MLS will stop league games from July 21st and Liga MX will delay the start of its season until after Aug 19th. In that month all 47 MLS and Liga MX teams will compete in a World Cup style competition. The format:
The 2022 MLS Cup winner and the better of the Liga MX's 2022 Clasura and Apertura will receive a by to the knockout rounds.
The other 45 teams will be split into 15 groups of 3 teams. Top 2 teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds.
The groups will be seeded with the top 15 MLS teams in 2022 (so the 14 playoff teams and the best team to miss the playoffs) being placed into a group and the top 15 Liga MX teams being placed into the groups in reverse order. So LAFC, as Shield winners (assuming they don't get the bye as MLS Cup winners), will get the 1st pot, and they'll be seeded with the 15th best Liga MX team. Philly, as 2nd overall in the Shield race, will get the 14th best Liga MX team, etc. The remaining 13 MLS teams and 2 Liga MX teams will then be drawn randomly into the groups. There is some talk about the groups being regionalized but its unclear if that's accurate or not. The Rapids can do no better than 16th, so this is where they'll be.
Once the groups are decided the group matches will be (home team listed first):
Seeded MLS team - Seeded Liga MX team
Seeded MLS team - Unseeded MLS/Liga MX team
Unseeded MLS/Liga MX team - Seeded Liga MX team
Yes, this year at least all games will be played in the U.S.. The seeded MLS team will host both their matches, the unseeded MLS team will host their Liga MX match and go to the seeded MLS team. In the two groups that have one MLS team and two Liga MX teams the MLS team will host both Liga MX teams and the head-to-head matchup between the Liga MX teams will be played at a predetermined site in the U.S. (I'm guessing places like Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, etc.).
The other twist is that there will be no draws. Games that are tied after 90 minutes will go to Kicks From the Mark, with the winner getting 2 points and the loser 1.
After the group stage the tournament becomes a standard 32-team knockout competition with the higher finishing MLS team hosting, and intra-Liga MX matches being hosted at predetermined sites. The final and third placed games will both be on Aug 19th at the home of the highest remaining MLS team (again, with a predetermined location if no MLS team makes the final 4).
The top 3 teams get spots in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League, and there's a substantial prize fund being put together too.
So now that you have the facts, here's the analysis. This is stupid. 15 teams are going to play 2 games and be done, and odds are those are going to be largely MLS teams. So midway through the season we're going to stop for a month and have a bunch of teams sit around for 2-3 weeks not playing games. Bad enough that we (correctly) do that during major international tournaments like the Gold Cup and World Cup, but this is self-inflicted. If the MLS Cup winner or Liga MX top team fall on their face in the Round of 32 they'll play 1 game that month. And its not like you know ahead of time who's going to be knocked out so you could set up friendlies. Its going to be a bunch of scrimmages against USL teams to keep the rust off, which is just a season momentum killer.
Maybe once team 30 joins MLS and there are 48 teams, so you can do 12 groups of 4 and then have the group winners and top 4 second place teams go to a round of 16 knockout field. That way everyone is guaranteed 3 games and there are only 4 rounds of games after teams get knocked out instead of 5. Until then though, some teams (like, odds are, the Rapids) are going to play one home game against a Liga MX side, go to a MLS team, and then sit around for 3 weeks. Which, yay?
Best case scenario for the Rapids next year will be to end up in a group with a team like LAFC or Austin, two teams we've beaten recently on the road, and thus with one of the weaker Liga MX teams. Worst case would be something like Minnesota, which seems to have our number at their place, which would also include a top Liga MX team like Santos. That's a recipe for a quick exit.
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2 comments:
I hadn't really thought through the implications of no games at home for a month. During the good summer weather too. I'm going to keep an open mind, but I am skeptical.
Thanks for the write up.
-AlbertCamus.
Wait, I thought all the MLS sides were going to get a least one home match in the group stage? Is that incorrect? IIRC, the email communication back in July (or so) from the Rapids stated something like this and it will be part of the STM package.
I need to see the format in graphic form, then I can make sense of it.
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