Has any MLS team ever won the CONCACAF Champions League?
Pumas and the Seattle Sounders will contest the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League, a tournament dominated exclusively by Mexican teams.
Pumas UNAM and the Seattle Sounders will be battling it out to lift the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League, with the winners qualifying for this year’s Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi. The tournament has undergone several format changes over the years. It was originally known as the Champions Cup and ran from 1962 to 2008 although North American teams didn’t always make it through the qualifiers during those early years. On the whole, the tournament has been almost exclusively dominated by Mexican clubs - Monterrey are the cup holders and the team with the most titles - five, since the competition was restructured and rebranded as the CONCACAF Champions League in 2008.
Major Soccer League was founded in 1996 and from the 2008/9 season, between four and five MLS representatives have taken part in the CONCACAF Champions League. A total of 21 teams from MLS have played in the tournament - Toronto FC have made the most appearances (7), one more than the Seattle Sounders, this year’s finalists, while LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo and the New York Red Bulls have participated five times each.
MLS clubs still waiting for first Champions League triumph
Even with ongoing expansion and more investment, no MLS team has ever won the CONCACAF Champions League. It has been the reserve of Mexican clubs since the present format was introduced. Apart from Monterrey, the tournament has been won by a further six Liga MX sides - Club América and Pachuca have two titles each, Tigres UANL, Cruz Azul, Atlante and Chivas Guadalajara all have one title.
Five MLS teams have made it as far as the final - Real Salt Lake were runners-up in 2011 after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Monterrey. Montréal lost the 2015 final to América and Toronto were agonisingly beaten on penalties by Chivas three years later. Los Angeles also came close to becoming the first MLS Champions League winner in 2020 when they were narrowly beaten by Tigres with André-Pierre Gignac hitting the deciding strike with minutes of normal time remaining.
Former striker Herculez Gomez is the North American player to have scored the most Champions League goals (9), although curiously, with Mexican teams: Santos Laguna and Tijuana. One day Mexico’s monopoly on the CONCACAF Champions League will surely come to an end, and Brian Schmetzer’s Seattle Sounders are hoping that they will triumph this year to become the first MLS side to win it.