Historic Milestone Reached Thursday in LA Galaxy-Isidro Metapan Game Off Beckham Corner Kick
Fresh Off Unprecedented Three Medals in Olympics, Region Continues to Make History
NEW YORK (Friday, August 24, 2012) – The 1,000th goal in Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Champions League history was scored Thursday, when David Beckham netted directly off a corner kick in first-half injury time against El Salvador’s Isidro Metapan.
“CONCACAF continues to hit world-renowned and historic milestones with last night’s 1,000th goal in Champions League play, and the recent two gold medals and a bronze at the Olympics,” said CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb. “It’s impossible to deny the skill and level of play emerging from our region and we congratulate David Beckham and his Galaxy team on this momentous occasion.”
In just slightly more than four seasons of Champions League play and after 249 total games, the historic number was reached.
Beckham will be honored for his milestone at a future LA Galaxy Champions League home game.
The CONCACAF Champions League is the Confederation’s annual club championship. It was inaugurated in the 2008-2009 season, replacing the Champions Cup, which had decided the region’s best team since 1962.
Featuring 24 squads from CONCACAF’s three sub-regions — North America, Central America and the Caribbean — the tournament is now played in two stages: the Group Stage, and Championship Round. Berths are allocated by country or, in the case of the Caribbean, by region.
In the first four years of the competition, 16 unseeded teams were paired off into a Preliminary Round with the winners joining the eight seeded teams in the main 16-club Group Stage. Changes were implemented for the 2012-13 edition, with each of the 24 teams drawn directly into the Group Stage, consisting of eight groups of three teams each.
Only the group winners will advance to the Championship Round, which consists of the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. The team that finishes with the best record in the Group Stage will face the team with the eighth-best record in the quarterfinals. Two will play seven, three will play six, and four will face five. Likewise, the semifinal pairings also will be determined with the winner of 1-vs-8 advancing against the winner of 4-vs-5, and 3-vs-6 facing 2-vs-7.
Atlante won the inaugural title in 2009, beating fellow Mexican side Cruz Azul 2-0 on aggregate in the two-leg final. A year later, another Mexican club, Pachuca, defeated Cruz Azul for the crown on the away-goals rule. Monterrey has captured the last two editions, overcoming the USA’s Real Salt Lake (2011) and fellow Mexican club Santos (2012) 3-2 on aggregate on both occasions.
The winner of the CONCACAF Champions League qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup.
