There’s a point in almost every tournament, in any sport, where the tone shifts.
As much as we love upsets and Cinderellas – and certainly, “root for chaos” is a lifestyle, a mindset that doesn’t ever have to switch off – most tourneys shift into a different gear when the ranks of their survivors dwindle. As the trophy looms larger, the margins tend to tighten, and the intensity heightens.
With just four contenders left, the 2023 Concacaf Champions League has now entered that territory. And the bracket amplifies it even more, serving up an all-MLS semifinal between LAFC and Philadelphia Union on one side, and an all-Liga MX semifinal featuring Club León and Tigres UANL on the other.
These late April/early May matchups guarantee that we’ll have a final between the two leagues for just the sixth time in the modern history of the competition (which began with the reorganization from Concacaf Champions Cup to the Champions League format in 2008), and for the fourth time in the past six years.
In other words, it’s box office from here on out, with some of North America’s top individual and collective talents going toe to toe. And while we’re not about to gloss over the juicy pairings in the semis, we already know the two-legged final in late May and early June – the last of its kind! – will unfold under the backdrop of the rapidly evolving relationship between the continent’s two largest leagues, once distant antagonists, now something more like kissing cousins or cherished frenemies.
There are also about three months to go until the biggest manifestation of that relationship shift: the newly expanded Leagues Cup, the midsummer mega-tourney that will encompass all 47 member clubs of Liga MX and MLS this summer, necessitating a month-long pause in their respective league schedules.
While we’re occasionally blessed by incredible upstarts like Violette AC, this year’s Austin FC stunners from Haiti, and the 2020 Olimpia (Honduras) side that reached that year’s Champions League semis, it’s become quite difficult for clubs from smaller nations to compete with the heft of the big two leagues. No one outside of MLS or the Mexican top flight has ever reached a CCL final, though perhaps the enlarged 27-team format that goes into effect next year might open up new possibilities.
The business end of Champions League has increasingly become the domain of the elite. LAFC-Union is a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup presented by Audi – just the latest of several epic barnburners between them – featuring the two teams that raced to a photo finish in the 2022 Supporters’ Shield table, a trophy they each had already won in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
“When we get together with them, it's been a lot of special moments in our league's history,” was how Philly coach Jim Curtin phrased it after his team’s riveting, advancement-clinching 2-2 draw with Atlas in Guadalajara Wednesday night.
Meanwhile Tigres and León boast 15 league titles between them, perennial contenders who’ve also locked horns head-to-head in some intense liguilla (postseason) showdowns in recent seasons, most notably the final of the 2019 Liga MX Clausura. With stars like André-Pierre Gignac, Nahuel Guzmán, Víctor Dávila and Rodolfo Cota, they’re quite possibly the two most talent-stacked squads in this year’s CCL. Even in the wake of Seattle Sounders FC’s historic 2022 breakthrough to become the first Concacaf Champions League winner from MLS, it is no great stretch to label either Liga MX side the favorite over either of the MLS semifinalists.
And who will carry the MLS banner into the final? LAFC-Union shapes up to be skin-tight, a clash of markedly different identities and game models, organizations that reflect both their home communities and the personalities of their respective coaches, now with the unprecedented twist of a two-legged series with the away-goals tiebreaker rule to navigate.
The stingiest defense in MLS last season, Curtin’s Philly are a tenacious, confrontational collective who will relish being less fancied – by most observers, at least – than explosive LAFC, this CCL’s most prolific attack over the first two rounds. It’s hard to think of two sides more deserving of the chance to represent MLS in a continental final, or a more satisfying faceoff to determine it.
If you have not yet joined the ranks of the soccer junkies who catch “CCL Fever” every spring, here’s a perfect time to hop on the bandwagon and find out what makes these occasions so irresistible.
