Oct 03 2007
Idea for CONCACAF: Tri-Nations Soccer
Our pal Bob at The Offside watched last night’s Copa Sudamericana match between Chivas Guadalajara and D.C. United — which, by the way, was not only as one-sided as a 1-0 game could get, but also served to remind everyone why no U.S. club has ever beaten a Mexican club on Mexican soil — and began pondering the possibility of a CONCACAF Champions League.
While I am under no illusion that such a competition would ever rival the (UEFA) Champions League, it could still evolve into one of the premier tournaments in the world if it has the backing of the leagues and the soccer federations. It would broaden the exposure of clubs throughout the Americas, while helping the region’s national teams by giving players the opportunity to gain experience playing in front of hostile crowds in foreign lands.
If you believe the Wikipedia entry for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a Champions League-style tournament is actually in the works already and could happen by 2009. If I might digress for a moment, though, I have another idea that some CONCACAF nations really ought to consider: Tri-Nations Soccer.
It’s plainly obvious that the success of the Tri-Nations Rugby series has helped improve the rugby union fortunes of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa on the world stage. How about a similar series for the USA, Mexico and Canada?
Sure, we have the Gold Cup every two years, but how often does that pit the biggest CONCACAF rival nations against each other? It’s certainly not the kind of home-and-away series that would fuel the rivalries among these teams. Only die-hard soccer fans give enough of a crap about the Gold Cup and its assorted Caribbean minnows.
Pit the three biggest nations in CONCACAF against each other, however, and you can be sure that even casual soccer fans will start paying attention. A six-game Tri-Nations series, with two home fixtures for each nation, would not only attract huge audiences in these countries, but it would put more pressure on all three nations to be even more competitive, which could translate into more success on the world stage.
Friendlies are nice, but they don’t always push national teams to compete. A Tri-Nations series would push all three national teams, because there would be something on the line — even if it’s just a spot of national pride. The winner can say it has the best team in North America, and the losers can see what they need to do to improve so that they can get the bragging rights next year.
Of course, the biggest hitch in this concept is scheduling. After all, with World Cup qualifying and so many other tournaments on the schedule, it might be difficult for these countries to find the time to play. If they can work out that issue, though, they should. It would be a big boost for the Association game in all three countries.
Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
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This year MLS and the MFL did have a “Superliga” between 4 MLS clubs and 4 Mexican clubs. It was only played in USA venues, though, because that is where the money is. Next year I think it will be more of a “real” competition, although it may just be a ploy to get CONCACAF to open up their Champions Cup to more Mexican and MLS clubs.
As for Tri-Nations, sure, why not. It would however be just another cup championship though, in addition to the Gold Cup, Copa America, Confederations Cup, etc. It would be more meaningful than just friendlies.
One thing which soccer has lost, which rugby and cricket have retained, is the concept of the Test Match. That’s probably because soccer very early on developed international competitions (Copa America, World Cup, the British Home Championship, various European cups that predated the European Cup, etc), and these international competitions negated the concept of the Test Match. So in soccer now you’re either in a cup match, or qualifying for one, or else it’s a friendly.
BTW, some kind of Tri- or Four-Nations competition would be good for USA Rugby too. Who to play, besides Canada? Argentina and Uruguay are in the Americas, but are far away (and Argentina is an order of magnitude better than the USA in rugby anyway). Japan and Korea are closer, and more in our league.
I like the idea of a Tri-Nations Cup for North American soccer.
I don’t see what “expanded” CONCACAF Champions’ Cup will do for US soccer. If American fans can’t get excited about the US Open Cup with a familiar open format (golf, tennis) and plenty of lovable underdogs (Lynch’s Irish Pub, Milwaukee Bavarians) then they sure aren’t going to get excited about MLS teams losing away matches to Costa Rican pro teams.
[...] do? Could have used Cory on the power play last night. Not a terrible performance though. CONCACAF Cash Cup? Mets fans…it’s basketball season! Playoff chat with Joe. May still not healthy. [...]
joejoejoe:
The problem with the US Open Cup is a complete lack of marketing of the competition. That can be easily rectified. USSF should get a corporate sponsor, and work closer with MLS and USL to market it properly.
The point of an expanded CONCACAF Cup, joejoejoe, is to get more MLS and MFL teams involved, thus driving up TV ratings and ticket sales here in the USA. Lots of Mexican futbol fans here in the USA to market to. There would not be any more Central American or Caribbean teams than there are now (unless the Mexican/North American team slots were expanded by a lot more than just two or four).
I think I suggested a long time ago that the US Open Cup needs a sponsor…
As of right now, there are 8 teams in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. How many more would they need to form a Champions League? 12? 16? If they go to 12, then it turns into Copa America, where 8 teams get through and the losers look even worse than they are. If they go to 16, where would they pull them from? You’d have four from Mexico, four from the USA and a lot of minnows.
I’m starting to think that the made-for-TV miniseries that is SuperLiga might just be the best answer for now. There aren’t enough quality domestic leagues in CONCACAF to make the Champions Cup more intriguing.
a different Dave - I like the US Open Cup a lot and hope it gets a lot more attention. Besides the marketing problems you mention you can add the problem of many MLS teams not taking the competition seriously.
As for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, I wasn’t being a smartass when I said fans wouldn’t be happy losing away matches in Costa Rica — Costa Rican clubs won the ‘04 and ‘05 competitions and the Houston Dynamo lost the first leg of their tie in ‘07 to a Costa Rican club this year. Sometimes the minnows are sharks.
I am sure that the CSA would be thrilled with a Tri-Nations… the CSA generally want to play more friendlies, and especially more home friendlies, but sometimes find the financial and logistical aspect difficult. A high-profile friendly-like series on a yearly basis would provide two solid home friendlies at a very high level, make it easy to bring back European-based players, and matches with the USA at least would probably have no problem attracting good home crowds.
Costa Rica is unhappy that it was snubbed for this hypothetical Tri-Nations tournament for Canada.
Snubbing Costa Rica is what it’s all about!
Seriously, Costa Rica does not need our help. Canada does. We need to help give the Canadian national team a leg up and an annual Tri-Nations series with Canada and Mexico, home and away (each playing four games in other words) would do a lot to boost the Canadian national team’s media exposure in Canada and give them some much needed time playing together as a team in meaningful competition.
If the Canadian team gets better, we have a meaningful four way race for World Cup qualifying, ie, Mexico, USA, Canada, Costa Rica. That will make things more interesting in CONCACAF. Which is a good thing.
Congrats to the New England Revolution for winning the US Open Cup, btw. Finally, after all these years, some silverware for the Revs.
As to Costa Rica, joejoejoe, that’s the beauty of these kinds of competitions. The little guys can win it - or at least upset the big guys. Also, MLS isn’t quite in the “big guys” category yet. Yes, its true we have to play CONCACAF Champions Cup in the winter in our offseason, when our clubs are out of form. We may have surpassed the Central American clubs, but we haven’t surpassed the Mexican clubs. Not yet. I would say the fans should stop complaining about losing away games in Costa Rica, and start demanding that MLS clubs win those games. MLS clubs have shown that they can do it.
As to MLS not taking US Open Cup seriously, apart from marketing it better and getting some serious sponsorship money into it, you can also make it more important by sending the US Open Cup winner to the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Right now we can’t since we only have two slots (MLS Cup winner and MLS Supporters Shield winner), but there’s nothing keeping CONCACAF from opening up a few more slots - for example, one more slot for the US Open Cup winner, one more slot for a Canadian Cup winner (or whatever it is called by the CSA up in Canada, assuming they have an equivalent of the US Open Cup), etc.
In fact come to think of it, Canada hasn’t had any representation in CONCACAF Champions Cup recently, AFAIK, and still won’t have any unless Toronto FC steals an American slot by winning either the MLS Cup or Supporters Shield.