The Other Champions League Anybody?

Itssssssss CHRISTTTTTMAAAAAAAAAAS

While everyone is watching the Champions League this week, another Champions League is at the quarter-final stage.

‘Another’ you cry? What is this other Champions League of which you speak, Ned?

Well, I joke, and that’s largely because I find it amusing that soccer in the US is not on the international calender and as such, things just fall off the radar when they are played at a normal time of the year–add the lack of media coverage in this country and I’m sure you see what I mean.

So while MLS teams are still in pre-season, two of them have been plugging away in the little cared for, and rarely spoken of ‘CONCACAF Champions League’, and one is a win from the semi’s.

So, what is it and who’s left? Follow on blog fiends…

Many of you are unaware of the doings in this competition so I’ll fill in the blanks; The CONCACAF Champions League (many different names over the years) starts out with 24 club teams from the CONCACAF region and the competition is split into 3 stages; a play-in stage, a group stage and the Championship stage– which consists of the top two teams from each of the four groups; We are currently down to the last 7 teams and they are as follows:

Toluca of Mexico
Marathon of Honduras
Pumas of Mexico
Pachuca of Mexico (through to semi’s after beating Comunicaciones of Guatemala last night)
Cruz Azul of Mexico
Arabe Unido of Panama
Columbus Crew

Anyone think the Mexican league is weaker than the MLS, raise your hands now. Of course, some might say that MLS teams care little for the CONCACAF CL– if that’s true then shame on them!

Pumas will host Marathon tomorrow night in the quarters second-leg; Marathon carry a 2-0 lead into that one. Cruz Azul host Arabe Unido and hold a one nil advantage in that fixture and the Columbus Crew head to Mexico to play Toluca tonight (FSC 8pm), after a 2-2 tie in the first leg in what was a pretty entertaining game.  Noddy Holder look-a-like Steven Lenhart bagged both of the goals in the first-leg.

I’m feeling quite guilty about ignoring this competition as I actually enjoyed the 2 quarter finals I’ve watched, like the set up of the competition and think the CONCACAF region is fairly balanced in quality, to make it competitive (this years Mexican dominance aside) . So tune in to Fox Soccer Channel tonight and watch Columbus try to progress, and just maybe we can chat about a Crew victory tomorrow morning eh?

Lenhart and his mates are up for the Champions League…