The draw for the 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League was announced at confederation headquarters in New York City today. There are significant changes to the Champions League for next season, as not only are the groups composed of eight three-team groups, but the knockout round will be seeded by the records of the group-winning clubs. It will be important for a team to not just win their group, but dominate it so that they can get a better path to the final and retain second-leg advantage in the knockout stage. No more reserve teams in group stage matches.
Here are the groups:
Group 1: Santos Laguna, Toronto FC, Águila
Group 2: Herediano, Real Salt Lake, Tauro
Group 3: Olimpia, Houston Dynamo, FAS
Group 4: Seattle Sounders, Marathón, Caledonia AIA
Group 5: Los Angeles Galaxy, Isidro Metapán, Puerto Rico Islanders
Group 6: UANL, Alajuelense, Real Estelí
Group 7: Chorrillo, Monterrey, Municipal
Group 8: Xelajú, Guadalajara, W Connection
I'm pretty sure that the Mexican teams will advance (poor, poor Toronto FC), but it remains to be seen whether all four American MLS representatives will go through or Mexican teams take up the top four seedings in the knockout stage.
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