By TRAVIS CLARK
Three teams are scheduled to represent MLS in the second version of the CONCACAF Champions League. For D.C., Columbus, and Houston it's a chance to take on some of the region's best clubs, and prove that MLS can go put its best foot forward in an international competition.
But then there's the other side to it—why many see it more as a burden than an opportunity. The competition's format adds six fixtures, extra travel, and other complications that can end up costing these team's a chance at the MLS Cup. This strain and stress will be felt by every member of the 24 man roster.
Just look at what happened to D.C. during their maiden venture last year in the Champions League. After the jump we'll take a look at the schedule each club faces between now and the end of the season.
Houston Dynamo
Houston already stood the test once last year, navigating their way to an appearance in the Champions League quarterfinals. Of the three teams, Houston has the most favorable schedule, since they've played 22 MLS games already. That leaves them with just eight league games to go, as well as the six CONCACAF games.
Domenic Kinnear has his club right where he would want them, at the top of the West and with the most points in MLS—though it should be noted that Columbus is just two points behind, with a game in hand.
However, their seven point cushion in the West should give Kinnear the edge amongst MLS teams in Champions League play, as he'll have the chance to perhaps give a regular starter a night off prior to a league game.
Columbus Crew
Things are looking rosy for Robert Warzycha and the Crew. After their abysmal start to 2009, they've re-established themselves as legitimate contenders to defend their championship. Going along with that, they haven't lost a game since June 20, with a 5-0-2 record to boot.
Don't forget that they've been without playmaker Guillermo Barros Schelotto for the last four matches as well—yet haven't lost any of those games.
Facing 15 games over the next two and a half months, the Crew should find no trouble in qualifying for the playoffs—though their draw in the Champions League is a bit tougher, going up against Cruz Azul, Saprissa, and Puerto Rico.
D.C. United
The outlook for D.C. isn't as pleasant. Starting Saturday at Toronto, they play 10 games in 31 days, a brutal stretch that will certainly make-or-break their playoff chances. They've already got a chance at a trophy having qualified for the U.S. Open Cup Final, but visions of last year might already be dancing in the heads of United fans.
An exhausting 17 game schedule remains between now and the end of October, including 10 league matches. Their playoff standing is far less secure as well, sitting just a couple of points above the cutoff. The additions of Ely Allen and Danny Szetela are welcome, but the team remains on the look out for another defender.
Tom Soehn will have his hands full and try to find the right players to fill in and keep his players fresh to compete on both fronts.
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Think all three teams can make the playoffs and qualify out of the group stages? Will any MLS team make it to the CONCACAF quarterfinals?
United really can’t catch a break. The schedule, DCU’s age, and an already less than full roster definitely work against DC. There is one thing that you might think would work in their favor. They aren’t going to lose any players to the USMNT during that stretch. Columbus and Houston would be expected to deal with that. But, it seems the MLS schedule-makers somehow anticipated these potential conflicts and sent Houston and Columbus a few bones.
With Gooch out for the next game, Chad Marshall might even get a start for the USA. You’d expect that’s going to limit his availability for Columbus. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hejduk get a call-up, either. Rogers probably won’t, but ya never know…
Houston will lose even more talent to the USMNT. Holden is looking like he is not only going to a regular in the USA 18, but he can expect to see more and more action in future games. Ching probably hasn’t lost his starting role yet, either. And, Rico Clark is a certain regular. So, September and October might have especially cruel months for the Dynamo. It’s tough having really talented players on your team…
Here’s where the schedule thing comes in. Houston and COlumbus play on AUg, 29 and 30 — and then not again until they play against each other on the 13th. Their national team players may not even miss a minute of game time for their club sides, in September. IN October, HOuston has games on the 4th and the 18th — again no conflict with the national team games that fall in between. Only Columbus will face the loss of some players for their Oct. 10 game against NE, and possibly the 17th against United. Interestingly, DCU would have really been hurt in the MLS campaign, if they did have national team players, since United also has a game on Sept 5, the same day as a WCQ, and has the USOC final 3 days before. I guess United can consider itself lucky that Bradley isn’t going to call up any United players. This stretch will be brutal enough as it is.
On the surface, DCU looks like it has the toughest hit, but you have to scratch below the surface. The hit gets even tougher down there.
Oops, wrong key.
Just a final word. I think the Crew will go all out to advance in the CCL.
We want to be the first MLS team at the CWC (when DC won they didn’t have it, and it got cancelled when LA won).
If we get beat, we get beat, but there will be no excuses, and it won’t be for lack of trying.
In terms of the CCL, Houston should advance, if Dom wills it. They have the easiest group.
The Crew’s group is by far the toughest. Cruz Azul have won the thing 5 times, Saprissa 3. PR almost made the final’s last year. However, I think the Crew will go virtually all out the first two CCL games, with time off after, and @NY turf game in the mix to rest players.
DC is much deeper than last year, and almost always takes every competition seriously (witness all those trophies). They should battle with Marathon to make it out of group.
I’d say MLS gets at least two, and maybe all three out of group.
I think
if this competition is such a burdan for MLS teams than would it be smart for MLS to open roster spots for American U-20 Youth talent..instead of those 17,18,19,20 year old top US talents drifting away in college practicing maybe twice a week after worrying about if they passed the Chemistry exam?
Screw MLS playoffs. Throw everything at the CCL DC. Somebody has to be the first to do it.
Even with MLS’ reduction in roster size and elimination of the reserve league, DC has more depth at this time than a year ago. Some of that is that the team did well with acquiring new young players. Thanks to sucking last season we had higher draft picks and they actually signed with the team. Pontius and Wallace were immediate contributors, Jakovic was a great young pickup and Jacobson came back from France a year after being drafted.
Team depth will be severely tested by the 10 games (and travel) we will face in the next 31 days. But we just played 7 games in 22 days and got thru it OK for the most part.
The team won a road game in Central America (OK, it took PKs) which gives the team confidence and already proves they’ve done better in CCL than last year’s edition.
Only Khumalo is injured right now. Barklage is out for the season but has already been replaced by Ely Allen.
Last year CCL came at the worst possible time as Emilio got hurt in the Open Cup Final and Gallardo left for some recreational hernia surgery and Peralta was returning from injury.
Injuries and wear and tear could again sink DC’s season, but we are starting this stretch from a better position.
And if we lose the first couple CCL games (in Honduras and home to Toluca) the team can reprioritize to put all its focus on MLS and let the reserves play the international matches.
It will be a challenge that will require contributions from the whole roster whether its players like Jaime Moreno or Ely Allen and John DiRaimondo. But if the team can avoid injuries and play well it could both get out of the CCL Group Stage and make MLS playoffs.
The heavy crush of games will end on Oct 3 after which DC has 2 weeks off before playing it’s last 2 MLS regular season games on the 17th and 24th with a roadtrip to Toluca at altitude in between. That game may or may not be important depending on both how Toluca and DC are doing in CCL and on how DC is doing in the final stretch of the MLS playoff race.
@Wendy
I would never, ever defend Seattle about anything, however……..
as far as the “candy schedule of home games handed to them” remark….that has more to do with sharing the stadium with the Seahawks than MLS setting them up with an early season advantage. Theres a big difference.
BTW, love the screen name. As a youth of the early 80’s, Wendy O. Williams terrified me. RIP.
Columbus make it out of the group? With finalist and multiple winner Cruz Azul, multiple winner Saprissa and semifinalist Puerto Rico, but Houston wont? All 3 other teams in Cbus group went through last year.
Houston’s group is almost the same as last year with 1 mex, 1 pan, and 1 el sav team. Houston will get through their easy group no problem, Columbus and DC are the two in trouble.
Mr Clark:
I would only argue that the Crew did not have an “abysmal start” to the season.
Rather, they began 2009 with a tough stetch of games and went 1-2-5. Nothing to launch a parade over, but eight points nonetheless.
Plus, in order for teams like Seattle to have been given a cupcake first couple of months, some other teams had to face a lot of tough games, and a lot of tough ROAD games: Cbus had: at Houston, at Rio Tinto, and at Chivas in addition to the Fire and a home and home with (for some reason) heated rival Toronto.
Interestingly, their record in the same matches last year, when they won the Cup, was astonishingly similar.
The up side for them is that they’re now on a winning streak feasting on the teams the league sent elsewhere early on: Red Bulls, Colorado, Salt lake, Dallas, etc.
It’s not that they turned their season around so much as their schedule caked out. You don’t need Schelotto, Marshall, Hejduk and Rogers to beat NYRB, the Raps and Dallas.
Nobody does.
Conversely, a team like Seattle, which got a candy schedule of home games handed to them, are now paying the piper for it.
should be exciting. if an MLS team makes it to the CCL finals or semis do you think they would create the buzz that Montreal had last year?
i also like the idea of US players playing in Saprissa, good experience.
I simply don’t understand why teams place so much emphasis on making the MLS playoffs than their own confederation’s CL.
Houston is clear by 7 points in their conference and yet they will be resting their starters for the CL rather than league games. It should be the other way around!
I know that the roster depth in MLS and salary cap are unavoidable problems, but if CONCACAF ever used a ranking system similar to UEFA’s on rewarding CL spots to countries based on performance, MLS is going to lose qualifying spots in this competition.
However if any team has the performance like D.C. United again this year, we better hope that CONCACAF doesn’t take away spots for poor performances by a country in the future.
The Crew’s schedule, in terms of congestion, doesn’t get that busy for another couple of weeks.
8/15, Sat: FCD
8/18, Tue: PR Islanders (CCL)
8/22, Sat: OFF in MLS
8/26, Wed: @Cruz Azul (CCL)
8/30, Sun: @NY MLS
9/5: Off in MLS
See, we don’t have 3 in 8 one single time, and every time we have a midweek game, we have the next week(end) off. In fact, we don’t play from 8/30 @NY to 9/13 home vs. Houston at all. That’s two weeks off.
It gets tricky mid-September.
9/13, Sun: Houston
9/16, Wed: @Saprissa (CCL)
9/20, Sun: @Chicago
9/23, Wed: Cruz Azul (CCL)
9/26, Sat: Los Angeles
9/29, Tue: Saprissa (CCL)
10/3, Sat: Seattle
Now that is nasty. 7 games in 20 (21?) days. The three top MLS teams (Houston, @Fire, LA), Saprissa twice, Cruz Azul, and Seattle.
Tom Soehn = Bob Bradley 🙁
would have been nice to see RBNY get demolished in this competition too. Too bad we can’t beat an island club team…
“The additions of Ely Allen and Danny Szetela are welcome, but the team remains on the look out for another defender.”
Yes, DC United’s season will rise and fall on the addition of Ely Allen.
As a TFC fan I hope that with DC qualifying we can finish higher than them in the league now. 10 games in 31 days with a few significant older players (Moreno, Emilio, Fred Gomez)seems like a very tall order.
I hope columbus and houston can past the first round. Last year’s display was a disgrace. DC seems to be following in its last year’s footstep in the champions league.
MLS Cup > CCL Cup?
How? DC doesn’t want to go to Dubai and make a few million?
DC is totally hosed. I wish that they didn’t have to do Champions League…a playoff spot is more important.
They will all make playoffs. Columbus will be the only team to make it out of their group.
Columbus is on the verge of signing a new striker to help them during this stretch but will still have one extra open roster spot.
Times like this make me wish the cap was 5 mill and we could field deeper rosters. That whole damn Money/profitability thing keeps getting in the way sometimes. 😛
good thing red bull loss or else you wouldn’t have had space for the champions league logo… man i hate osorio/agoos/energy drinks
Just another way that parity expresses itself in MLS.
Hopefully some of Houston’s DL players are healthy enough for CCL play, right the DL only counts for MLS league/playoffs? I know it doesn’t count for Open Cup.