Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

CONCACAF has announced the opening round games for the Champions Cup. The CONCACAF site has traditionally sucked, but this time they actually have a bracket that one can download.


Both finalists in the MLS Cup automatically qualify, so the New England Revolution and the Los Angeles Galaxy will be in. In the first round, New England plays Costa Rican champions LD Alajuelense. A quick perusal of the list of recent champions would show that Alajuela seems to trade the Tico championship back and forth with the current CONCACAF Cup holders Deportivo Saprissa. Alajuela was the team that knocked New England out of the CONCACAF Cup in 2003.

Los Angeles will play against the winner of the last Central American playoff. Both of these teams are from Costa Rica, which has the best league in the region. Current cup holders Saprissa will play Municipal Pérez Zeledón, which has been more of a force in the league in recent years, in the second leg of the third place qualifier. Saprissa won the last match 2-0, and they had a draw in a league match Sunday.

One Costa Rican team that did not qualify is FC Escazú, also known as Brujas. I was hoping that New England could draw them and play their home match in Salem.

Other teams include CD Olimpia from Honduras and Mexican league giants Club America. The second Mexican side has yet to be decided until the Torneo Apertura is complete, but it could be Necaxa or los Rayados de Monterrey.


The representative for the Carribean region has yet to be decided as well. SV Robin Hood of Surinam defeated Northern United of St. Lucia to advance to the final. SV Robinhood will play against the winner of the two-leg match between SV Centro Social Deportivo Barber of the Netherlands Antilles and Jamaican side Portmore United FC.

SV Centro Barber seems to be the longest name I have ever encountered for a team, but I love the name Robin Hood. The Carribean teams have some odd names, one may remember frequent qualifiers Joe Public of Trinidad and Tobago. Oh, and Joe Public's qualification for those tournaments has nothing to do with their owner, Jack Warner, being president of CONCACAF.


The Netherlands Antilles have a team called SV Victory Boys (SV is a dutch phrase, Sport Verenigang, often used like "FC" for Dutch speaking teams). The "Victory Boys" came in third. Hey, don't adopt a name like that unless you can live up to it. It's sort of like the name of George Weah's old team, the Invincible Eleven. Despite being "invincible," they were relegated at the end of last season after finishing second to last.


By the way, the teams from the Guyanas are considered "North American" rather than "South American." The reason is simple, if you were a national team official in Guyana, Surinam or French Guyana, who would you rather play against, Argentina or Haiti?


New England got bounced out of the tournament early the last time they qualified in 2003. They played both the games away for one basic reason: would you want to play soccer in Boston in February? Well, I might because I am a sick, sick man. The matches seem to coincide with a trip that the team is already planning to Bermuda (last year's trip to Bermuda brought Khano Smith to their attention), so the talk is that the "home" match may actually be played there.

Personally, I'd think that the poor weather in Massachusetts would just be home field advantage.


Photograph courtesey of Fred Kfoury of Yellow Card Journalism.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.