User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

The 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League group stage will begin on 12 September and end on 6 December 2017. A total of 32 teams compete in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 CONCACAF Champions League.

Draw

The draw for the group stage will be held on 24 August 2017, 18:00 EST, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on the following principles:

Pot 1 contains the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016 CONCACAF country coefficients. If the title holders are one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth are also seeded into Pot 1.
Pot 2, 3 and 4 contain the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2017 club coefficients.

The draw is controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday.

The fixtures are decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 16.02):

Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	2 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 2	1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 3	3 v 1, 2 v 4

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 4	1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 5	3 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 6	2 v 1, 4 v 3

There are certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Russia) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).

Teams

Below are the participating teams (with their 2017 club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They include 22 teams which enter in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).

Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16
Third-placed teams enter the Europa League round of 32

Pot 1 (by association rank)
Team	Coeff
UANL^[TH]	176.999
Seattle Sounders	154.899
Saprissa	106.192
Motagua	140.666
Toronto FC	111.866
Árabe Unido	62.333
Santa Tecla	18.606
Central	87.526

Pot 2
Team	Coeff
Guadalajara	114.216
América	114.133
Herediano	110.166
Pachuca^[LR]	100.300
Alajuelense	83.106
FC Dallas	76.137
New York Red Bulls	71.266
Vancouver Whitecaps	64.503

Pot 3
Team	Coeff
W Connection^[LR]	58.287
Inter Moengotapoe^[CR]	54.643
Walter Ferretti^[LR]	54.415
Ottawa Fury^[LR]	45.817
Tijuana	42.133
Arnett Gardens	38.107
Tauro	38.049
Plaza Amador^[LR]	27.870

Pot 4
Team	Coeff
Real Estelí	21.202
Honduras Progreso	20.149
Colorado Rapids	18.147
New York City FC	18.147
System 3^[CR]	11.285
Bodden Town^[CR]	10.475
Barcelona Atlético^[CR]	7.625
Puerto Rico FC^[CR]	4.960

Notes

^TH Title holders, automatically placed at the top position of seeding list.
^CR Winners of the play-off round (Champions Route).
^LR Winners of the play-off round (League Route).

Format

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the Europa League round of 32.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01):

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Away goals scored in all group matches;
Wins in all group matches;
Away wins in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA club coefficient.

Groups

The matchdays are 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 2017. The match kickoff times are 20:45 EST/EDT in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.

Times up to 28 October 2017 (matchdays 1–3) are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times are CET (UTC+1).

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Toronto FC	6	5	1	0	18	1	+17	16	Advance to knockout round
New York Red Bulls	6	3	2	1	14	4	+10	11	Advance to knockout round
Arnett Gardens	6	2	1	3	7	12	−5	6	Transfer to SuperLiga
System 3	6	0	0	6	3	25	−22	0

12 September 2017

19:00

System 3	1–3	New York Red Bulls
Badnock 42'	Report	Grella 26' Basuljevic 35' Keita 68'

Arnos Vale Stadium, Kingstown

Attendance: 1,439

Referee: Henry Bejarano (Costa Rica)

12 September 2017