By Clemente Lisi – NEW YORK, NY (Feb 28, 2022) US Soccer Players – Many are already picking Seattle as an easy favorite in the race for MLS Cup. They have all of the makings of a legit contender, even in a league where several teams have spent more this offseason. Part of that may be another competition where the Sounders are an easy pick, Concacaf’s Champions League. They’re one of the four Major League Soccer clubs in the quarterfinals of the CCL along with NYCFC, CF Montreal, and the New England Revolution. Until it happens, the story will always be about an MLS team finally lifting the trophy.
Five MLS teams started out in this year’s competition. The Colorado Rapids fell short in heartbreaking fashion to Comunicaciones of Guatemala last Wednesday, exiting on penalties after drawing 1-1 on aggregate. It was the sort of elimination that many MLS teams have experienced over the years, both stinging and unlucky.
No MLS team has won since the 2008 rebranding, a new era dominated by Liga MX. The luck of the draw has sent MLS teams to the final, but the result is always the same. Liga MX wins and MLS loses. The most recent example was in 2020 when LAFC lost to Tigres. They join a list of losing MLS finalists, Real Salt Lake in 2011, CF Montreal in 2015, and Toronto FC in 2018. Last year, Monterrey beat Club America in an all-Liga MX final.
This time around, three of the four MLS teams will face Liga MX opposition in the quarterfinals. NYCFC avoided the MLS vs Liga MX scenario in the quarterfinals, playing Comunicaciones the only non-Liga MX or MLS team to advance. Not only are the four remaining MLS sides strong, but they also benefit from the absence of some Mexican teams who failed to reach the CCL, such as Club America and Monterrey, last year’s winners.
“It’s the same thing every year. It’s difficult, but it’s an opportunity,” Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei told reporters on the eve of the team’s second-leg match last Thursday against Honduran side FC Motagua. The Sounders won that game 5-0 in Seattle, outshooting their opponents 15-4 with 54% of the possession. “I think we sense that we have a really good squad this year on paper and we’ve seen it in preseason and training,” Frei said. “We know we’re good. We know we have quality. It’s about being able to put it all together. Obviously there’s precious little time to do so, but we sense an opportunity.”
This isn’t overplaying the situation for the Sounders. They’ve advanced to at least the quarterfinals in five of its seven CCL appearances, including a semifinal appearance in 2013. The experience is there, along with the awareness of what the annual attempt to beat Liga MX clubs means for Major League Soccer. Playing Club Leon, they have to see an opportunity against a team that has had issues so far in the Clausura after losing the Apertura final on penalties. In 7th-place, it’s not a matchup that necessarily favors the Liga MX club. That’s a similar situation for New England, advancing in a walkover and playing their first CCL game when they host UNAM Pumas on March 9. After 7 Clausura matchdays, 6th-place UNAM is tied on points with Leon.
The Revs are hoping to replicate their domestic success after winning the Supporters’ Shield in 2021. Jozy Altidore, a member of the Toronto FC team that lost in the final four years ago to Guadalajara, said earlier this month that MLS teams need to focus on capturing the Champions League.
“What I would like to see is, even if it’s gotta be me one day, I’m going to build a team one day just to win the Champions League,” Altidore told MLS’s Extratime. “Literally just for that because I think it’s so important for the league to win that…. “I want to see an MLS team win it so bad. I think it’d really do a lot for the league.”
Montreal has a trickier matchup against 4th-place Cruz Azul, two points ahead of UNAM Pumas and Club Leon in the Liga MX table. They came back to knockout Santos Laguna in the round of 16. That MLS vs Liga MX matchup in the opening round would’ve been trickier against a club that isn’t bottom of the Clausura table.
In his post-match news conference, Montreal CF manager Wilfried Nancy summed up the game this way: “I don’t know if this is a statement, what I know is we did it and we did it with the way we want to play, offensively and especially also defensively.”
With that in mind, the quarterfinals begin to look like a version of the Leagues Cup. MLS hasn’t announced the specifics for that tournament set for later this season, the final edition before it expands to include all MLS and Liga MX clubs. Starting in 2023, familiarity between MLS and Liga MX clubs will include annual games that count regardless of where teams finish in the table. Add in the potential for a revamped World Cup, and the scope of Concacaf’s championship could change. For now, the best teams in MLS and Liga MX playing for a trophy remains the Champions League. It’s about time an MLS representative actually won it.
Clemente Lisi is a regular contributor to US Soccer Players. He is also the author of A History of the World Cup: 1930-2018.
More from Clemente Lisi:
- 22 for MLS in 2022
- Expectations for the new MLS Designated Players in 2022
- Nashville in the West and Charlotte in the East
- The USMNT keeps the Columbus advantage
Photo by Chicago Fire FC
