WASHINGTON – Along with the four other MLS teams participating in the competition, D.C. United learned their draw for the upcoming 2015-2016 CONCACAF Champions League on Monday.
The Black-and-Red were pitted against Panama’s Árabe Unido and Jamaica’s Montego Bay United in Group H, avoiding the tough slog handed to the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps – who will face each other and dangerous Honduran side CD Olimpia in Group F.
D.C. head coach Ben Olsen was understandably excited for his side’s favorable-looking group, though not for the reasons you might expect.
“What do you mean we’re lucky?” Olsen told MLSsoccer.com when asked about the draw, grinning. “There’s a whole bunch of teams that are lucky. There are only a couple of teams that [were drawn into a tough group.]"
“Montego Bay. Direct flight from [Baltimore.] That’s a huge deal,” he chuckled. "I got married in Negril, right down the road, I think. Maybe I’ll stop by and renew my vows.”
Montego Bay is indeed right down the road from Negril, where Olsen married his wife Megan in December 2006. The affair was decidedly casual, with Real Salt Lake goalkeeper and Olsen’s old D.C. teammate Nick Rimando – whose wedding Olsen officiated in 2005 – spilling some of the details to the Washington Post before hopping on that direct flight to Montego Bay all those years ago.
“Absolutely not, [no tuxedos],” said Rimando, who told the Post that he and his fellow groomsmen were instructed to wear white shirts, white pinstripe pants and white Chuck Taylors to the wedding. “He wants us to dress like him, pretty much. I don’t think he’d be caught dead with a tuxedo, unless someone put a gun to his head.”
