CONCACAF Champions League: Quarterfinal dates, times set as 3 MLS sides face Mexican opposition

Book those plane tickets now. The road to the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League knockout stage is set in stone – for the quarterfinals, at least.

Costa Rican side Alajuelense and Panama's Árabe Unido kicking things off on March 10, and finish off the quarterfinal stage on March 20. In between, three MLS teams will stage the latest home-and-home showdowns with a trio of Liga MX heavyweights.

San Jose host Toluca on March 11, while Sporting KC host Cruz Azul on March 12, and the LA Galaxy take on southern neighbors Club Tijuana that same night.

All three return dates are the following week, with LA traveling down the I-5 on March 18, and San Jose and Sporting getting things done on the 19th.

CONCACAF also released the tenative schedule for the semifinals and final on Monday. The semifinal first and second legs – which will pit the Árabe Unido/Alajuelense winner against the Toluca/San Jose winner and the Tijuana/Galaxy winner against the Cruz Azul/Sporting KC winner – will be played between April 1-3 and April 8-10. The two-legged final will be played between April 15-17 and April 22-24.

There will not be a week-long break following the semifinals becase of the FIFA date requirement that all players participating in the World Cup be released following May 18, which would impact some of the countries still participating in the CCL playoff rounds.

• CHECK OUT THE FINAL 2013-14 CCL GROUP  STAGE STANDINGS

The 2013-14 CCL quarterfinal matches, which are scheduled to start on March 10, 2014, are as follows:

First leg

Second leg

Per the 2013-14 CCL regulations, seeding for the quarterfinals is determined by the number of points each qualifier obtained in the group stage. There were two instances in which multiple teams finished level on points (Toluca and Cruz Azul; Árabe Unido, Alajuelense and the LA Galaxy), and both were decided by the first tiebreaker for seeding, goal differential.