The Voyageur cup will live as long as the CPL and the various regional leagues continue. The issue is whether the MLS teams in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will be part of it! This will depend on their ownership going forward as in the past they have been strong supporters. CONCACAF can be of help in this respect as in order to compete for the CONCACAF best team cup, they must be selected by Canada Soccer through some competition. Thus, if they don't want to compete, they won't be allowed to play in the game!! If this happens, what's new!! All American based leagues don't essentially give a SHIT for international competitions. The only reason they do so is because international players WILL not play in the US unless they are released for international play.
I agree with Jimmy Brennan here - it’s a fantastic tournament, and getting better each year, and the Voyageurs Cup is important to every league for different reasons. But because it’s growing, it’s changing each year. Not just for the MLS accommodation, but in learning how to bring in L1C teams without making it a money-losing venture for them, and learning how to put it early in a CPL season without making it so early that the stadiums aren’t ready. For the next few years, there are going to be changes to the format and schedule, and lots of negotiations and compromise, but those growing pains are for good reasons, not just political drama.
Not often that I'll agree with Wheeler, but he's 100% right to raise the alarm about the Voyageurs Cup. As both the CPL and League 1 leagues continue to expand and gain strength, the MLS clubs begin to face more risk of cupsets. It sounds crazy but the MLS clubs have only to lose with this competition moving forward, nothing to really gain besides the CONCACAF Champions Cup spot. We can't become complacent with this competition - need to ensure we don't let the MLS clubs bully its existence.
Personally, I hate VAR so I am happy for it to not be part of the tournament. As for the away goals rule, I feel like everyone was fine with it and then UEFA got rid of it in their competitions and suddenly everyone thinks it's some prehistoric thing that is just objectively terrible. I don't mind the away goals rule at all. It absolutely does provide tension because you can have a situation where one team goes through with the way things stand in the aggregate score, but if they give up one goal all of a sudden they are out and their opponents are in. Without the away goals rule you can be in the lead and have the comfort of knowing that even if you give up a goal you are still going to extra time or penalties at least. The away goals rule takes away that buffer, which is intense in my opinion. I wouldn't lose sleep if they got rid of the away goals rule, but I am happy to have it. The 6 week layoff this year was pretty ridiculous. It is probably a hard problem to solve as long as MLS is running the idiotic Leagues Cup tournament. I'd love for CONCACAF to take away the Champions Cup berths from the Leagues Cup, then for the tournament to die out and there can be better scheduling options for the Voyageurs Cup and US Open Cup.
As we all know, dealing with sports commissioners in the States is tougher than anything. They want everything to work in their favor-just look at the NHL players not going to the Olympics. But when it comes to soccer, since the MLS isn’t even in the top leagues globally, they’ve got to be more flexible. We, the fans, are lucky when it comes to soccer because continental competitions actually matter, and it’s a big deal to be part of them. Since the winner of the Canadian Championship goes to the CONCACAF Champions Cup, Canadian MLS teams want to compete-otherwise, trust me, they wouldn't even care about "Canada." Now, hear me out. On top of everything we all know (and like Gareth mentioned), for next year, how about no second leg before the semifinals?
The Voyageur cup will live as long as the CPL and the various regional leagues continue. The issue is whether the MLS teams in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will be part of it! This will depend on their ownership going forward as in the past they have been strong supporters. CONCACAF can be of help in this respect as in order to compete for the CONCACAF best team cup, they must be selected by Canada Soccer through some competition. Thus, if they don't want to compete, they won't be allowed to play in the game!! If this happens, what's new!! All American based leagues don't essentially give a SHIT for international competitions. The only reason they do so is because international players WILL not play in the US unless they are released for international play.
I agree with Jimmy Brennan here - it’s a fantastic tournament, and getting better each year, and the Voyageurs Cup is important to every league for different reasons. But because it’s growing, it’s changing each year. Not just for the MLS accommodation, but in learning how to bring in L1C teams without making it a money-losing venture for them, and learning how to put it early in a CPL season without making it so early that the stadiums aren’t ready. For the next few years, there are going to be changes to the format and schedule, and lots of negotiations and compromise, but those growing pains are for good reasons, not just political drama.
More semi pro and cpl teams, VAR, more exposure and broadcasting, thats it, maybe bigger cash prizes if our feds gets their shit together.
Half time shows for the final, make it a big thing that you wanna attend, keep prices low, fill the stadium.
Not often that I'll agree with Wheeler, but he's 100% right to raise the alarm about the Voyageurs Cup. As both the CPL and League 1 leagues continue to expand and gain strength, the MLS clubs begin to face more risk of cupsets. It sounds crazy but the MLS clubs have only to lose with this competition moving forward, nothing to really gain besides the CONCACAF Champions Cup spot. We can't become complacent with this competition - need to ensure we don't let the MLS clubs bully its existence.
Personally, I hate VAR so I am happy for it to not be part of the tournament. As for the away goals rule, I feel like everyone was fine with it and then UEFA got rid of it in their competitions and suddenly everyone thinks it's some prehistoric thing that is just objectively terrible. I don't mind the away goals rule at all. It absolutely does provide tension because you can have a situation where one team goes through with the way things stand in the aggregate score, but if they give up one goal all of a sudden they are out and their opponents are in. Without the away goals rule you can be in the lead and have the comfort of knowing that even if you give up a goal you are still going to extra time or penalties at least. The away goals rule takes away that buffer, which is intense in my opinion. I wouldn't lose sleep if they got rid of the away goals rule, but I am happy to have it.
The 6 week layoff this year was pretty ridiculous. It is probably a hard problem to solve as long as MLS is running the idiotic Leagues Cup tournament. I'd love for CONCACAF to take away the Champions Cup berths from the Leagues Cup, then for the tournament to die out and there can be better scheduling options for the Voyageurs Cup and US Open Cup.
As we all know, dealing with sports commissioners in the States is tougher than anything. They want everything to work in their favor-just look at the NHL players not going to the Olympics. But when it comes to soccer, since the MLS isn’t even in the top leagues globally, they’ve got to be more flexible.
We, the fans, are lucky when it comes to soccer because continental competitions actually matter, and it’s a big deal to be part of them. Since the winner of the Canadian Championship goes to the CONCACAF Champions Cup, Canadian MLS teams want to compete-otherwise, trust me, they wouldn't even care about "Canada."
Now, hear me out. On top of everything we all know (and like Gareth mentioned), for next year, how about no second leg before the semifinals?
The Leagues Cup is an absolute joke. It should be removed from the schedule entirely.