SEATTLE - With the revamped CONCACAF Champions Cup heating up, knockout ties between teams from the two best leagues in the region are set to be more common in later rounds. So far this year, we already have seen four ties between Liga MX and MLS teams between the first and second round, with Tigres securing the first win of the season for Liga MX by eliminating the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first round.
The last 12 months has seen a huge shift in the dynamic, with MLS teams dominating Liga MX sides in the Leagues Cup. The tournament that was won by Lionel Messi's Inter Miami saw MLS and Liga MX teams face off in 16 knockout ties, with Major League Soccer winning 11 of those.
What we saw at last year's Leagues Cup is similar to the growth shown by MLS teams at the other joint competition they have with Liga MX. In the five editions of the Campeones Cup, MLS teams have won three of the five clashes, tilting the balance in the rivalry for the first time in years.
With all the recent success shown by American and Canadian teams, it is the perfect time for the balance to tilt at the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a competition historically dominated by Mexican teams.
In the history of the competition, MLS teams have reached the final only in nine occasions, winning three of those. Before the Seattle Sounders broke Mexico's 16-year dominance in 2022, the only other MLS teams to have won the regional competition were the LA Galaxy (2000) and the D.C. United (1998).
Between 2006 and 2021, Liga MX teams dominated the competition, winning every single trophy. Such has been their dominance that, in the 21st Century, the CONCACAF Champions League/Champions Cup has had 13 instances of two Mexican teams battling in the final.
With three MLS-Liga MX clashes taking place in the second round of this year's competition, MLS teams have a chance to tie the series if all three teams can go through the next round. In the last 10 years in the competition, there has been a total of 41 ties between teams from both countries, with Liga MX leading the way winning 28 of those (68%) while MLS has only won 13. Most of those have come in the past four seasons, as MLS teams have advanced in eight of the 19 ties.
Perhaps MLS' biggest hopes this year rely on Inter Miami's super team with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez leading the forward line. According to numbers from Transfermarkt, Inter Miami's squad is the most expensive in CONCACAF, valued at almost $100 million, almost 35% more than MLS' second-best team (Atlanta United, $66 million).
With the additions of Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, Inter Miami looks more than ready to end Liga MX's streak of 19 straight seasons with at least one team in the final that started way back in 2004. But first, they will have to go through Nashville SC, the team that eliminated two Mexican teams en-route to the Leagues Cup final last year before losing in a penalty shootout to Messi's Inter Miami.
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