2013–14_CONCACAF_Champions_League

2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League

49th edition of premier club football tournament organized by CONCACAF

The 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League was the 6th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 49th edition of the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Monterrey were the three-time defending champions, but were unable to defend their title as they failed to qualify for the tournament.

Quick Facts Tournament details, Dates ...

2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League
Tournament details
Dates	August 6, 2013 – April 23, 2014
Teams	24 (from 11 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Cruz Azul (6th title)
Runners-up	Toluca
Tournament statistics
Matches played	62
Goals scored	151 (2.44 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Raúl Nava (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Mariano Pavone
Best goalkeeper	Alfredo Talavera
← 2012–13 2014–15 →

Cruz Azul won a record-setting sixth CONCACAF club title (and their first during the Champions League era), after winning an all-Mexican final over Toluca on away goals.^[1] As a result, they qualified as the CONCACAF representative at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup.^[2]

Qualification

Mexico City

Costa Rica

Panama

El Salvador

Real Estelí

Valencia

Trinidad and Tobago

Mexico City teams

América

Cruz Azul

Costa Rica teams

Alajuelense

Cartaginés

Herediano

El Salvador teams

Firpo

Metapán

Panama teams

Árabe Unido

Sporting San Miguelito

Trinidad and Tobago teams

Caledonia AIA

W Connection

Location of teams of the 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League

Brown: Group 1;

Red: Group 2;

Orange: Group 3;

Yellow: Group 4;

Green: Group 5;

Blue: Group 6;

Purple: Group 7;

Pink: Group 8.

Twenty-four teams participate in the CONCACAF Champions League: nine from the North American Zone, twelve from the Central American Zone, and three from the Caribbean Zone.

Clubs may be disqualified and replaced by a club from another association if the club does not have an available stadium that meets CONCACAF regulations for safety. If a club's own stadium fails to meet the set standards then it may find a suitable replacement stadium within its own country. However, if it is still determined that the club cannot provide the adequate facilities then it runs the risk of being replaced.

North America

Nine teams from the North American Football Union qualify to the Champions League. Mexico and the United States are each allocated four spots, the most of any of the CONCACAF's member associations, while Canada is granted one spot in the tournament.

For Mexico, the winners of the Liga MX Apertura and Clausura tournaments earn berths in Pot A of the tournament's group stage, while the Apertura and Clausura runners-up earn berths in Pot B.

For the United States, three spots are allocated through the Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season and playoffs; the fourth spot is allocated to the winner of its domestic cup competition, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The MLS Cup winner and the Supporters' Shield winner (if U.S.-based) are placed in Pot A; the MLS Cup runner-up (if U.S.-based) and the U.S. Open Cup winner are placed in Pot B. If any of the above spots are taken by a Canada-based MLS team, the Champions League place is allocated to the U.S.-based team with the best MLS regular season record who has failed to otherwise qualify.

For Canada, the winner of the domestic cup competition, the Voyageurs Cup competed for in the Canadian Championship, earns the lone Canadian berth into the tournament, in Pot B.

Central America

Twelve teams from the Central American Football Union qualify to the Champions League. The allocation is as follows: two teams from each of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador, and one team from each of Nicaragua and Belize.

For the Central American teams that qualify via split seasons, the aggregate record of the two tournaments within the season is used to determine which team gains the association's top spot. The pots of the teams are as follows:

The top teams from the leagues of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama are placed in Pot A.
The top team from the league of El Salvador, and the second teams from the leagues of Costa Rica and Honduras are placed in Pot B.
The second teams from the leagues of Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador, and the teams from the leagues of Nicaragua and Belize are placed in Pot C.

If one or more clubs is precluded, it is supplanted by a club from another Central American association. The reallocation is based on results from previous Champions League tournaments.

Caribbean

Three teams from the Caribbean Football Union qualify to the Champions League. The three berths, in Pot C, are allocated to the top three finishers of the CFU Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament for clubs from associations of the Caribbean Football Union. In order for a team to qualify for the CFU Club Championship, they usually need to finish as the champion or runner-up of their respective association's league in the previous season, but professional teams may also be selected by their associations if they play in the league of another country.

If any Caribbean club is precluded, it is supplanted by the fourth-place finisher from the CFU Club Championship.

Teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament.

In the following table, the number of appearances, last appearance, and previous best result count only those in the CONCACAF Champions League era starting from 2008–09 (not counting those in the era of the Champions' Cup from 1962 to 2008).

More information Association, Team ...

Association	Team	Pot	Qualifying method	App	Last App	Previous Best
North America (9 teams)
Mexico 4 berths	Tijuana	A	2012 Apertura champions	1st	N/A	N/A
	Toluca	B	2012 Apertura runners-up	3rd	2010–11	Semifinals
	América	A	2013 Clausura champions	1st	N/A	N/A
	Cruz Azul	B	2013 Clausura runners-up	4th	2010–11	Runner-up
United States 4 berths	LA Galaxy	A	2012 MLS Cup champions	4th	2012–13	Semifinals
	San Jose Earthquakes	A	2012 MLS Supporters' Shield champions	1st	N/A	N/A
	Houston Dynamo	B	2012 MLS Cup runners-up	4th	2012–13	Quarterfinals
	Sporting Kansas City	B	2012 U.S. Open Cup champions	1st	N/A	N/A
Canada 1 berth	Montreal Impact	B	2013 Canadian Championship champions	2nd^[A]	2008–09	Quarterfinals
Central America (12 teams)
Costa Rica 2 (+1) berths^[B]	Alajuelense	B	2012 Invierno champions	4th	2012–13	Group stage
	Herediano	A	2013 Verano champions	4th	2012–13	Quarterfinals
	Cartaginés	C	2013 Verano runners-up	1st	N/A	N/A
Honduras 2 berths	Olimpia	A	2012 Apertura and 2013 Clausura champions	6th	2012–13	Quarterfinals
Honduras 2 berths	Victoria	B	Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2012–13 season	1st	N/A	N/A
Guatemala 2 berths	Comunicaciones	A	2012 Apertura and 2013 Clausura champions	3rd	2011–12	Quarterfinals
Guatemala 2 berths	Heredia	C	Runners-up with better aggregate record in 2012–13 season	1st	N/A	N/A
Panama 2 berths	Árabe Unido	A	2012 Apertura champions	3rd	2010–11	Quarterfinals
Panama 2 berths	Sporting San Miguelito	C	2013 Clausura champions	1st	N/A	N/A
El Salvador 2 berths	Isidro Metapán	B	2012 Apertura champions	6th	2012–13	Quarterfinals
El Salvador 2 berths	Luis Ángel Firpo	C	2013 Clausura champions	3rd	2009–10	Group stage
Nicaragua 1 berth	Real Estelí	C	2012 Apertura and 2013 Clausura champions	4th	2012–13	Group stage
Caribbean (3 teams)
Trinidad and Tobago	W Connection	C	2013 CFU Club Championship Group 1 winners^[C]	3rd	2012–13	Group stage
Trinidad and Tobago	Caledonia AIA	C	2013 CFU Club Championship Playoff round winners^[C]	2nd	2012–13	Group stage
Haiti	Valencia	C	2013 CFU Club Championship Group 2 winners^[C]	1st	N/A	N/A

Notes

^
Montreal Impact's previous appearance in 2008–09 was made by an earlier incarnation of the franchise with the same name, which played in the USL First Division. The current MLS club began play in 2012.
^
Because Belize could not provide a stadium which met CONCACAF'S minimum standards for the Champions League, the berth normally reserved for Belize was reallocated to Costa Rica, based on the results of the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League.^[3]
^ ^{a b c}
No final round was played in the 2013 CFU Club Championship. W Connection and Valencia, the two first round group winners, and Caledonia AIA, the playoff round winner between the two first round group runners-up, qualified for the 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League.

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on June 3, 2013 at Doral, Florida, United States.^[4]^[5]

The 24 teams were drawn into eight groups of three, with each group containing one team from each of the three pots. The allocation of teams into pots was based on their national association and qualifying berth. Teams from the same association (excluding "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association) could not be drawn with each other in the group stage, and each group was guaranteed to contain a team from either the United States or Mexico, meaning U.S. and Mexican teams could not play each other in the group stage.^[6]

More information Pot A, Pot B ...

Pot A
Tijuana	América	LA Galaxy	San Jose Earthquakes
Herediano	Olimpia	Comunicaciones	Árabe Unido
Pot B
Toluca	Cruz Azul	Houston Dynamo	Sporting Kansas City
Alajuelense	Victoria	Isidro Metapán	Montreal Impact
Pot C
Heredia	Luis Ángel Firpo	Sporting San Miguelito	Real Estelí
Cartaginés	W Connection	Valencia	Caledonia AIA

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.^[7]^[8]

More information Round, First leg ...

Round		First leg	Second leg
Group stage	Matchday 1	August 6–8, 2013
	Matchday 2	August 20–22, 2013
	Matchday 3	August 27–29, 2013
	Matchday 4	September 17–19, 2013
	Matchday 5	September 24–26, 2013
	Matchday 6	October 22–24, 2013
Championship stage	Quarterfinals	March 10–12, 2014	March 18–20, 2014
	Semifinals	April 1, 2014	April 8–9, 2014
	Final	April 15, 2014	April 23, 2014

Group stage

Main article: 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners of each group advanced to the championship stage.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[2]

Greater number of points earned in matches between the teams concerned
Greater goal difference in matches between the teams concerned
Greater number of goals scored away from home in matches between the teams concerned
Reapply first three criteria if two or more teams are still tied
Greater goal difference in all group matches
Greater number of goals scored in group matches
Greater number of goals scored away in all group matches
Drawing of lots