However, after problems in the previous year’s tournament, CONCACAF decided that teams may be disqualified and replaced if they don’t have a stadium for the tournament that CONCACAF deems suitable. Also, in response to fixture congestion during the previous year’s tournament, the Central American representatives that qualify via split seasons will no longer play-off solely to determine which team will gain entry into the group stage. Thus, the bid was awarded to a third team from Costa Rica, Herediano, the highest non-champion from the combined 2008 Invierno and 2009 Verano seasons. The Nicaraguan bid was initially intended to be given to a third team from Panama, but Panama only had one stadium pass inspection, which under CONCACAF rules, meant that only two Panamanian clubs could host matches. Buffon also won the Lev Yashin Award, given to the best goalkeeper of the tournament; he conceded only two goals in the tournament’s seven matches, the first an own goal by Zaccardo and the second from Zidane’s penalty kick in the final, and remained unbeaten for 460 consecutive minutes. Note: The first leg match scheduled for 14 March 2007 was postponed due to a weather-induced power outage.
The spot vacated by Belize was awarded to Honduras, increasing their total to three qualified clubs, due to their association’s teams’ superior performance in the 2008-09 Champions League. Initially, there was a tie between Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala, based upon the results of the 2008-09 Champions League, for the reallocated Nicaraguan bid. A second bid was reallocated on June 9 when it was determined that Real Estelí of Nicaragua did not have a suitable venue to host a CONCACAF club match. As a result, the second Salvadoran bid was awarded to the runners-up in the Apertura and Clausura tournaments with the better aggregate record, Chalatenango (2008 Apertura runners-up). Firpo was selected as the team with the second-best cumulative record among the runners-up in the El Salvadoran Apertura and Clausura championships. 1 Columbus Crew were both the 2008 MLS Supporters’ Shield and 2008 MLS Cup winner, so Houston Dynamo claimed the second USA berth in the group stage as the 2008 MLS Supporters’ Shield runners-up. With this defeat, Liverpool became the second English club and fourth overall – after Hamburger SV, Fiorentina and Arsenal – to have been runner-up in all three major European competitions (European Champion Clubs’ Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, and the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup).
Guadalajara advances to 2007 Copa Sudamericana as runner-up. In addition, as runners-up, Guadalajara was invited to CONMEBOL’s 2007 Copa Sudamericana. The tournament also served as a qualifying event for the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup. 2-2 on aggregate. Pachuca won 2007 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup 7-6 on penalties, advanced to 2007 FIFA Club World Cup. When the domestic cup winners (considered as the “highest-placed” qualifiers within the national association) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated, and the remaining Europa League qualifiers are moved up one place, with the final place (with the earliest starting round) taken by the domestic cup runners-up, provided they do not already qualify for the Champions League or the Europa League. C.F. Pachuca advances to 2007 FIFA Club World Cup as champion. All four Mexican teams topped their groups and reached the semi-finals, with Pachuca winning the final against Cruz Azul with a 2-2 aggregate score, via the away goals rule. In the semi-finals, Atalanta were drawn against French club Marseille. At the start of the 2018 season, Hauge again lost his starting role, and as a result was loaned to the second-tier club Aalesunds FK, on 15 August 2018, halfway through the season, after 11 league appearances in which he scored no goals.
It was announced on May 12, 2009, that Belize had lost their lone qualification to Honduras due to the inability of the Belize federation to meet CONCACAF’s minimum requirements in regard to stadium facilities. However the players’ names are misspelled due to the lack of a FIFPro license, though they have their actual numbers, appearance, age, height, weight and abilities. On July 10, 2009 CONCACAF announced that Luís Ángel Firpo of El Salvador was invited to take the place of Chalatenango due to Chalatengo’s failure to sign and return the required participation agreement. 4 Isidro Metapán won both the 2008 Apertura and 2009 Clausura. Caribbean: If any Caribbean club is precluded, it will be supplanted by the “2009 CFU Club Championship” 4th-place finisher. If one or more clubs is precluded, it will be supplanted by a club from another Central American federation. As winners, Pachuca qualified for the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup as the CONCACAF representative. The 2007 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup was the 42nd edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup.