USMNT players in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup

By Charles Boehm – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 5, 2024) US Soccer Players – After its opening round filtered out nearly a dozen teams, the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup shifts into full gear this week with eight two-legged round-of-16 series. The USMNT pool is well-represented in all but one of them, and several players will face off in head-to-head matchups.

Having grown to 27 participants this year, the expanded and rebranded tournament now sees the entry of its five top-seeded sides at this stage. Those are the reigning champions of MLS Cup (Columbus Crew), Leagues Cup (Inter Miami), Central American Cup (Alajuelense), Caribbean Cup (Robinhood), and the 2022/23 Liga MX champion with the most accumulated points (Pachuca).

The first game of the week features Pachuca making a trip north to Subaru Park on the banks of the Delaware River Tuesday night. Here’s a rundown of the stories to watch as the Concacaf Champions Cup unfolds.

Philadelphia Union vs Pachuca

With all due respect to the rest of the region, very few fixtures in these parts get hearts racing quite like USA vs Mexico clashes, at any level. This stage of the competition has three of them.

Philly vs Pachuca represents a clash of tactical styles in that the Union prefer to keep games tight and scrappy, while Los Tuzos are among their league’s leaders in both goals scored and conceded. Yet both clubs rely on productive player development systems in order to consistently compete without spending big money on the transfer market. Pachuca is on a 6-1-1 hot streak over the past month and sits in a three-way tie atop the Liga MX table, paced by the attacking duo of Venezuelan striker Salomon Rondon and Dutch-Moroccan winger Oussama Idrissi.

Jack McGlynn and Alejandro Bedoya are likely to carry significant responsibilities for Philly, who’ll want to grab a home win in the first leg so as not to have to chase the game in Mexico next week. Estadio Hidalgo sits in thin mountain air at 7,843 feet above sea level. That’s a major advantage for the hosts, who are five-time Concacaf champions, three of which featured USMNT alum Jose Francisco Torres from 2007-10.

Chivas vs Club America

It’s Cade Cowell vs Alejandro Zendejas in an international edition of El Super Clasico, traditionally Mexico’s biggest rivalry match. With a league meeting already scheduled for March 16, this series now means the giants will play three times in an 11-day period.

Both USMNT attackers are in good form. Zendejas bagged two goals in a 5-1 rout of Atlas over the weekend, keeping his team just one point back of the Liga MX leaders. He also conjured up a crucial goal in Las Aguilas’ comeback series win over Nicaragua’s Real Esteli in the CCC’s opening round. Cowell scored 2g/1a in Chivas’ first-round defeat of Canada’s Forge FC and opened his account in league action last month. Domestically, the Goats will aim to improve on their current mid-table standing.

Homefield advantage may prove crucial here. Chivas host leg one at Estadio Akron on Wednesday, while reigning Liga MX champs America, who have lost just twice across all competitions this year, will feel confident at Estadio Azteca next week.

New England Revolution vs LD Alajuelense

After calmly handling Panamanian side CAI 4-0 on aggregate in round one, the Revs and their half-dozen capped USMNTers meet a familiar Concacaf upstart from Costa Rica, starting in Foxborough, Massachusetts Wednesday night. It’s actually these teams’ third meeting in this competition, with Alajuelense winning in 2003 and 2006.

With two titles and three runner-up finishes, “La Liga” has a proud history in CCC and their 2004 triumph turned out to be one of the few disruptions of Mexico’s history of 21st-century dominance. Dynamic forward Joel Campbell can ask questions of DeJuan Jones, Nick Lima, and the rest of the Revs’ defense. He and a few other members of Alajuelense’s current roster will be familiar to USMNT watchers from duels with the Costa Rican national team.

Though New England lost both of its MLS matches so far, it’s been the protagonist in the early displays of new head coach Caleb Porter’s system. With Spanish maestro Carles Gil orchestrating and some promising work from wingers Esmir Bajraktarevic and Tomas Chancalay, the onus falls on the forward line to finish scoring chances with more regularity. Survive this test, and the winner of Chivas vs America looms.

Houston Dynamo vs Columbus Crew

One of two all-MLS pairings in the second round, this battle of possession-centric sides opens in Texas before the higher-seeded Crew host next week’s second leg. The MLS Cup champs feature five capped US internationals along their spine and have taken four of their first six points in league play, while last year’s US Open Cup winners are yet to notch an MLS win in 2024.

Unfortunately for Ben Olsen & Co., the fixture catches the Dynamo at an awkward moment in terms of depth. They’re missing influential Mexican international Hector Herrera, his fellow Designated Player Sebastian Ferreira, and winger Nelson Quiñones, in addition to less serious injuries to other regulars. Olsen can still call on Coco Carrasquilla and Artur in central midfield and will need them to be sharp against Aidan Morris and Darlington Nagbe.

Wilfried Nancy’s expansive game model became one of MLS’s biggest storylines in 2023, and now the Columbus boss gets his first chance to test it on the international stage. Their first two matches flashed new wrinkles to the system, and Nancy’s adaptation to CCC could be a big factor in the league’s hopes as a whole.

Orlando City SC vs Tigres UANL

These big cats clash in the round of 16 for the second year in a row. Orlando pushed the Liga MX heavyweights right to the brink (1-1 on aggregate) before falling on the away goals tiebreaker in ‘23. Both handled Canadian opposition with relative ease in the opening round. Tigres, Concacaf champions in 2020, enjoy the benefit of hosting the second leg at the atmospheric Estadio Universitario, better known as El Volcán.

Duncan McGuire joined Orlando late in preseason after nearly joining Blackburn Rovers in January, yet took only 21 minutes to open his 2024 account in the season opener. He and Orlando’s skillful band of South American creators have their work cut out for them against arguably the best club team in the hemisphere over the past decade.

Tigres are expert managers of big games and pressure situations, spearheaded by ageless striker André-Pierre Gignac’s work in front of a savvy veteran midfield. The winner of this series advances to meet the winner of Houston vs Columbus.

FC Cincinnati vs CF Monterrey

It’s a Brandon Vazquez derby. The US striker makes a rapid return to the club he helped win the Supporters’ Shield last season. Already thriving in Mexico, he’s scored six goals in his first 10 appearances with Rayados, who’ve won this tournament five times, including in 2019 and 2021.

Now it’s the job of Miles Robinson and Matt Miazga to stop Vazquez, starting on Thursday night at TQL Stadium. FCC have allowed just one goal in their first four games of the season and this week welcomed another big defensive reinforcement in DeAndre Yedlin, who arrived from Miami via trade and appears to be eligible for selection in CCC. Meanwhile, Cincy newcomer Corey Baird is one of those entrusted with the task of replacing Vazquez’s goals.

Monterrey can call on a deeper Concacaf pedigree than FCC and is a perennial CCC contender. But this meeting of two of the top teams in the respective leagues looks like one of the most tantalizing fixtures to date.

Nashville SC vs Inter Miami

MLS’s 2020 expansion class reunites again. The presence of Leo Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba provides this historic tournament with one of the biggest doses of global star power in its history. It makes Miami a legitimate contender despite this being the young franchise’s first-ever continental expedition.

The Herons’ run to the Leagues Cup trophy last summer, capped by a dramatic final win over NSC at GEODIS Park, showed their capability to prosper in a knockout setting. And they’ve made further upgrades to the squad since then. Winning CCL and thus booking a spot at the Club World Cup would offer Miami’s ambitious project a chance to do things truly unprecedented for an MLS team.

Rugged Nashville has consistently ranked as one of MLS’s best defenses over the past half-decade thanks to Daniel Lovitz, Shaq Moore, and Walker Zimmerman. But like Houston, Gary Smith’s outfit is troubled by injuries to key goal threats Tyler Boyd, Hany Mukhtar, and Sam Surridge and showed early-season rust in league play, with no goals scored from open play vs the New York Red Bulls and Colorado Rapids. A 7-0 aggregate thumping of Moca FC (Dominican Republic) in the first round of CCC provides cause for optimism of an upset here.

Photo by Concacaf