SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes learned their opponents tonight for the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League. The Quakes were placed into Group 5 with the Montreal Impact and Guatemalan Team TBD. The Guatemalan team will be determined at the conclusion the Guatemalan League playoffs in the next few weeks. The Earthquakes will play each team twice (home and away) and the group winner moves onto the quarterfinals. The first round of games in group play start Aug. 6-8.
This year will mark the Quakes first appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League, although they did participate in the CONCACAF Champions Cup three times from 2002-2004.
The Quakes played CD Olimpia (Honduras) in 2002 in the Round of 16 and won the home-and-away series 4-1 on aggregate. The Quakes took the first game 1-0 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, before winning 3-1 at Sheldon Florin Community Stadium in Sacramento in thesecond leg. The Quakes bowed out in the quarterfinals with 3-1 aggregate goals loss to C.F. Pachuca. The Quakes won the second leg 1-0 at Spartan Stadium, but could not overcome a 3-0 first leg deficit. Ramiro Corrales scored the lonegoal for the Quakes in the home win.
In 2003, the Quakes faced CSD Municipal from Guatemala in the Round of 16. After a 4-2 loss in the first leg at Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala, the Quakes came back for a 2-1 win atSpartan Stadium. The win was not enough as Municipal went through 5-4 on aggregate. Manny Lagos scored both goals on the road for San Jose, while Landon Donovan and Brian Ching struck for goals at home.
The Earthquakes last appearance in the Champions Cup came in 2004 with a Round of 16 match-up with LD Alajuelense. The Quakes traveled to Costa Rica for the first leg, but came home empty-handed after a 3-0 loss at Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium. At Spartan Stadium, the Quakes earned a 1-0 win on a goal by Brian Mullan, but they were eliminated 3-1 on aggregate.
