Washington, D.C. (June 11, 2009) - CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football) today announced the parings for the preliminary round and group stage for the 2009-10 Champions League tournament. D.C. United will face El Salvador’s Chalatenango in a match that will determine one of the spots in Group B.
The home game of the preliminary round will serve as Special Game C for half and full season ticket holders. Individual tickets sales for the general public will be announced in the near future. If United advanced to the next round, it would join Toluca (Mexico), Marathon (Honduras) and either San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad) or a team from Panama in Group B.
The preliminary round of the tournament is composed of 16 teams that were drawn into eight home-and-away match-ups. The winners will join the eight seeded teams in the Group Stage that consists of four groups of four teams each. The top two clubs from each of the four groups will advance to the quarterfinals. The CONCACAF Champions League winner will qualify as the CONCACAF representative to the 2010 edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.
In the inaugural 2008-09 season, the Black-and-Red earned a 0-5-1 record in the Group Stage. United qualified for this year’s edition by winning the 2008 U.S. Open Cup. The title gave United a berth in the preliminary round of the Champions League.
Broadcasting and P.A. Request: When speaking of the organization, please refer to the team as either “D.C. United” or “United,” but not “the D.C. United” or “the United.” We appreciate your cooperation.
Doug Hicks,
dhicks@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5448,
Boris Flores,
bflores@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5452,
Kyle Sheldon,
ksheldon@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5450 or
Cristina Cruz,
ccruz@dcunited.com
, (202) 587-5440
