In the Shadow of Liga MX
Will an MLS team ever win the CONCACAF Champions League?
By Ivan Garcia Contributor
Michael Bradley took the ball from the referee, placed it on the penalty spot, and retreated eleven paces as he prepared to shoot the fourth penalty kick for Toronto FC in the penalty shootout against Chivas for the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League title.
Bradley, who captains both Toronto and the United States Men’s National Team, ran up to take the spot kick and sent it sailing over the right corner of the goal.
The home crowd at the Estadio Akron, located in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco in Mexico, celebrated as Bradley’s penalty-miss crowned Chivas CONCACAF champions, and earned them a spot in the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup.
This is the thirteenth consecutive year that a Mexican team lifted the trophy.
The last time that a non-Mexican team won the title was in 2005, when Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa beat Mexican club UNAM Pumas by an aggregate score of 3–2. At that time, the competition was known as the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup. The competition would be referred to as the CONCACAF Champions League after a change in the tournament format in 2008.
This Toronto squad looked poised to end an 18-year title drought suffered by Major League Soccer teams in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Victories against two strong Liga MX opponents — Tigres in the quarter-finals and America in the semi-finals — established Toronto as a worthy finalist.
Toronto were led by Italian forward Sebastian Giovinco, who scored four goals and collected three assists in eight games. Giovinco’s performances earned him the Golden Ball award (the first-ever MLS player to receive the award), which is given to the best player of the tournament.
The last time an MLS team won a tournament was in January 2001, when the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated Honduran side Club Deportivo Olimpia 3–2 in the final of the 2000 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, which was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
D.C. United won the Champions’ Cup in 1998, beating Mexican club Toluca 1–0 in Washington D.C.
Overall, Mexican clubs have won a staggering total of 34 titles in the tournament’s history, and MLS teams have only won two.
With their heartbreaking defeat against Chivas, Toronto joined Montreal Impact (2014–15) and Real Salt Lake (2010–11) as the most recent MLS teams to finish as runners-up in the competition. And like Toronto, both Montreal and Real Salt Lake were defeated by Mexican clubs.
In Mexico, the top tier soccer league, now known as Liga MX, was founded in 1943 and popular clubs like Atlas, America, Chivas and Necaxa had already been in existence for several decades.
The MLS is a league in its adolescent stage, having played its first season in 1996, and teams are still learning how to recruit and properly develop the talent they find. Adding superstar signings like Giovinco and Los Angeles Football Club’s Carlos Vela have helped MLS teams improve their domestic quality, while also strengthening their chances in future foreign competitions.
The CONCACAF Champions League provides MLS teams with an opportunity to measure their quality of play against that of foreign clubs. Although Bradley and the rest of the Toronto squad fell to Chivas, their performance throughout the tournament showed that MLS teams are capable of competing and beating the best clubs in Mexico. MLS teams will be underdogs for years to come, but a title will not evade them for long.
