2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League Results by Country

With the group stage kicking off tonight, it seemed like a good time to total things up by country. The surprises so far:

MLS Goes Five-for-Five: All four US teams made it through to the group stage. Additionally Toronto FC made it to the group stage and propelled Canada to the top of the list thus far.

The Caribbean Flame-out: This is the first year in which no team from the Caribbean made it out of the prelims, and the first year in which the Puerto Rico Islanders won't be competing in the group stage.

              W   L   T    GF   GA   DIFF  Win%   PPG

Canada        2   0   0     4    2    2    100    3.00

Mexico        3   1   0    11    3    8    75.0   2.25

USA           3   1   0     4    1    3    75.0   2.25

Costa Rica    1   0   1    10    2    8    50.0   2.00

Honduras      1   1   0     4    2    2    50.0   1.50

Puerto Rico   1   1   0     3    3    0    50.0   1.50

Panama        1   1   0     1    2    -1   50.0   1.50

Guatemala     1   1   0     2    4    -2   50.0   1.50

El Salvador   1   3   0     3    5    -2   25.0   0.75

Guyana        0   1   1     2   10    -8    0.0   0.50

Nicaragua     0   2   0     2    4    -2    0.0   0.00

Haiti         0   2   0     0    7    -7    0.0   0.00

Unlike past years, I will just keep updating the standings in this post throughout the competition.

Which US Teams Do the Best in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Now that we have a couple of years of data to work with, I wanted to know if how teams qualified for the CCL had any correlation to their success. There are four ways to qualify for the tournament:

• Win MLS Cup
• Win the US Open Cup
• Win the Supporters Shield
• Be the MLS Cup Runner Up

If the same team fills more than one of these slots (like Columbus which won MLS Cup and the Supporters Shield in the same year) another team gets one of the slots. In the analysis below, those teams are lumped into the "other" category. For any team that would have qualified in more than one way, I've counted them in BOTH of the appropriate categories below.

I assumed that the winners of the Supporters Shield would have the best record - after all they had the best record over the course of an entire season. It seemed like these teams should be best over the long haul in this sort of tournament. I was a little surprised by what I found.

MLS Cup Runner Up
Through three years, the teams that lost the MLS Cup game have fared the worst. In fact, until this year, no team even made it through to the group stage. These numbers will change after the 2011-12 tournament as all four US teams punched their tickets to the group stage this year.

          Team            W   L   T   GF   GA   DIF  Win%   PPG
2007-08   New England     0   2   0    1    6   -5    0.0   0.00
2009-10   NY Red Bulls    0   1   1    3    4   -1    0.0   0.50
2010-11   Los Angeles     1   1   0    3    5   -2   50.0   1.50
          Total           1   4   1    7   15   -8   16.7   0.67

Other
Chivas made it into the tournament in 2007-08 because New England won the US Open Cup and lost the MLS Cup game. Houston qualified in 2009-10 because Columbus won the double the year before. It's hard to draw any conclusions with the data so heavily concentrated in one season.

          Team            W   L   T   GF   GA   DIF  Win%   PPG
2007-08   Chivas USA      0   1   1    1    3   -2    0.0   0.50
2009-10   Houston         2   3   1    9    8   1    33.3   1.17
          Total           2   4   2   10   11   -1   25.0   1.00

Supporters' Shield Winners
Here's an interesting one. If DC United doesn't flame out in the inaugural tournament, the results come out much differently. When you remove their stats, the Points Per Game rises to 1.38, which puts the Supporters Shield winners just behind the MLS Cup Winners.

          Team            W   L   T   GF   GA   DIF  Win%   PPG
2007-08   DC United       0   5   1    4   13   -9    0.0   0.17
2009-10   Columbus        2   3   3    9   14   -5   25.0   1.13
2010-11   Columbus        4   3   1   11    8   3    50.0   1.63
          Total           6  11   5   24   35   -11  27.3   1.05

US Open Cup Winners
Truthfully I thought these numbers would be much worse, as it seems like many MLS teams don't take the Open Cup very seriously. As it turns out, the numbers are faily 'meh' - not horrible, not great. 1.17 Points Per Game is good enough for second best.

          Team            W   L   T   GF   GA   DIF  Win%   PPG
2007-08   New England     0   2   0    1    6   -5    0.0   0.00
2009-10   DC United       4   2   2   14   10   4    50.0   1.75
2010-11   Seattle         2   5   1    8   12   -4   25.0   0.88
          Total           6   9   3   23   28   -5   33.3   1.17

MLS Cup Champions
The MLS Cup Winners have actually had the best success, buoyed in part by the great run by Real Salt Lake in the most recent edition of the tournament. Maybe the playoffs prove something after all.

          Team            W   L   T   GF   GA   DIF  Win%   PPG   
2007-08   Houston         2   2   4   10   13   -3   25.0   1.25
2009-10   Columbus        2   3   3    9   14   -5   25.0   1.13
2010-11   Real Salt Lake  6   3   3   26   17   9    50.0   1.75
          Total          10   8   10  45   44   1    35.7   1.43

CONCACAF Champions League - MLS vs USL/NASL

Since qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League is by country and not by league, it's possible for the same league to qualify teams for multiple countries. For the current 2011-12 tournament, the USL/NASL could have qualified teams by winning the US Open Cup, the Nutrilite Canadian Championship and through the qualifying for Caribbean teams.

As it turned out, the NASL only qualified one team (the Puerto Rico Islanders, while MLS qualified five teams -- all four American representatives and the Canadian spot seized by Toronto FC.

I thought it might be interesting to see CCL results broken down by league, so here's some numbers for you.

All-time Results

          W   L   T  GF   GA  DIFF  Win%  PPG
MLS      26  34  22  107  123  -16  31.7  1.22
2008-09   2  10   6  16    35  -19  11.1  0.67
2009-10   8  10   8  35    37   -2  30.8  1.23
2010-11  16  14   8  56    51   5   42.1  1.47
                   
USL      15  11  12  53    51   2   39.5  1.50
2008-09  11   5   6  33    26   7   50.0  1.77
2009-10   1   3   4   7    12   -5  12.5  0.88
2010-11   3   3   2  13    13   0   37.5  1.38

Some might use this data to argue that USL/NASL teams are not that far off quality-wise from their MLS counterparts. However if you look a little deeper, you can see that a USL/NASL team has only managed to wrest a qualifying spot away from an MLS team once -- in 2008 when the Montreal Impact represented Canada. If anything, you might be able to argue that MLS should annex the Puerto Rico Islanders, as they make up the bulk of the non-MLS results.

All-time qualifiers

MLS
2008-09: New England Revolution, Chivas USA, Houston Dynamo and DC United (USA)
2009-10: Columbus Crew, DC United, Houston Dynamo and NY Red Bulls (USA), Toronto FC (Canada)
2010-11: Columbus Crew, Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders (USA), Toronto FC (Canada)

USL
2008-09: Montreal Impact (Canada), Puerto Rico Islanders (Caribbean)
2009-10: Puerto Rico Islanders (Caribbean)
2010-11: Puerto Rico Islanders (Caribbean)

CONCACAF Champions League -- All-Time Results by Country

Below are the results by country for the first three full years of the Champions League. Once the 2011-12 tourney is done, I'll update this post.

As you can see, not every country competes in the tournament every year. The 2011-12 tournament will see two new countries added to the list: Guyana and Haiti.

                   W   L   T  GF   GA  DIFF Win%  PPG
Belize             0   2   0  0    12  -12  0.0   0.00
2008-09            0   2   0  0    12  -12  0.0   0.00
                  
Canada             8   5   7  23   20   3  40.0   1.55
2008-09            5   2   3  15   10   5  50.0   1.80
2009-10            0   1   1  0     1  -1   0.0   0.50
2010-11            3   2   3  8     9  -1  37.5   1.50
                  
Costa Rica        11  12   7  40   49  -9  36.7   1.33
2008-09            3   3   2  9    12  -3  37.5   1.38
2009-10            2   5   3  11   20  -9  20.0   0.90
2010-11            6   4   2  20   17   3  50.0   1.67
                  
El Salvador        4  13   9  20   51  -31 15.4   0.81
2008-09            2   3   3  9    12  -3  25.0   1.13
2009-10            1   5   2  5    21  -16 12.5   0.63
2010-11            1   5   4  6    18  -12 10.0   0.70
                  
Guatemala          7  11   7  32   55  -23 28.0   1.12
2008-09            2   3   3  13   18  -5  25.0   1.13
2009-10            3   5   1  9    21  -12 33.3   1.11
2010-11            2   3   3  10   16  -6  25.0   1.13
                  
Honduras          22  23   7  80   83  -3  42.3   1.40
2008-09            6   5   5  27   18   9  37.5   1.44
2009-10            9   9   0  29   39  -10 50.0   1.50
2010-11            7   9   2  24   26  -2  38.9   1.28
                  
Jamaica            0   1   0  0     3  -3   0.0   0.00
2008-09            0   1   0  0     3  -3   0.0   0.00
                  
Mexico            73  30  24  254 122  132  57.5  1.91
2008-09           23  12  10  84   44   40  51.1  1.76
2009-10           25   8   7  79   36   43  62.5  2.05
2010-11           25  10   7  91   42   49  59.5  1.95
                  
Nicaragua          0   1   1  0     1  -1    0.0  0.50
2008-09            0   1   1  0     1  -1    0.0  0.50
                  
Panama            11  21   6  46   70  -24  28.9  0.95
2008-09            4   7   5  21   25  -4   25.0  1.06
2009-10            5   6   1  17   18  -1   41.7  1.33
2010-11            2   8   0  8    27  -19  20.0  0.30
                  
Puerto Rico       10   9   9  38   41  -3   35.7  1.39
2008-09            6   3   3  18   16   2   50.0  1.75
2009-10            1   3   4  7    12  -5   12.5  0.88
2010-11            3   3   2  13   13   0   37.5  1.38
                  
Trinidad & Tobago  8  22   4  43   78  -35  23.5  0.82
2008-09            3   5   0  9    16  -7   37.5  1.13
2009-10            4  10   2  21   31  -10  25.0  0.88
2010-11            1   7   2  13   31  -18  10.0  0.50
                  
USA               23  31  18  99  113  -14  31.9  1.21
2008-09            2  10   6  16   35  -19  11.1  0.67
2009-10            8   9   7  35   36  -1   33.33 1.29
2010-11           13  12   5  48   42   6   43.33 1.47

Final 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League Results By Country

Well, I suppose if I'm going to do this again for 2011-12, I should probably post the summary stats from last year first, huh?

                   W   L  T  GF  GA  DIF  Win%  PPG
Mexico            25  10  7  91  42   49  59.5  1.95
Costa Rica         6   4  2  20  17    3  50.0  1.67
Canada             3   2  3   8   9   -1  37.5  1.50
USA               13  12  5  48  42    6  43.3  1.47
Puerto Rico        3   3  2  13  13    0  37.5  1.38
Honduras           7   9  2  24  26   -2  38.9  1.28
Guatemala          2   3  3  10  16   -6  25.0  1.13
El Salvador        1   5  4   6  18   -12 10.0  0.70
Trinidad & Tobago  1   7  2  13  31   -18 10.0  0.50
Panama             2   8  0   8  27   -19 20.0  0.30

Hey Crab Man!

Introducing Darnell De Guzman.

Superliga Overall Team Records

These are the overall records for each team that's competed in the Superliga tournament. All ties in the knockout stages have been counted as wins and losses for the teams involved based on the results of the penalty kick shootout.

Team             W   L   T   GF   GA   DF  PTS   PPG  
America          1   2   0    3    4   -1    3   1.00
Atlante          2   2   0    5    7   -2    6   1.50
Chicago          4   4   0    8   10   -2   12   1.50
Chivas USA       2   4   3    8   10   -2    9   1.00
Dallas           0   1   2    7    8   -1    2   0.67
DC United        1   5   1    6   12   -6    4   0.57
Guadalajara      3   2   1    6    6    0   10   1.67
Houston          7   4   2   20   10   10   23   1.77
Kansas City      0   1   2    2    4   -2    2   0.67
Los Angeles      3   2   0   12    9    3    9   1.80
Morelia          3   2   3   14   10    4   12   1.50
New England     10   2   2   18   11    7   32   2.29
Pachuca          4   6   2   11   17   -6   14   1.17
Puebla           2   2   0    6    4    2    6   1.50
Pumas UNAM       0   2   1    2    4   -2    1   0.33
San Luis         1   1   1    4    3    1    4   1.33
Santos           1   4   2    8   11   -3    5   0.71
Tigres           4   1   0    9    8    1   12   2.40

Superliga Team Appearance Records

Appearances

Rk Team          App
1  Chivas USA     3
   Houston        3
   New England    3
   Pachuca        3
5  Chicago        2
   DC United      2
   Guadalajara    2
   Morelia        2
   Santos         2

Title Game Appearances

Rk Team          App
1  New England    2
2  Houston        1
   Pachuca        1
   Chicago        1
   Morelia        1
   Los Angeles    1
   Tigres         1

Championships

Rk Team          App
1  New England    1
   Pachuca        1
   Morelia        1
   Tigres         1

Superliga Goal Scoring Records

Last year I compiled a list of everyone who had scored more than one Superliga goal. Since the Superliga site is nearly impossible to get useful stats from, I decided to expand things a bit this year.

9/2/10 Update: With his brace in the final, Morelia's Miguel Sabah wrote his name into the record books, climbing into a tie for most career goals and most goals in a single tournament. Also of note -- Kevin Alston became the 100th player to score in the history of the Superliga.

Career Goals Scored

Rank Player               Gls
 1   Landon Donovan       4
     Luis Gabriel Rey     4
     Miguel Sabah         4
 4   Kenny Mansally       3
     Alan Gordon          3
     Ante Razov           3
     Armando Pulido       3
     Arturo Alvarez       3
     Kheli Dube           3
     Rafael Márquez Lugo  3
     Shalrie Joseph       3
     Stuart Holden        3

Goals - Single Tournament

Rank Player               Gls  Year
 1   Landon Donovan       4    2007
     Miguel Sabah         4    2010
 3   Alan Gordon          3    2007
     Ante Razov           3    2007
     Armando Pulido       3    2009
     Arturo Alvarez       3    2007
     Shalrie Joseph       3    2008
     Stuart Holden        3    2008

Tournaments Scored In

Rank Player               Tournaments
 1   Luis Gabriel Rey     2 (2008/2010)
     Kenny Mansally       2 (2009/2010)
     Kheli Dube           2 (2008/2009)
     Rafael Márquez Lugo  2 (2007/2010)
     Dwayne De Rosario    2 (2007/2008)
     Giancarlo Maldonado  2 (2008/2010)
     Joseph Ngwenya       2 (2007/2010)
     Nate Jaqua           2 (2007/2008)

Other Interesting Facts
Three players have scored for two different teams - Luis Gabriel Rey, Rafael Márquez Lugo and Giancarlo Maldonado. Maldonado also holds the distinction of being the only player to score for both an MLS team (Chivas USA in 2010) and a Mexican team (Atlante in 2008)

Is Arabe Unido the Dirtiest Team in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Over the last two years I've developed an overwhelming hatred of Panama's Arabe Unido. The strategy in their 2009-10 home leg against Houston consisted of two-footed tackles and overall hackery. This year's performance against Real Salt Lake alternated between thuggery and the worst display of "ow my spleen" time-wasting I've ever seen. If E/R was still running we might have seen a number of their players on gurneys as extras. With nine yellow and one red card in just two games this year, it made me wonder if they were the dirtiest team in the CONCACAF Champions League.

In order to study this I combed through last year's discipline stats. While Arabe Unido had the most red cards of any team in the 2009-2010 edition of the tournament, they weren't even in the top five as far as yellow cards per game. After factoring out the teams that only played twice, these teams rose to the top:

             YC/G  RC/G
Pachuca      3.70  0.00
Houston      3.17  0.17
Toluca       3.00  0.00
Cruz Azul    2.90  0.10
DC United    2.63  0.25
Columbus     2.38  0.13
Arabe Unido  2.30  0.30

So three Mexican teams, three American teams and then Arabe Unido. Perhaps there's something about playing American teams that brings out the worst in Arabe.

ReAL Epic Failure

Three stinking minutes. All Real Salt Lake had to do was hold out for another three minutes last night and they would have become the first American team to beat a Mexican team in Mexico during an official competition. Instead they managed to give up three goals from the 87th minute onward and go on to lose 5-4 to Cruz Azul. They even managed to score a goal of their own in there to level at 4-4 and managed to screw that up as well.

Un-frickin-believable.

Well That Didn't Take Long

Less than 24 hours after I opined that a Mexican team had to lose at some point in the CONCACAF Champions League, Toronto FC managed to shock Cruz Azul 2-1 at BMO Field. By defeating last year's runners-up Toronto FC became the first MLS team to beat a Mexican team in the 2+ years of the Champions League. The last time an MLS team defeated a Mexican team in a CONCACAF tournament was April of 2008 when DC United beat Pachuca in the semifinals of the old Champions Cup.

2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League Results By Country

With the group stage about to kick off, it seems like a good time to recap the current results by country. Teams from Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama will join the survivors of the preliminary round, so these number may change drastically by the end of the group stage. I mean, Mexican teams have to lose at some point, right?

                   W  L  T  GF  GA  GD  Win %  PPG
Mexico             4  0  0  15   2  13  100.0  3.00
Canada             1  0  1   3   2   1   50.0  2.00
USA                2  1  1   5   6  -1   50.0  1.75
Puerto Rico        1  1  0   5   3   2   50.0  1.50
El Salvador        1  1  2   4   3   1   25.0  1.25
Honduras           1  2  1   6   5   1   25.0  1.00
Trinidad & Tobago  1  2  1   6  10  -4   25.0  1.00
Costa Rica         0  1  1   4   6  -2    0.0  0.50
Guatemala          0  1  1   1   3  -2    0.0  0.50
Panama             1  3  0   4  13  -9   25.0  0.00

Houston's Seller's Remorse

If you're a Dynamo fan you have to feel slightly ill about your stable of forwards. Houston's leading scorer is Brad Davis - a midfielder by trade who's bagged just four goals this season. No forward on the roster (including Brian Ching) has scored more than two goals. To make matters worse, two players that were recently wearing the Houston orange are the leading scorers for other teams.

Last year the Dynamo dealt Chris Wondolowski and a draft pick to San Jose for Cam Weaver. Wondo leads the Earthquakes with six goals. Weaver has scored just one in 316 injury-plagued minutes. In 2009 the Dynamo also traded Kei Kamara, getting Abe Thompson and allocation money in return. Thus far Houston has gotten nothing from their end of the deal. Thompson did nothing significant and joined second division Miami FC this season. Including a tally at the end of last season, Kamara has scored seven goals for the Wizards.

Not long ago, it seemed like Houston had the golden touch when it came to forwards. Now it seems that King Midas has left town.

The Ljungberg Trade

As a Fire fan, I was a little surprised that they acquired Freddie Ljungberg for the MLS equivalent of a bag of soccer balls (well, at least now that Supplemental Draft picks no longer exist.) He's certainly talented, and his contract only runs until the end of the year so it's a low-risk maneuver for the Men in Red, but Shawn Francis over at The Offside Rules captures the existential malaise surrounding the deal.

Donovan Joins the Centurions

With two penalty kick goals this weekend, Landon Donovan became just the sixth MLS player to top 100 career goals. As recently as 2008 there were only three players who had reached this plateau - Jaime Moreno, Ante Razov and Jason Kreis.

The next player with a decent chance of reaching 100 goals is Edson Buddle. If he keeps scoring at the rate he has the last two seasons, he should reach 100 goals next year.

An Open Letter to Colin Clarke

I'm sorry for ever doubting you could beat the LA Galaxy in your CONCACAF Champions League series. I realize that you coached the Puerto Rico Islanders to the semifinals of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League. I know you drew with Saprissa, Columbus and Cruz Azul in the group stage of last year's tournament, coming within five minutes of beating Cruz Azul and giving up Saprissa's equalizer in the 89th minute. It just wasn't enough to convince me this year would be the same.

To be fair the Islanders are at the bottom of the USL Conference within the USSF D2 league, and were just 1-4-4 on the road this season coming into their game with the Galaxy. But your Islanders beat the Galaxy anyway, pasting them 4-1 at the Home Depot Center. Four away goals more or less seals the deal unless a cataclysm of biblical proportions happens in the second leg in Bayamon.

So I apologize. I will never doubt you again. Please come coach the Chicago Fire.

Love, PhantomTollbooth

Efan Ekoku is 'Effin Wrong

If you watched the opening game of the 2010 World Cup here in the United States, you likely heard Efan Ekoku complaining to high heaven about Mexico being cheated out of a goal. Ekoku's contention was Carlos Vela was not offside and should have been credited with a goal, and he whined and whined about it.

The main problem, is that he was wrong. Ekoku clearly doesn't understand how the offside rule works. Quoth FIFA in their laws of the game (which you can get from here):

A player is in an offside position if:
• he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the
second-last opponent

Which Vela was when he received the ball. There's no distinction between the goalkeeper and any other opponent, so it doesn't matter that there was another player on the line.

So these are the announcers ESPN had to import because Americans weren't good enough? Really? Off the top of my head I'm pretty sure the Christopher Sullivan and Marcelo Balboa both understand how the offside rule works. Even though he's batshit insane Ray Hudson probably knows this as well. I know Alexi Lalas does, as he point blank said the refs were right.

Here's a clip of the non-goal:

CONCACAF Champions League - Best Finishes By Country

I realize the competition is only two years old, but here's the best finish by country.

Belize - Prelims: Hankook Verdes (2008/09)
Canada - Quarterfinals: Montreal Impact (2008/09)
Costa Rica - Group Stage: Saprissa (2008/09 and 2009/10)
El Salvador - Group Stage: L.A. Firpo (2008/09), Isidro Metapan (2009/10)
Guatemala - Quarterfinals: Comunicaciones (2009/10)
Honduras - Quarterfinals: Marathon (2008/09 and 2009/10)
Jamaica - Prelims: Harbour View (2008/09)
Mexico - Champions: Cruz Azul (2008/09), Pachuca (2009/10)
Nicaragua - Prelims: Real Esteli (2008/09)
Panama - Quarterfinals: Arabe Unido (2009/10)
Puerto Rico - Semifinals: Puerto Rico Islanders (2008/09)
Trinidad & Tobago - Group Stage: Three Teams
USA - Quarterfinals: Houston Dynamo (2008/09), Columbus Crew (2009/10)

Final 2009 CONCACAF Champions League Results By Country

I'm finally getting around to mopping up some things. Here's the final CCL results by country. I'm sure everyone is surprised to see Mexico at the top of the list for the second year in a row.

                W  L  T  GF  GA  DIF  Win%  PPG
Mexico         25  8  7  79  36   43  62.5  2.05
Honduras        9  9  0  29  39  -10  50.0  1.50
Panama          5  6  1  17  18   -1  41.7  1.33
USA             8  9  7  35  36   -1  33.3  1.29
Guatemala       3  5  1   9  21  -12  33.3  1.11
Costa Rica      2  5  3  11  20   -9  20.0  0.90
Puerto Rico     1  3  4   7  12   -5  12.5  0.88
Trin & Tobago   4 10  2  21  31  -10  25.0  0.88
El Salvador     1  5  2   5  21  -16  12.5  0.63
Canada          0  1  1   0   1   -1   0.0  0.50