The 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League was the 5th edition of the
CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 48th edition of the premier
football club competition organized by
CONCACAF
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...
, the regional governing body of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It remained a 24-team tournament, but the format changed for this edition. CCL play began on July 31, 2012 and finished on May 1, 2013. The winner qualified as the CONCACAF representative for the
2013 FIFA Club World Cup
The 2013 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2013 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betwe ...
.
Monterrey won their third consecutive title after defeating
Santos Laguna
Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...
in an all-Mexican
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
* Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
, and equaled
Cruz Azul
Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...
's feat of winning three consecutive CONCACAF club titles (1969–71), when the competition was known as the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.
Qualification
Twenty-four teams participate in the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League from the
North American
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...
,
Central American
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...
, and
Caribbean zones. Nine of the teams come from North America, twelve from Central America, and three from the Caribbean.
Teams may be disqualified and replaced by a team from a different country 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
A total of nine clubs from the
North American Football Union
The North American Football Union (NAFU; french: Union Nord-Américaine de Football; es, Unión Norteamericana de Fútbol) is a regional grouping under CONCACAF of national football organizations in the ''North American Zone''. The NAFU has no o ...
participate in the Champions League. Mexico and the United States are allocated four spots, the most of any CONCACAF nation, while Canada is granted one spot in the tournament.
In Mexico, the winners of the
Mexican Primera División 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 of its four spots are allocated through the
Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season and playoffs, while the fourth spot is allocated to whoever wins the domestic cup competition, the
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country.
The 2023 U.S. O ...
. The winner of the
Supporters' Shield and
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...
(if US-based) are placed in Pot A; the MLS Cup runner-up (if US-based) and the U.S. Open Cup winner are placed in Pot B.
The winner of Canada's domestic cup competition, the
Canadian Championship, earns the lone Canadian berth into the tournament, in Pot B. Despite the inclusion of Canadian teams in MLS, they cannot qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League through MLS, and if a Canadian-based MLS team win the Supporters' Shield or play in the MLS Cup final, the Champions League place is allocated to the US-based team with the best MLS regular season record who has failed to otherwise qualify.
Central America
Twelve clubs from the
Central American Football Union qualify to the Champions League. If one or more clubs is precluded, it is supplanted by a club from another Central American federation. The reallocation would be based on results from previous Champions League tournaments.
For the Central American representatives that qualify via
split seasons, in nations that play a
playoff
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
to determine a national champion, the winner gains the nation's top spot. In nations that don't utilize such methods, total points over both seasons, followed by other tiebreakers, determine which team gains the nation's top spot. The pots of the teams are as follows:
*The top teams from the leagues of
Costa Rica,
Honduras,
Guatemala and
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
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 sole representatives from the leagues of
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
and
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
are placed in Pot C.
Caribbean
Three berths in Pot C are allocated to the top three finishers of the
CFU Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament for clubs from nations of the
Caribbean Football Union. In order for a Caribbean club to qualify for the CFU Club Championship, they would need to finish as the champion (or in some cases, runner-up) in their respective nation's top league in the previous season.
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.
;Notes
*
* 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).
*
† Because
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
does not have a stadium which meets CONCACAF'S minimum standards for the Champions League, the spot normally reserved for the champions of Belize was reallocated to El Salvador, since it was the only Central American nation to send a team to the
2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League
The 2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League is the 4th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current format, and overall the 47th edition of the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of Nor ...
quarterfinals.
*
Mexico (MEX): Because
Santos Laguna
Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...
, the
2011 Apertura runners-up, also won the
2012 Clausura, they relinquished the spot allocated to the Apertura runners-up to
Guadalajara, the team with the best regular season record in the Apertura, based on the formula outlined by the Mexican Football Federation.
*
United States (USA): Because the
Los Angeles Galaxy
LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pla ...
won both the
2011 MLS Supporters' Shield and the
2011 MLS Cup
MLS Cup 2011, the 16th edition of Major League Soccer's championship match, was played between the Houston Dynamo and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 2011 season. The soccer match was played at the Home Depot Center in Ca ...
,
Seattle Sounders FC, the 2011 MLS Supporters' Shield runners-up, was also placed in Pot A, and as they also won the
2011 U.S. Open Cup, a CCL berth became available and went to
Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...
, the 2011 MLS Supporters' Shield third place.
Format
On January 12, 2012, CONCACAF announced that the 2012–13 tournament would be played under a different format than previous editions, where the preliminary round is eliminated and all qualified teams enter the group stage.
In the group stage, the 24 teams are drawn into eight groups of three, with each group containing one team from each of the three pots. The allocation of teams into pots are based on their national association and qualifying berth. Teams from the same association (excluding "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association) cannot be drawn with each other in the group stage, and each group is guaranteed to contain a team from either the United States or Mexico, meaning U.S. and Mexican teams cannot play each other in the group stage. Each group is played on a home-and-away
round-robin basis. The winners of each group advance to the championship stage.
In the championship stage, the eight teams play a
single-elimination tournament
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
. Each tie is played on a home-and-away
two-legged basis. The
away goals rule is used if the aggregate score is level after normal time of the second leg, but not after
extra time, and so a tie is decided by
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
if the aggregate score is level after extra time of the second leg. Unlike previous years where a second draw was conducted to set the pairings for the championship stage, the bracket is determined by the teams' record in the group stage. The quarterfinals match the team with the best record against the team with the worst record, while the second-best team faces the seventh-best, third against sixth and fourth against fifth. The top four teams play the second leg at home. In the semifinals, the winner of 1-vs-8 faces the winner of 4-vs-5, with the 1-vs-8 winner hosting the second leg, and likewise 2-vs-7 plays 3-vs-6, with the 2-vs-7 winner hosting the second leg. In the finals, the team that prevails out of the upper bracket of 1-8-4-5 hosts the second leg. This means that the higher-seeded team does not necessarily host the second leg in the semifinals and finals.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on June 5, 2012.
The winners of each group advanced to the
championship stage
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
.
;Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
#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
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Championship stage
Seeding
Bracket
The bracket of the championship stage was determined by the seeding as follows:
*Quarterfinals: Seed 1 vs. Seed 8 (QF1), Seed 2 vs. Seed 7 (QF2), Seed 3 vs. Seed 6 (QF3), Seed 4 vs. Seed 5 (QF4), with seeds 1–4 hosting the second leg
*Semifinals: Winner QF1 vs. Winner QF4 (SF1), Winner QF2 vs. Winner QF3 (SF2), with winners QF1 and QF2 hosting the second leg
*Finals: Winner SF1 vs. Winner SF2, with winner SF1 hosting the second leg
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final
Awards
Top goalscorers
See also
*
2013 FIFA Club World Cup
The 2013 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2013 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betwe ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2012-13 Concacaf Champions League
1
CONCACAF Champions League seasons