Fernando Llano/AP Photo/dpa
Soccer in Mexico: The Pumas (in white) against the ones from the cement factory
The Liga (formerly Copa) de Campeones de la CONCACAF, English: CONCACAF Champions League and colloquially called Concachampions, has been around for sixty years. It is organized by the Football Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean.
The competition was not held every year, the current one is the 52nd. It started on February 16 with the round of 16. It was restructured at the beginning of the 2008/09 season and has since gained increasing international importance. The winner takes part in the FIFA Club World Cup. Between 1969 and 1998, the CONCACAF campeon also played 18 times against the winners of the Copa Libertadores and kicked for the Copa Interamericana. It went to Argentina seven times. The record winner of the competition is the Club Atlético Independiente from the southern Conurbano of Buenos Aires with three titles. The Interamericana went to Mexico three times, once, the last time, to the USA. Club América from Mexico City won the most conca champions (seven titles). The Mariachi teams clearly dominate the competition with 37 titles.
After the restructuring, Club de Fútbol Monterrey caused a stir, being the only club to date to have won the competition three times in a row from 2011. Third place in Yokohama was the best result at the Club World Cup in 2012. After all, Monterrey won the fair play award and also provided one of the two top scorers of the tournament with the Argentinian César Delgado. In that year, SC Corinthians São Paulo was the last club from South America to win the Club World Cup. The master coach at the time was Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, better known by his stage name Tite. He has been coaching the Seleçao for a number of years and, according to my calculations, will lead them to the World Cup semifinals against Argentina in Qatar, where of course the final stop will be. (The other semi-final will be played by England and Germany.)
In 2017, CONCACAF changed the format again. It introduced a CONCACAF league with teams from Central America and the Caribbean. First, their masters qualified for the Concachampions, since 2019 there have even been six teams. At that time there was another novelty, because with Tigres and Monterrey not only were two teams from the same country in the finals for the first time, they also came from the same city and kicked off the title in the Clásico Regiomontano, with the Rayados globally 2-1 won and secured their fourth title. In 2020 it was Tigres’ turn for the first time, last year C.F. Monterrey won again, but failed to qualify for the current competition.
In the first semi-final, the two Mexican capital clubs Pumas UNAM and Cruz Azul faced each other. The Pumas, who represent the National Autonomous University of Mexico, initially had no trouble with Deportivo Saprissa (Costa Rica), but then drew in Boston in a 0-3 loss to the New England Revolution (winner of the Supporters’ Shield – best overall stats – the Major League Soccer, MLS), who had progressed without a fight, took a mighty beating and saved themselves in the rematch in the penalties, where they were victorious.
Opponent Cruz Azul is owned by a cement factory. The nine-time (and current) champions failed to impress in the quarter-finals against Montreal, who previously sensationally eliminated Santos Laguna. The Pumas were already 2-0 up at the break in the first leg (April 6th), only a late goal by Urus Christian Tabó gave hope to flare up again. This proved to be unfounded, because although the opponents were outnumbered for the last half hour in the second leg (13.4.) in the Aztec Stadium, the Cementeros were unable to penetrate the Pumas’ goal and so it ended up being an inglorious zero.
The other final opponents were determined by the Seattle Sounders (third place in the general table) from Washington and MLS champions New York City. In the quarterfinals, the Sounders defeated the 2020 Mexican champions, Club León, 3-0 in the first leg in their own Lumen Field. Although the guests had an overwhelming 70 percent possession of the ball, it wasn’t that overwhelming – the Rave Green countered them ice cold.
Man City offshoot New York City was already on the brink of elimination against CONCACAF league champions CSD Comunicaciones in Guatemala. The week before last they went down 3-1 against Seattle in Washington and failed to impress on Thursday in the Red Bull Arena either. After just half an hour, Raúl Ruidíaz netted for the Sounders, and Norwegian Ronny Deila’s team was only able to equalize.
The finals will be kicked off on April 28th and May 5th. For the 2023/24 season, the competition is to be increased from 16 to 50 teams.
