HexagonalBlog

Massive changes coming to the Champions League

Next year's CONCACAF Champions League competition will look significantly different from current and previous versions.  Ted Howard, CONCACAF's acting general secretary, announced today that the preliminary round would be eliminated from the competition, and all 24 qualifying clubs will proceed directly to a group stage containing eight groups of three teams each.  All sides will play a minimum of four group matches.

Champions League knockout stage revealed

Major League Soccer will be guaranteed at least one team in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals, but from which country will it be?  Today's CONCACAF Champions League knockout round draw set up two inter-league ties: the all-MLS one and the all-Mexican League series between Morelia and Monterrey.  Pumas will be a strong favorite against the surprise team of the Champions League in Isidro Metapán, while Seattle Sounders could be competitive against Santos Laguna but only if they leave Seattle in a winning position. 

If Seattle do get past Santos, the second leg of the Champions League final will be in a MLS city.

Remember that in the brief history of the Champions League, no Mexican side has lost a knockout series to a non-Mexican team.  If you include the Champions' Cup, no Mexican side has lost such a series since Saprissa defeated Atlante in the quarterfinal of the 2008 tournament.

The knockout draw (first-leg host written first):

QUARTERFINALS (6-8/13-15 Mar 2012)

QF1: Morelia vs Monterrey
QF2: Toronto FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy
QF3: Seattle Sounders vs Santos Laguna
QF4: Isidro Metapán vs UNAM

SEMIFINALS (27-29 Mar/3-5 Apr 2012)

SF1: QF1 vs QF4
SF2: QF2 vs QF3

FINALS (17-19/24-26 Apr 2012)

SF1 vs SF2

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League: Group A

Below are the updated table and collated results for Group A of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.  Teams are ranked by points, then head-to-head points, head-to-head away goals, then overall matches (goal difference, goals scored, away goals).  Home teams are listed first.

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
LA Galaxy	6	4	0	2	8	4	+4	12
Morelia	6	4	0	2	11	5	+6	12
Alajuelense	6	4	0	2	8	6	+2	12
Motagua	6	0	0	6	2	14	-12	0

Results:

2011-08-16: LA Galaxy 2-0 Motagua
2011-08-16: Alajuelense 1-0 Morelia
2011-08-25: LA Galaxy 2-0 Alajuelense
2011-08-25: Morelia 4-0 Motagua
2011-09-13: Morelia 2-1 LA Galaxy
2011-09-15: Motagua 2-4 Alajuelense
2011-09-21: Alajuelense 1-0 LA Galaxy
2011-09-22: Motagua 0-2 Morelia
2011-09-28: LA Galaxy 2-1 Morelia
2011-09-29: Alajuelense 1-0 Motagua
2011-10-18: Morelia 2-1 Alajuelense
2011-10-20: Motagua 0-1 LA Galaxy

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League: Group B

Below are the updated table and collated results for Group B of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.  Teams are ranked by points, then head-to-head points, head-to-head away goals, then overall matches (goal difference, goals scored, away goals).  Home teams are listed first.

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Santos Laguna	6	4	1	1	16	6	+10	13
Isidro Metapán	6	3	0	3	10	14	-4	9
Colorado Rapids	6	2	1	3	9	12	-3	7
Real España	6	1	2	3	8	11	-3	5

Results:

2011-08-16: Santos Laguna 3-2 Real España
2011-08-17: Colorado Rapids 3-2 Isidro Metapán
2011-08-23: Real España 1-1 Colorado Rapids
2011-08-24: Isidro Metapán 2-0 Santos Laguna
2011-09-13: Real España 1-2 Isidro Metapán
2011-09-13: Colorado Rapids 1-4 Santos Laguna
2011-09-21: Colorado Rapids 1-2 Real España
2011-09-22: Santos Laguna 6-0 Isidro Metapán
2011-09-28: Real España 1-1 Santos Laguna
2011-09-28: Isidro Metapán 1-3 Colorado Rapids
2011-10-19: Santos Laguna 2-0 Colorado Rapids
2011-10-20: Isidro Metapán 3-1 Real España

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League: Group C

Below are the updated table and collated results for Group C of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.  Teams are ranked by points, then head-to-head points, head-to-head away goals, then overall matches (goal difference, goals scored, away goals).  Home teams are listed first.

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
UNAM	6	3	2	1	8	2	+6	11
Toronto FC	6	3	1	2	7	7	+0	10
FC Dallas	6	2	1	3	6	11	-5	7
Tauro	6	1	2	3	7	8	-1	5

Results:

2011-08-17: UNAM 0-1 FC Dallas
2011-08-18: Tauro 1-2 Toronto FC
2011-08-24: Toronto FC 0-1 FC Dallas
2011-08-25: Tauro 0-0 UNAM
2011-09-14: FC Dallas 1-1 Tauro
2011-09-14: UNAM 4-0 Toronto FC
2011-09-20: Toronto FC 1-0 Tauro
2011-09-21: FC Dallas 0-2 UNAM
2011-09-27: Toronto FC 1-1 UNAM
2011-09-28: Tauro 5-3 FC Dallas
2011-10-18: FC Dallas 0-3 Toronto FC
2011-10-19: UNAM 1-0 Tauro

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League: Group D

Below are the updated table and collated results for Group D of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.  Teams are ranked by points, then head-to-head points, head-to-head away goals, then overall matches (goal difference, goals scored, away goals).  Home teams are listed first.

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Monterrey	6	4	0	2	11	4	+7	12
Seattle Sounders	6	3	1	2	10	7	+3	10
Comunicaciones	6	2	1	3	8	13	-5	7
Herediano	6	2	0	4	6	11	-5	6

Results:

2011-08-16: Seattle Sounders 4-1 Comunicaciones
2011-08-17: Herediano 0-5 Monterrey
2011-08-23: Monterrey 0-1 Seattle Sounders
2011-08-23: Comunicaciones 2-0 Herediano
2011-09-14: Herediano 1-2 Seattle Sounders
2011-09-14: Comunicaciones 1-0 Monterrey
2011-09-20: Monterrey 3-1 Comunicaciones
2011-09-20: Seattle Sounders 0-1 Herediano
2011-09-27: Comunicaciones 2-2 Seattle Sounders
2011-09-27: Monterrey 1-0 Herediano
2011-10-18: Seattle Sounders 1-2 Monterrey
2011-10-19: Herediano 4-1 Comunicaciones

Halfway home in the CCL group stage

If I were to come up with a theme for last week's Champions League action, it would be "The Empire Strikes Back."  Three of the four Mexican league representatives scored vital wins, two of them in routs, that propelled them to the top two of their respective groups.  The lone exception is holders Monterrey, who lost 1-0 to Comunicaciones and saw their odds for advancing to the knockout stage lengthen substantially.

CONCACAF Club/League Coefficients now hosted on SRC site

I have uploaded the spreadsheets that I use to calculate the CONCACAF club and league coefficients to the public FTP site of my company, Soccermetrics Research & Consulting.  I am using this site to host my publicly-available software projects, and while the the spreadsheets aren't software per se, they do represent one of my early projects when I was getting started in statistical analysis in soccer and they do attract interest from fans and other analysts.  I will place future revisions of the coefficients on that site.

The site is anonymous FTP, so when you follow the link, you will have to enter anonymous@src-development.net in the username field followed by any text in the password field.  If you use a FTP client, the server address is the aforementioned link and username/password combination.

Just a caveat that these coefficients are unofficial, and are not necessarily the same as those that CONCACAF use internally to rank Central American leagues.  If you would like more information on how the coefficients are developed, please consult this post.

A CONCACAF Champions League table generator

I wanted to develop a spreadsheet that would accept match results in the group stages of the Champions League and calculate an updated table.  It took a while to get the cell and array formulas right, but I finally have that spreadsheet which is linked below. 

The table generator is straightforward to use and the four groups are in separate sheets.  You enter the match results as they happen and the spreadsheet automatically recalculates the table.  It does not do automatic sorting, but it's not too difficult to do manually.  (To implement a table sorter that incorporates all of the criteria would require a sophisticated macro.)

This generator can be used for other Champions League competitions.  It can also be used for domestic league competitions, but I suggest that you freeze an appropriate cell so that you can scroll through the matchdays without losing track of the league table.

Here's the document.  Enjoy!

CCL_201112 GroupStage.ods [12 kB]

CCL_201112 GroupStage.xls [30 kB]

A preview of the 2011-12 CCL group stage: Groups C and D

This is the second part of the preview of the CONCACAF Champions League group stage, focusing on Groups C and D.