REAL SALT LAKE DRAWS
COLUMBUS CREW IN CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL ROUND
All-MLS Showdown to Begin Championship
Stage Starts in Columbus Final Week of February, with RSL Hosting
Return Leg between March 1-3
SANDY, Utah / NEW YORK (Monday,
November 1, 2010) – Real Salt Lake will meet a
familiar foe in the Quarterfinal Round of the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions
League, as the Group A victor has drawn fellow MLS competitor Columbus
Crew in the opening round of the regional tournament’s Championship
Stage.
Real Salt Lake will head to Crew
Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, for the first leg of the home-and-away series, which
will take place between February 22-24. The two sides will then head to
Sandy for the return leg at Rio Tinto Stadium the following week, with
the decisive second leg scheduled to be held between March 1-3. All
series in the CCL’s Championship Stage will be played in an aggregate-goal
format, with the number of away goals scored determining advancement should the
series be even after 180 minutes of regulation play.
“Competitively,
our draw results in a level playing field due to both teams being at the same
stage of preseason and hailing from similar climates in February and March,”
said Real Salt Lake General Manager and Senior VP of Soccer Operations Garth
Lagerwey. “The two-leg series will surely be a hard-fought battle with
another MLS team who, like us, has been rewarded for placing maximum effort
into this regional competition.”
The winner of the Real Salt Lake-Columbus
series will be guaranteed to square off against a Central American side in the
Semifinal Round, as Costa Rican powerhouse Deportivo Saprissa and
Honduran champion CD Olimpia have been drawn on the same side of the
bracket as the two MLS rivals. The opposite side of the draw is an all-Mexican
Primera Division affair, as RSL’s Group A nemesis Cruz Azul will take on
Santos Laguna in one quarterfinal, and Monterrey and Toluca
will square off in the other “Round of 8” contest.
Monterrey
or Toluca will host the first leg of its semifinal against Santos or Cruz Azul
March 15-17, with RSL or Columbus being at home against Olimpia or Saprissa the
same week. Santos or Cruz Azul, and either Olimpia or Saprissa host the second
leg of the semifinals April 5-7.
The
results of the draw assured a Mexican team of reaching the final for a third
straight year, which will host the first leg of the championship series April
19-21. The second leg will be either at Salt Lake, Columbus, Olimpia or Costa
Rica April 26-28.
Real
Salt Lake placed heavy importance on the CONCACAF Champions League in its
first-ever appearance, the attention paying off massively as RSL became the first
MLS club to win its Group Stage in nine tries since the competition was
reformatted for the 2008/09 tournament. Real Salt Lake captured top spot in
Group A across the last two-plus months by accruing a 4-1-1 record (13
points) in home-and-away meetings against Cruz Azul, Toronto FC (CAN), and
Árabe Unido (PAN), the Utah side posting wins in all three of its home contests
along the way, including an impressive 3-1 result over then-co-leader Cruz Azul
on Oct. 19 to close out group play.
2010/11 CONCACAF
Champions League Championship Stage Draw(home teams listed first)
Quarterfinals
First Leg
February 22-24
Toluca (MEX) vs.
Monterrey (MEX)
Cruz Azul (MEX) vs. Santos Laguna (MEX)
Columbus Crew (USA) vs. Real Salt Lake (USA)
Saprissa (CRC) vs. Olimpia (HON)
Second Leg
March 1-3
Monterrey (MEX) vs.
Toluca (MEX)
Santos Laguna (MEX) vs. Cruz Azul (MEX)
Real Salt Lake (USA) vs. Columbus Crew (USA)
Olimpia (HON) vs. Saprissa (CRC)
Semifinals
First Leg
March 15-17
Real Salt Lake-Columbus
winner vs. Olimpia-Saprissa winner
Monterrey-Toluca winner vs. Santos-Cruz Azul winner
Second Leg
April 5-7
Olimpia-Saprissa
winner vs. Real Salt Lake-Columbus winner
Santos-Cruz Azul winner vs. Monterrey-Toluca winner
Finals
First Leg
April 19-21
Santos-Cruz
Azul/Monterrey-Toluca winner vs. Olimpia-Saprissa/Real Salt Lake-Columbus
winner
Second Leg
April 26-28
Olimpia-Saprissa/Real
Salt Lake-Columbus winner vs. Santos-Cruz Azul/Monterrey-Toluca winner
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