattle’s first CCL appearance last year, the Sounders advanced from the Preliminary Round 2-1 on aggregate against Isidro Metapan (EL Salvador) with a 1-0 win at home on a Fredy Montero strike and a 1-1 draw on the road with an Alvaro Fernandez equalizer. It then all went downhill in group play as they lost their first four games. Roger Levesque scored in a 2-1 loss at Marathon (Honduras) in the opener before they suffered a pair of 2-0 losses versus Monterrey (Mexico) and at Saprissa (Costa Rica) before falling 3-2 in Mexico in which Michael Fucito added to an own goal on the Sounders’ ledger. Fucito, who was recently honored as TheCup.us Player of the Round for his two goals in the Third Round 2-1 win against the Kitsap Pumas, continued to play a star role with two goals at home against Marathon for the club’s first group win, 2-0. Nate Jaqua tallied the final goal in their 2-1 loss to Saprissa.
San Francisco, meanwhile, is only two matches into its league campaign. Like Seattle, the club advanced to group play in its CCL debut in 2008-09 with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Jalapa (Guatemala), but came up winless in group play with only a pair of draws in six outings. Among the group matches San Francisco were a pair of games against the Houston Dynamo of MLS, playing to a scoreless draw at home and falling 2-1 in Texas.
Since then, however, San Francisco has failed to advance to the group stage. In their second appearance they were edged 3-2 on aggregate by San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad). A year ago, they received the unfortunate draw of facing two-time CCL Finalist Cruz Azul, who dominated 9-2 over the course of the two games.
Panama’s outing from San Francisco, Arabe Unido and Tauro last year was the league’s worst in three years as the trio went 2-8-0 for a point-percentage of .200, ranking only better than Trinidad, which was .167. MLS, meanwhile had its best combined CCL campaign a year ago with a 14-12-4 record and .511 point-percentage, which trailed Mexico (.722) and Costa Rica (.556) of the nine leagues represented.
Head-to-head MLS has had the better of the match-up versus clubs from Panama with a record of 5-2-3, going unbeaten at home (4-0-1). Last year MLS was 3-1-0 versus Panamanian opposition, winning both home contests.
Three other MLS clubs prior to the Sounders represented the US Open Cup in CONCACAF’s championship tournament. In 2009-10 DC United advanced from the Preliminary Round versus Luis Angel Firpo (El Salvador) via penalties after a pair of 1-1 draws. They would find themselves too far behind after losing the first two groupd games versus Marathon and Toluca (Mexico) to advance despite winning the next three (two against Jabloteh plus Marathon) before wrapping up with a 1-1 draw in Mexico.
The year prior, the New England Revolution were embarrassed in the inaugural edition of the CCL, falling 6-1 on aggregate to Joe Public of Trinidad after a 4-0 loss in the second leg. In the previous Cup-version of the tournament, the Columbus Crew (2002 US Open Cup champions) won their First Round series versus Arabe Unido of Panama 4-2 on aggregate before bowing out in the Quarterfinals, 6-2 on aggregate, against Monarcas Morelia (Mexico) as the two split the series with a pair of shutout wins.
Seattle also has a little more history in CONCACAF. The lower division edition of the Sounders were entrants in the 1996 Champions Cup as the 1995 winners of the A-League (second division). The club dominated in a playoff between US and Caribbean entrants, downing SV Transvaal (Suriname), 10-0, before losing all three matches in the Championship Group phase, falling 2-0 to Comunicaciones (Guatemala), 4-1 to Necaxa (Mexico) and 11-0 to Cruz Azul.
Seattle’s Semifinal US Open Cup opposition, FC Dallas, is the other MLS club set to begin play in the Champions League. The club will make its tournament debut with a Preliminary Round series against Alianza of El Salvador on the road Thursday at Estadio Cuscatlan.
It is also the first appearance in the CCL for Alianza, who will kick off their current league campaign Sunday against fellow CCL-qualifier Isidro Metapan, who host the Puerto Rico Islanders (NASL) Wednesday evening in the first leg of their Preliminary Round series.
The other US-based league side in the Champions League is Toronto FC. They will be the lone club of the four to play at home in the first leg of the Preliminary Round, playing host to Real Esteli of Nicaragua. It marks the Central American nation’s return to the tournament for the first time since the same club fell 1-0 on aggregate to the Montreal Impact (then USL First Division) in the 2008-09 Preliminary Round.
Although it may be a debut night for both FC Dallas and Alianza Thursday evening, teams from the two leagues have met previously with MLS hold the 3-1-4 edge in the all-time record of the current CCL format, including an unbeaten 3-0-1 record at home versus Salvadoran clubs. Last year’s only meeting was the Preliminary Round in which Seattle defeated Metapan.
Overall, El Salvador has not seen much success with only four match wins in 26 games over three years (4-13-9). Salvadoran clubs have been eliminated in three of their four Preliminary Round series. Firpo was a direct Group Stage entrant in 2008-09 with Metapan getting a group seed in 2009-10. Last year FAS became the first to advance from the Preliminary Round, posting a 3-1 aggregate victory over Xelaju (Guatemala) courtesy of a 2-0 road win that was the nation’s only victory in 10 total games as they went 1-5-4 combined.
Visit TheCup.us blog Extra Time for a preview of all the Preliminary Round CONCACAF Champions League matches [+]
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