With Atlante taking the 2008 / 09 version of the CONCACAF Champions League with their 2 – 0 aggregate win over Cruz Azul and earning them a berth in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in December, our attention turns to the June 11th draw for the 24 team 09 / 10 Preliminary Rounds of the tournament.

Via CONCACAF

Sixteen teams will be drawn into eight two-leg series for the Preliminary Round that will be staged July 28-30 and August 4-6. The winners will then join the eight seeded teams and will be drawn into four, four team groups.

The six-round Group Phase will begin August 18 and conclude the week of October 20-22.
Two teams from each group will advance to the Championship Round, beginning with the two-leg quarterfinals in March. A separate draw to establish the pairings for the quarterfinals and the path to the final will be conducted in early 2010.

Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama each have one berth open as well as Canada, which last week reached the midpoint of its six-round championship tournament between the Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Costa Rica’s second berth was to be decided Tuesday night in the second leg of that country’s final between Herediano and Liberia.

Major League Soccer champion Columbus will enter along with the Houston Dynamo as the United States’ two qualifiers to the Group Stage, Pachuca advanced past Indios 4-3 on aggregate in their Mexican Clausura semifinal while Pumas reached the two-leg championship after drawing with Puebla on aggregate but advancing due a better regular-season record, with El Salvador’s Metapan and Honduras’ Marathon also have clinched places in the 16-team league phase.

Image via FMImage