Portland Timbers FC begin their 2021 campaign today, and their first stop will be in Honduras for a Round of 16 CONCACAF Champions League matchup with Deportivo Marathon taking place at Estadio Olimpico in San Pedro Sula. Kickoff takes place on Tuesday, April 6 at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET with a live broadcast on FS1.
What is CONCACAF?
CONCACAF is short for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football and the association is one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies. CONCACAF exists primarily to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct qualifying for the World Cup and Women’s World Cup qualifying tournaments.
What is the CONCACAF Champions League?
The CONCACAF Champions League is a soccer club competition organized by CONCACAF that takes place every year and pulls from the top teams in every league from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It is the most important club competition in North America and teams from Liga MX and Major League Soccer both qualify for the tournament through their respective leagues. Meanwhile, Caribbean teams qualify through a tournament called the Caribbean Club Championship while the remaining six teams for the tournament qualify through a separate tournament called the CONCACAF League.
The winner of the annual CONCACAF Champions League tournament automatically qualifies for the quarter-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup, the international football competition which started in 2000 and effectively serves to crown the winner as the best club in the world each year, though there is much debate as to whether the FIFA Club World Cup is a prestigious enough tournament to make that claim.
Is the CONCACAF Champions League important?
For the Portland Timbers and other MLS clubs, the CONCACAF Champions League is usually viewed as a sort of low-risk, high reward situation but the opposite can also be true. The club can put as little or as many resources towards winning the tournament as they are comfortable doing. For most MLS clubs the competition is seen as important to the club’s exposure and success, but not as important as achieving a high finish in the domestic league. In the case of many Major League Soccer clubs, making the postseason and competing in the MLS Cup playoffs is the most important goal.
Some clubs worry about injuries, especially in the case of MLS clubs, where the opening rounds of the tournament occur as the MLS season gets underway. For example, an injury to an important player in the early rounds could completely derail a team’s hopes of playing for a supporter’s shield or MLS Cup before the season even gets started. In the CONCACAF Champion’s League and other tournaments like it, teams will often play reserves and young players in the opening rounds of the tournament in hopes of developing those players or at least seeing what they have in them in a competitive setting.
If a team can survive the opening rounds and advance to more important levels of the tournament with reserves and youngsters spurring them to victory, they may reconsider that strategy down the road and commit more starters and resources towards trying to capture a title.
How does the CONCACAF Champions League work?
The tournament has been through plenty of changes and there have been even more changes to the future format of the tournament announced. 16 teams compete in this portion of the tournament. Per the CONCACAF Champions League regulations, each round of tournament features a two-leg home-and-away series with the winner determined by aggregate goals over both legs. If aggregate goals are equal, the away goal rule is applied. If away goals are also equal, the game is decided by an immediate penalty shootout. There are no overtime periods in this tournament.
Dates & Rounds
Round of 16: April 6-15, 2021
Quarterfinals: April 27-May 6, 2021
Semifinals: August 10-September 16, 2021
Championship Final: October 28, 2021
HOW TO WATCH TIMBERS VS. MARATHON
What: Portland Timbers FC visit C.D. Marathon of Honduras in a Round of 16 CONCACAF Champions League fixture.
When: Leg 1, 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 6 | Leg 2, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 13
Where: Estadio Olimpico | San Pedro Sula, Honduras
TV channel: FS1
How to watch live stream online: You can watch this match live for FREE with FuboTV (free trial). You can also get this game on Hulu + Live (free trial) or Sling TV (free trial, promotional offers), if you are out of fuboTV trials, or simply prefer those platforms and their pricing plans. You can also watch this match live on Fox Sports Go with your cable or satellite provider login information.
— Tim Brown, The Oregonian/OregonLive | @timfsbrown
Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The Link LonkApril 07, 2021 at 03:07AM
https://ift.tt/39PRChd
CONCACAF Champions League: What is it and how does it work? 2021 bracket, schedule, dates and more - OregonLive
https://ift.tt/2VuKK1x
Work
No comments:
Post a Comment