Washington, D.C. (June 23, 2009) - CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football) today announced the schedule for D.C. United’s preliminary round matches in the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League tournament. The Black-and-Red will face El Salvador’s Chalatenango in a two-game aggregate series that will determine one of the spots in Group B. The first match will take place on July 28 at RFK Stadium with an 8 p.m. kickoff, while Chalatenango will host the return leg on August 4 at Estadio Monumental Cuscatlan.
The home game on July 28 will serve as Special Game C for half and full season ticket holders. Individual tickets sales for the general public will be available via all TicketMaster outlets beginning tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Should United advance to the next round, it would join CD Toluca (Mexico), Marathon (Honduras) and either San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad) or San Francisco FC (Panama).
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. D.C. United reigned as champions of the region in 1998, defeating CD Toluca 1-0 to win the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup.
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
