Hector Moreno, left, of Monterrey fights for the ball with Rudy Camacho of the Columbus Crew during … [+]
Even factoring in the 2022 Seattle Sounders team that became the first MLS side to win the modern-era Concacaf club championship, the Columbus Crew achieved arguably the greatest feat of any MLS team in continental play on Wednesday night.
Columbus earned a 3-1 win in the second leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals against CF Monterrey and sealed an impressive 5-2 victory on total goals over two legs. That followed their quarterfinal win on penalties over Tigres UANL after playing 1-1 draws both in Ohio and Mexico.
While MLS teams have made deep runs before — including Seattle’s impressive triumph — none have ever slayed giants in successive series as large as the two Nuevo Leon clubs. Tigres have won five short-tournament Liga MX championships since 2015, more than any other club during that span. Monterrey have been the dominant side in continental play, winning five of the last 13 Concacaf titles.
The reward for Columbus surviving their almost comically difficult path to a first ever continental final? Having to play that one-off match on the road at CF Pachuca in only the third one-game final played in the modern era of the tournament, and only the second played in a definitive home environment. (The 2020 final between Tigres and LAFC was played in Orlando Fla. before a mostly empty stadium on account of the pandemic.)
Pachuca have earned hosting rights based on having a superior record since the round of 16 began. The problem — which should’ve seemed like an obvious scenario that might arise when organizers arrived at this format — is that the strength of schedules over those three rounds isn’t exactly level, since Pachuca faced Costa Rica’s Herediano in the quarterfinals.
Path to the Final
Round of 16
Pachuca: 0-0 at Philadelphia Union, 6-0 vs. Philadelphia Union
Columbus: 1-0 at Houston Dynamo, 1-1 vs. Houston Dynamo
Quarterfinal
Pachuca: 5-0 vs. Herediano, 2-1 at Herediano
Columbus: 1-1 vs. Tigres UANL, 1-1 at Tigres UANL (4-3 pen)
Semifinal
Pachuca: 1-1 at Club America, 2-1 vs. Club America
Columbus: 2-1 vs. CF Monterrey, 3-1 at CF Monterrey
While Costa Rica’s top flight once produced teams that could truly contend for continental honors, it hasn’t fielded a tournament semifinalist since 2015, or a finalist since 2008. And the gap between Liga MX and MLS over the rest of the federation’s domestic top flights, including Costa Rica’s, is arguably the widest it has ever been.
You could make the argument that Pachuca might still be deserving of hosting the final based on the teams’ records against MLS and Liga MX teams only. Both Pachuca and Columbus have earned 50% wins and 50% draws in those contests, with Pachuca owning the better goal differential per 90 minutes at +1.75 against Columbus’ +0.67.
But if you believe Liga MX is still the superior league — and recent continental results suggest that — then you might still suggest the Crew have the more impressive resume, with a goal differential per 90 minutes at +0.75 against Mexican goes, compared with Pachuca’s +0.5 figure.
To be fair, there’s no obvious alternative here. The one-game final is a concession to the expanded field that saw 27 teams begin knockout play in February, up from the 16 in previous editions. Striking the two-leg final allowed that expansion while adding only one potential additional match to the schedule rather than two.
Further, the prospect of a neutral site final just isn’t financially viable. While Concacaf could probably sell enough tickets at a neutral site (most likely in the U.S.) to watch Mexico’s most popular clubs, of the regular continental contenders only Club America qualifies as one of those teams. Of the four semifinalists in this tournament, neither Monterrey, Pachuca or Columbus move the needle enough that thousands of their fans would travel thousands of miles to watch a final most of their supporters would still consider secondary to domestic honors.
And believe it or not, there is good news in the history books for Columbus. While MLS teams have only won one of the six modern Concacaf finals they’ve contested, they’ve played to a 1-3-1 record (W-D-L) in Concacaf final legs played on Mexican soil. It’s actually results in front of the home fans that doomed Real Salt Lake, the Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and LAFC.