Will Liga MX continue Concacaf dominance?

Liga MX looks to preserve their dominance in the tournament as Mexican clubs have won 35 of the previous 54 trophies.

The battle for the 55th Concacaf Champions Cup begins Tuesday night with 16 teams looking to succeed the Monterrey Rayados as kings of the North American region. This year marks the 12th tournament in the current Champions League format and Liga MX teams have hoisted each of the previous 11 trophies.

Last year, Monterrey defeated their cross-town rivals, the Tigres, the eighth time in the previous 11 that the Finals were an all-Liga MX affair.

This year’s tournament features five teams from MLS (Seattle Sounders, Los Angeles FC, New York City FC and Atlanta United, plus Montreal Impact who qualified as the Canadian champions) and five teams from Liga MX (León, Tigres, Cruz Azul and América). Rounding out the participants are six teams from Central America (Saprissa and San Carlos from Costa Rica, Motagua and Olimpia from Honduras, El Salvador’s Alianza and Guatemala’s Comunicaciones), as well as Jamaica’s Portmore United.

The Round of 16 features only one Liga MX-MLS match-up with Los Angeles FC visiting León on Tuesday, with the return match taking place in LA on Feb. 27. If LAFC advances, they likely would have to face Cruz Azul which faces Portmore United. That series also opens on Tuesday in Kingston, Jamaica.

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América is in line to face Atlanta United in a quarterfinals match-up. Cruz Azul visits Jamaica’s Portmore United on Tuesday.

The Tigres are the only Liga MX team in the top half of the bracket and NYFC is a potential quarterfinal match-up. But first, the Tigres must get past Alianza, the same club that gave Monterrey such a hard time last year. The Salvadorans battled to a scoreless draw at home in last year’s Round of 16 before falling 1-0 to the Rayados in Monterrey thanks to a late penalty kick. Monterrey went on to win the title, beating the Tigres.

On Wednesday, the Tigres play at Alianza, while América travels to Guatemala City to take on Comunicaciones. América is the winningest team in the tournament having won the Concacaf Cup seven times, the most recent coming in a thrilling Finals match against in 2016 against the Tigres. Tuca Ferretti’s team has been in three of the past four Concacaf Champions League Finals but has never won the trophy.

Monterrey is not in the field this time around and will not be able to defend its crown. The Liga MX participants are determined by who makes the league Finals in the previous soccer year. In this case, that means the finalists from the Apertura 2018 season (América defeated Cruz Azul) and the Clausura 2019 season (the Tigres defeated León). Monterrey has already qualified for next year’s Concacaf Champions League as they defeated the Tigres in the Apertura 2019 Finals in December.