Concacaf Champions Cup: It’s North American club soccer’s biggest prize, a pathway to facing off against the global elite in the FIFA Club World Cup and the continent’s toughest tournament to win.
Just ask last year’s Columbus Crew, who swept aside Mexican giants Tigres UANL and CF Monterrey in historic fashion before tasting gut-punch heartbreak in the tournament finale against Pachuca, who enjoyed the substantial advantage of a rather arbitrary shift to a single-legged, non-neutral final format for 2024 (plus a nasty bout of food poisoning that ravaged the visitors). Or 2011 Real Salt Lake, Montréal 2015, Toronto 2018 or LAFC in 2020 and 2023, all of whom mounted impressive ConcaChampions runs that fell agonizingly short at the last hurdle.
Three decades into the league’s history, there remain only three MLS sides to win this title, and just one in its modern era: the ‘22 Seattle Sounders. Next week, the hunt begins again as the first of MLS’s 10 CCC representatives kick off in the continental competition, which features 27 teams scattered from Canada to Suriname.
So who’s got the best chance? We took a look at the squads and the bracket, then ranked ‘em from most promising to longest shot.
No prizes for originality or unpredictability here. The Herons have collected the most high-end talent in the league, bolstered by a respectable pad of squad depth and a year of experience together in the current project, including an all-too-fleeting taste of last season’s CCC.
Hang on, though. It’s not just their on-paper resources that nudge the Supporters’ Shield holders a nose ahead of the Western Conference counterparts below. Leo Messi & Co. also benefit from a friendly draw that keeps them away from the chief dangers in this competition – LIGA MX’s biggest, baddest heavyweights – until the semifinal round in late April, by which point they should be a lot closer to peak match fitness and sharpness.
We also factored in Miami’s preseason schedule, a series of out-and-back exhibition visits to spots across the Americas which appears a lot less draining than last year’s round-the-world tour and more or less mirrors ConcaChampions-type itineraries. But wait; a Floridian march to the final would have to surmount one rather significant hurdle before the aforementioned semis…
The MLS-heavy top left corner of the bracket contains not only IMCF but also LAFC and the Columbus Crew, as well as perceived outsiders Sporting KC and Colorado. If everything goes chalk, LAFC will best the Rapids in Round One and advance to face the Crew. And if you caught their clashes in the 2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup finals, you know that’s must-see TV, with the winner meeting (again, we presuppose chalk, even if this tourney routinely blows that out of the water) Miami in the quarters.
So Steve Cherundolo’s Black & Gold don’t have the easiest road, including Tuesday’s tricky, chilly trip to Mile High country for their opener at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Yet this team looks up for the challenge, having stacked up proven talent from within the league like Mark Delgado, Jeremy Ebobisse, Nkosi Tafari and Yaw Yeboah, plus imports Igor Jesus and Odin Thiago Holm, all of which should compensate for the profitable sales of Mateusz Bogusz and Omar Campos to Cruz Azul.
Several LAFCers, Cherundolo included, carry the memory of their 2023 ConcaChampions final loss to Club León, and if this week’s lively 2-1 friendly win over Club América is any indication, they’re shifting through the gears on schedule.
Never underestimate the ones who’ve been there, done that; it’s a truism that applies to our No. 3 spot even more powerfully than No. 2. The Sounders retain the lion’s share of the lineup that beat Pumas UNAM over two legs to make MLS history three years ago, augmented by savvy new acquisitions like Jesús Ferreira, Paul Arriola and Kim Kee-hee.
The stingiest defense in MLS last year, Seattle have now bolstered their attack with a range of options for coach Brian Schmetzer, who can pick from multiple formations and personnel combinations as the Rave Green wade into a busy campaign that also features the Club World Cup come summer. Though preseason results aren’t usually all that reflective of what’s ahead, it may be worth noting that they’ve scored multiple goals in all of their scrimmages and friendlies, and lost none of them.
“We've scored a lot of goals this preseason, but now it's about doing it in Champions Cup and also in the league,” said midfield veteran Cristian Roldan after Wednesday’s win over USL Championship club Louisville City, the Sounders’ final tuneup before next week’s visit to Guatemala for a Round One first-leg duel with Antigua GFC.
Should they advance, their road gets a lot steeper. Cruz Azul await in the next round, and if Seattle survive that, it’s the winner of the América vs. Chivas Guadalajara series.
Like Miami, FCC tossed back their first dose of Concacaf-ery a year ago, and like Miami, they showed some promise before getting overwhelmed by Monterrey’s quality. It’s a comparable path this time, as they tangle with Honduran outfit Motagua in hopes of booking a date with mighty Tigres in the Round of 16. Find a way past one of the region’s true giants, and it’s either LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake or Herediano of Costa Rica in the quarters.
Up until Wednesday, we’d have given the Knifey Lions a puncher’s chance of navigating that gauntlet, making particular note of Kévin Denkey, the elite spearhead they signed from Cercle Brugge for a hefty fee last fall.
Now we’re upgrading their prospects, because they just solved their most pressing offseason problem by sealing the trade of disgruntled star playmaker Lucho Acosta to FC Dallas for $5 million plus, which will reportedly set into motion their succession plan: paying the Portland Timbers more than twice that for THEIR disgruntled star playmaker, Evander.
It’s now a race against time to get Evander caught up to speed with his new teammates. But we’re thinking the Brazilian No. 10 will be eager to show his abilities on the continental stage.
If only the Gs could defy time, space and MLS roster rules and magically transport the squad that marched through last year’s playoffs to claim their sixth MLS Cup trophy into ConcaChampions ‘25. We’d surely rank them higher on this list.
Alas, in cold, hard reality, maestro Riqui Puig is just a couple of months into a lengthy ACL rehab. Dejan Joveljić, Mark Delgado and Gastón Brugman are wearing other teams’ colors due to offseason salary-budget maneuvering. And on top of all that, versatile attacker Joseph Paintsil is reportedly out for several weeks with a quad injury.
Ample talent remains, starting with Gabriel Pec, Marco Reus and newly-acquired forward Christian Ramírez, who played a key role in Columbus’ ‘24 run. But charting a course through that probably treacherous lower left corner of the bracket is asking a lot of a team remaking itself on the fly.
Now run back that first sentence about the Galaxy above, just in the context of Columbus’ incredible run of success under coach Wilfried Nancy. Plenty of us would wager a decent stack on the Crew’s peak NancyBall sides led by do-it-all striker Cucho Hernández and a couple of other high-end talents.
The Colombian is gone to Real Betis, though. The aforementioned Ramírez just returned to his hometown. Aidan Morris is at Middlesbrough. And that leaves questions, even with plenty of holdovers plus Nancy’s scintillating game model and “impossible is nothing” mindset still in place.
“It's totally normal. So we lost a player that scored many goals and also made a lot of assists. Who is going to say that we have a chance to win something?” the French-born coach acknowledged to MLSsoccer.com at the Crew’s preseason camp in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida last week. “But what I'm going to tell you is I know that we can be good without [the departures].”
A bold punter might label RSL as MLS’s chief ConcaChampions dark horse.
The Utahns are flying under the radar in large part because their best player, attacking tentpole Chicho Arango, moved on to the San Jose Earthquakes in the offseason, as did dependable English vet Matty Crooks, to Hull City. Even at that, Salt Lake didn’t exactly light things up down the stretch after a red-hot start to last season, never quite recovering from dynamic winger Andrés Gómez's profitable transfer to Stade Rennais of Ligue 1.
We rate their summer signings like Diogo Gonçalves and Dominik Marczuk, and some of their recent depth pickups may turn out to be quite savvy. But with a roster in flux and tough CCC fixtures right out of the gate, Pablo Mastroeni & Co. have plenty to prove over the next few weeks.
How’s this for an introduction?
‘Welcome to CCC, Mile High Club! Your first task is to defeat the 2022 MLS Cup champs/2023 ConcaChampions finalists. Then you have to find a way past the 2023 MLS Cup winners/2024 Leagues Cup holders. And if you manage that, the 2024 Shield winners/all-time MLS points record-holders, aka the GOAT’s squad, await. Survive, and the reward for your troubles is most likely one of the biggest, richest clubs in LIGA MX.’
Rapids boss Chris Armas surely relishes preparing his side for this series of David-and-Goliath scenarios and can reasonably aim for forward progress in his second year at the helm given the gains made in ‘24. Tenacious, hard-running Colorado can aspire to make DSGP a frosty, lung-burning ordeal for visitors. Frankly, though, it’ll take a miracle to mount a deep run in the Rocky Mountains.
The club that finished third-from-bottom in the overall MLS table last season is in Champions Cup thanks to their runners-up finish in the US Open Cup, and that sentence tells you most of what you need to know about what a tough task this tournament represents for Peter Vermes’ team.
We like the rebuilding work Vermes and sporting director Mike Burns have achieved, starting with the coup of bringing Joveljić from Los Angeles to the Midwest. SKC look to have gotten younger and more athletic and very possibly will evolve into a solid playoff team in the coming months.
Beating Messi & Friends right at the jump, though? That’s a bridge too far.
VWFC have become ConcaChampions regulars of late thanks to their mastery of the Canadian Championship, and that in and of itself is an achievement for the British Columbians, who slot in at a modest 27th in the latest Concacaf club rankings (that’s lower than nine MLS colleagues who AREN’T taking part in CCC, for what it’s worth).
The bracket didn’t exactly shake out favorably for their latest continental excursion, pitting them against known Tico troublemakers Deportivo Saprissa in the opening round for the right to face Rayados in the Round of 16. Similarly stern tests would loom in subsequent stages if they pulled off a shock there. And with charismatic, chaotic coach Vanni Sartini as well as Designated Player Stuart Armstrong gone, it’s a very steep learning curve for Sartini’s Danish successor Jesper Sørensen, who has approximately 0.0 North American experience, and the rest of the squad.
Have fun storming the castle, ‘Caps!
