Seattle Sounders Face San Fransisco Of Panama in CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round
by Dave Clark on May 18, 2011 1:25 PM PDT
in Sounders: CONCACAF Champions League
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PrintThe Seattle Sounders learned their opponent in the CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round today and they will have a huge road trip down to Panama to face San Fransisco. The trip will be a whopping 3670 miles added onto Seattle's already generally high travel distance. The Panamanian club were champions of the 2011 Clasura, but only due to success in the Playoffs. They were 2nd during the regular season. The club finished first on their annual aggregate table.
If Seattle advances past the Prelims their Group D has a familiar and powerful opponent - Monterrey. First time CCL entry Herediano of Costa Rica will face the Caribbean third place finisher and CD Comunicaciones of Guatemala rounds out the group.
It is hard to show a coefficient based strength of group yet due to the Caribbean championships still being contested, but this draw only has one great team in it and offers Seattle a much better chance to advance past the Group Stage than last CCL.
Here is what we know of the path right now
| Monterrey | 64.688 |
| CD Comunicaciones | 16.313 |
| Herediano | 0.000 |
| Sounders | 17.500 |
| San Fransisco | 10.813 |
If Seattle is going to make a run, it will have to get at least 5 points at home and at least 3 on the road. If the Puerto Rico Islanders windup as the entry the group gets much tougher.
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Another thing we know is that San Francisco score a terrifying amount of goals.
31 in the 18 game Clausura season, in a very low scoring league. They scored 2 on Cruz Azul in last year’s tournament.
The upside is that their defense appears to be bad.
they also given up
9 goals against Cruz Azul.
Looking at the first leg match isn’t until after the summer transfer window starts we are better off this time around compared to last year where the first leg didn’t start until before the summer transfer window was open.
Sounds like a good match-up
Recent injuries have hurt our offense have been hurt much more than our defense. I’m really bummed to see Monterry in our group again. I was hoping to face a different Mexican team for variety if nothing else.
I was hoping for variety, too...
…but I like Monterrey’s game, so I’m not really disappointed to draw them, either. It could be interesting to see how the teams adjust to one another now that they know something about the other.
Then again at the rate we are going through players...
We may be an entirely new team by late July.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
Personally
i would rather see PR get into group A and cream LA again.
I see that Puerto Rico plays Alpha United in the CFU Club Championship
Alpha United managed to eliminate River Plate in the last elimination round, which seems fairly impressive since River Plate beat the Islanders for the 2010 Puerto Rico Soccer League championship.
At least travel is mitigated somewhat
By the fact we’re down in Texas the weekend after the away leg. The second, home leg is actually probably worse, since we’ll have to come back to Qwest before going out to KC rather than doing a circular trip.
Other way around
It’s reported that it will be the other way around.
http://blog.thenewstribune.com/soccer/2011/05/18/sounders-will-open-concacaf-vs-panama-team/
We’ll play at home first and then go down to Panama after the Houston game which by my quick calculations is more than half way!
corrected
In Panama first, in Seattle second.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 18, 2011 4:07 PM PDT up reply actions
Travel
I remember last year seeing that the sounders travelled more than any other team. has anyone seen anything on that stat this year?
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
It helps
that we now have two teams within 300 miles. But I’m pretty sure we’ll still win that competition
Nos Audietis
I'm not sure if we do now
Vancouver is farther north than us and farther west so they probably travel a tiny bit further every season.
If i'm not mistaken
Seattle will have the 3rd most travel in league play, behind Vancouver (1) and New England (2) and ahead of Portland (4).
Seattle will crush the overall travel with the Open Cup and CCL as well though.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
that's possible
Since New England gains two more long cross country road trips and Seattle gains 2 close trips.
Would think that New England still has more teams closer to them than Seattle does though… but it could be close
you are correct actually
I used the air travel values on this Travel Distance Calculator
New England travel 26,310.4 miles
Seattle travel 25,088.7 miles
for league matches (one way) this year.
Vancouver will be competitive if they get into CCL
And Nutrilite is probably less than the USOC
Nos Audietis
Mariners Conflicts - not really
Looking at the Mariners’ schedule, the Mariners are playing at New York during the first leg and host Oakland during the second leg. Tuesday 8/2 is a night game; Wednesday 8/3 is a day game. If we’re hosting the second leg, I presume Tuesday is out.
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=sea#y=2011&m=7
I really hope the Sounders host the first leg.
Fan of: Cardinals, Blues, Sounders, Yellow Jackets, Wolverines, Rams, and Blazers.
they aren't
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 18, 2011 4:07 PM PDT up reply actions
So does that mean some of the travel will be diminished?
If they play the first leg in Panama they fly from Houston to Panama?
Just curious. Circling 8/3/11 on my calendar right now.
Nos audietis in somniis, Nos audietis in altum: You will hear us!
I would guess they'd go straight to Houston
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on May 19, 2011 9:09 AM PDT up reply actions
one piece of good news
going off of past results (not really anything though) is that they have only won 2 of their last 12 games in CCL
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
one good thing about having the saturday before off
is that the south american players could visit home before the game. (like fernandez did last year)
especially for montero, hurtado and montano since panama is right next to colombia. and there family might be able to make the game.
by Sandra_R on May 18, 2011 4:16 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Herediano
Leo started his career with Herediano (9 years!) before coming to the Sounders. I can’t wait to read what he thinks about the chance to play them.
http://www.soundersfc.com/Team/Players/Leonardo-Gonzalez.aspx
Fan of: Cardinals, Blues, Sounders, Yellow Jackets, Wolverines, Rams, and Blazers.
Let's hope he doesn't throw the game for them
With an early red card :)
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