(Note: Sorry that this is later than usual for the week, but the wifi in my current apartment in Buenos Aires is hit-and-miss and this week, mostly miss. I move this weekend and hopefully, this will improve.)

In 1991, for the seventh consecutive year, the club that won the Champions League did not finish on top of the World Club Rankings annual charts.

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With Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni locked at 0 Bundesliga goals this season, some Bayern fans will probably welcome this opportunity to escape into nostalgia for a short while.

In 1974 Gerd Müller succeeded where Michael Ballack had failed in 2002 and won the Bundesliga, Champions Cup (Champions League) and the World Cup.

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Finishing 1-1 against the leader of the Mexican Primera Division on the road is a better result than most of us expected, and probably a better result than we deserved. Still, thanks to some inspired play by a few individuals, and some poor shooting by Toluca, we emerged with a single point.
A win would have secured our spot in the Champions' League quarterfinals, but let's not count ourselves out yet. Click to continue reading...

Just like there is only one true Mecca, can really only be one true spiritual home of world soccer? Until recently, such a place existed in the form of Wembley Stadium (the most storied grounds in the capital city of the founding nation of the sport? I don't think anybody could compete with that) but the old Wembley was demolished in 2003 and replaced with a new version four years later. Click to continue reading...

'La rabona'. Talk to anyone who is into Italian football about Alberto Aquilani and that word is bound to come up. It is how Italians describe an audacious bit of skill where a player backheals a pass while running, a move that done well is likely to put any defence off balance.
Just as Aquilani did at the San Siro on the 11th of November of 2006. Click to continue reading...

It is quite difficult to compare the career path of Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi. Both have been successful coaches and both hail from the Italian peninsula. They both coached Juventus of Turin during their glittering managerial career, yet the similarities end there.

While Capello's playing career far surpasses that of Lippi's, the gap in accolades between the two greatly diminishes once we begin to analyze their coaching resumes.

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First, the good news: Houston Dynamo picked up a crucial away point by drawing 1-1 with Panamanian champion Deportivo Arbe Unido. That puts Houston second in their group with two games played. So far, so good for the Dynamo.
Now things get ugly.
DC United fell at home 3-1 to Mexican side Toluca Wednesday night. Click to continue reading...

Do you know what the Concacaf Champions League is, or even care? It is Concacaf's attempt to create a premier tournament for the top clubs in North and Central America. The region has had some sort of Champions Cup for more than four decades, but it still hasn't found popular support among fans and clubs. Click to continue reading...

United hosts Toluca tonight in Group B play of the CONCACAF Champions League. After a 3-1 loss at Marathon, the Black-and-Red will be looking for a good result at home. D.C. has faced Toluca once before, in the final of the 1998 Champions Cup, when United defeated the Mexican side 1-0 to become the first MLS team to win the regional crown.

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I wrote a couple of weeks ago that DC United will play more matches than any other MLS team this season. I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to back that up with some numbers:
Read into that what you will.
For clarification though, this chart does not include the previous year's Champions Cup matches that Houston played prior to the start of the 2009 MLS season, or any other preseason matches. Click to continue reading...

A loss is pretty much what we expected on the road in Honduras, but it's disappointing all the same because it could have been so much more. And we're once again reminded of 2008. If you're unfortunate enough to recall the 2008 Champions' Cup and Superliga, you'll remember that DC United looked to be of fairly equal caliber to most of their opponents, but ultimately flunked out of the tournaments due to several individual mistakes and unlucky breaks. Click to continue reading...

The group stage of the second edition of the CONCACAF Champions League, the regional club championship formerly known as the Champions' Cup, kicks off tonight: Group C: Puerto Rico Islanders (P.R.) at Columbus Crew (USA), 7 p.m., Galavision/FSC Group B:...

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I've posted a new update to my CONCACAF coefficients list on my Soccermetrics site. The new season of the Champions League is only a couple of weeks old, but there has already been some movement in the domestic league coefficients. Mexico has the largest coefficient by a very large margin (almost a factor of 2. Click to continue reading...

The Puerto Rico Islanders return to CONCACAF Champions League action when they kick off their second campaign in the second edition of the tournament tonight against the MLS club Toronto FC.

The quest for regional club crown kicked off Tuesday night (July 28) as Mexico's Pachuca overwhelmed Jalapa (Guatemala) 3-0, and the disappointing D.

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With United beginining play in the prelimiary round of CONCACAF Champions League tomorrow, we put together a ton of information on the second edition of the CONCACAF tournament, as well as tomorrow night's opponent, Luis Angel Firpo.

Be sure to get your tickets...

... and read up:

CONCACAF hosted its first Champions League in 2008-2009, modeling the competition after the highly successful UEFA tournament.

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The 2009-10 UEFA Champions League begins today, so I hope you're ready for a revamped Real Madrid squad to take on Inter Milan!!! Okay, it's way too early for any matchups like that, but the tournament really does begin today with the first qualifying round, featuring four champions of smaller European leagues. Click to continue reading...

Of course, 1985 will always be known more for the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 fans lost their lives and hundreds more were injured shortly before the final of the European Cup, than for the final itself. In the wake of that tragedy, European powerhouses Liverpool and Juventus played a controversial match in which the only score was a Michael Platini penalty kick that gave Juventus a 1-0 victory and the championship. Click to continue reading...

The excitement is building in two of the best soccer cities in North America.
While the West Coast will be greeted by FC Barcelona, the East Coast will see Real Madrid touch down upon our shores in August taking on four time MLS Cup champion, four time time Supporter's Shield winner 1998 CONCACAF Champions Cup and InterAmerican Cup champion and 1996 and 2008 US Open Cup winner, DC United as well as the Canadian club which aspires to be a CONCACAF power, Toronto FC. Click to continue reading...

The next match is upon us already: tonight (Friday) at 7:30 at Nelson Field the Aztex will once again host the Puerto Rico Islanders. This will be the Islanders' third visit to Austin, after a pre-season exhibition and one regular season game. Both of those previous matches ended in draws: 0-0 and 1-1, respectively. Click to continue reading...

Here's a look at key Champions League, Manchester United and Barcelona stats going into Wednesday's game. Victor has done a great job previewing the Champions League final so once you've browsed through the stats below, head over to the match page for discussion, live coverage and the post-match report.

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Welcome to the latest installment of Your Questions Answered. There is a good range of questions in this batch, with topics ranging from Jonathan Spector's U.S. national team prospects to my ranking of all the stadiums in MLS.

Surprisingly, there were no John O'Brien, MLS promotion/relegation or Red Bulls stadium questions.

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Doce equipos disputaron en nueve países del Caribe la 'Club Champions Cup' de la Caribbean Football Union (CFU), la entidad que rige el fútbol en la región.
Anteriormente, solamente el campeón avanzaba a la Copa de Campeones de la CONCACAF, pero ahora, con la instauración de la CONCACAF Champions League, son los tres primeros los que ganan el derecho de representar al Caribe en el máximo torneo de clubes de la zona, con la posibilidad, incluso, de clasificarse posteriormente al Mundial de Clubes. Click to continue reading...

The inaugural CONCACAF Champions League is now over after a short delay, due to swine flu. Atlante are the first evcer CCL Champions, and will be the region's representative at this year's FIFA Club World Cup. This was the club's second continental title(first in Cancun), after winning the Champions Cup in 1983.

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The Islanders lost their 2nd Championship match ever, as they lost 2-1 to W. Connection in the 2009 CFU Club Champions Cup final. (the other lost championship match was the 2008 USL Final 2-1 against the Vancouver Whitecaps).

It was the first CFU final ever for the Islanders, and the 2nd time ever facing W.

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The Puerto Rico Islanders had 2 goals this weekend for their trip to Trinidad as Top Seeds of the 2009 CFU Club Champions' Cup .

The first goal was accomplished last night: to earn a return ticket to the CONCACAF Champions League.

The Islanders accomplished that after defeating Tempête FC 2-0 last night in the semifinals.

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The Puerto Rico Islanders had 2 goals this weekend for their trip to Trinidad as Top Seeds of the 2009 CFU Club Champions' Cup .

The first goal was accomplished last night: to earn a return ticket to the CONCACAF Champions League, by defeating the Haitian Champ Tempête FC 2-0 in the semifinals.

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The Puerto Rico Islanders defeated 2-0 the 2008 Haitian Champions Tempête FC in overtime at the 2009 CFU Club Champions Cup semifinals, to get a spot in the upcoming 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League (CCL)!

The Islanders will face tonight's winner between San Juan Jabloteh and W. Connection in the CFU final on Sunday.

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Below are collated results for this year's edition of the CFU Champions' Cup. The current phase of the competition is written in bold red lettering. The first and second round matches are played over two legs, home and away. In the first two rounds, the home team of the first leg is listed first and its score is listed first for both legs. Click to continue reading...

Finally the time has come for some action for the Puerto Rico Islanders in the 2009 CFU Clubs Champions Cup, mind you it will be off the field.

Today at noon in the semifinal draw at the CONCACAF headquarters in New York, the Islanders will find out who will they face in their semifinal match on May 15th in Trinidad & Tobago.

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Tempête FC became the 4th team to qualify to the CFU Clubs Champions Cup semifinals as they defeated for a second time 4-0 the Greenbay Hoppers in the 2nd-leg of their match played last night in Haiti. Tempête won the aggregate score 8-0 over the Antiguans.

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Argentine giants Club Atlético River Plate (or River Plate) have released their Adidas 2009/10 third kit. Based on the club's website, the kit was inspired by River's alternate kits from the 1986 when the club won the Copa Libertadores and Toyota Cup. At that time, the latter was the unofficial world club champions cup. Click to continue reading...

W. Connection became the 2nd Trinbagonian team qualified to the 2009 CFU Clubs Champions Cup semifinals, as they defeated 1-0 the Cavaly SA in Haiti last night, according to the Haitian news article: Le Cavaly fait son adieu.

Brazilian midfielder Williams Oliveira (who played for the MLS Chicago Fire in 2007) scored the winning goal by a penalty kick for W.

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Tonight San Juan Jabloteh joined the Puerto Rico Islanders as the 2nd qualified team to the CFU Clubs Champions Cup semifinals, as the Trinidadians defeated InterMoengo Tapoe 3-1 in Surinam in the return leg of their quarterfinal.

InterMoengo Tapoe was down 1-2 in the aggregate against Jabloteh, and only needed a 1-0 win over the Trinidadians to eliminate them on account of the away-goals rule.

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Below are collated results for this year's edition of the CFU Champions' Cup. The current phase of the competition is written in bold red lettering. The first and second round matches are played over two legs, home and away. In the first two rounds, the home team of the first leg is listed first and its score is listed first for both legs. Click to continue reading...

On Monday (April 13th) Trinbagonian fans enjoyed a CFU (Caribbean Football Union) feast at Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella, as both Trinidad & Tobago teams in the tournament won the 1st leg of their quarter final matches.

In the first game of the doubleheader, San Juan Jabloteh defeated the Surinamese InterMoengo Tapoe by a score 2-1; while W.

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