2023 CONCACAF Champions League

[Goal_Kick]

Philadelphia and LAFC draw 1-1 in the first leg of their CCL semi-final.  

Caught the second half - not much doing, to be honest, until the last 10-15 minutes of the game when both teams scored.  The second leg is back in LA so, with the away goal, LAFC is in good shape to advance.

[narduch]

LAFC advance to the final with a 3-0 win last night 

[Kingston]

Not surprising.

I think they'll have a good chance against whichever Mexican team goes through.

[Watchmen]

7 hours ago, Kingston said:

Not surprising.

I think they'll have a good chance against whichever Mexican team goes through.

Discussion on MLS Extratime about how this LAFC is probably the best team to date. Double last year plus CCL this year. Currently they thought the best was TFC's domestic treble year.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Watchmen

[Kingston]

7 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Discuss on MLS Extratime about how this LAFC is probably the best team to date. Double last year plus CCL this year. Currently they thought the best was TFC's domestic treble year.

At the rate that MLS is improving overall, it is difficult to compare teams that are a number of years apart.  TFC certainly holds the title with the treble, though, even if 2017 TFC might not beat 2023 LAFC.  (In my completely objective and unbiased opinion, of course.)

[Goal_Kick]

A reminder that the first leg of the CCL between Leon and LAFC goes today:  7pm PDT on One Soccer.

I'll be interested in seeing what kind of crowd Leon gets for this game.  Their stadium holds about 31,000.

Without knowing much about Mexican soccer, gonna go out on a limb and say LAFC wins the Championship.

[Kent]

My internet was down tonight, until recently, so I couldn't watch, but it looks like Leon won the first leg 2-1.

[Goal_Kick]

58 minutes ago, Kent said:

My internet was down tonight, until recently, so I couldn't watch, but it looks like Leon won the first leg 2-1.

Indeed they did.  And a well-deserved win it was.  Leon dominated LAFC and LAFC was lucky that Leon only scored two goals.   Added to that, LAFC gets a goal in the last seconds of the game.

Entertaining first half.  Kind of a scrambly second half.  There was an announced 20,000 at the game.

The second leg goes Sunday at 6pm in LA.  The away goals tie-breaker does not apply in the Finals so LA's goal isn't quite as meaningful as it might have been.  But I still think LAFC walks away with the championship despite being outplayed today.

[Watchmen]

13 hours ago, Goal_Kick said:

Indeed they did.  And a well-deserved win it was.  Leon dominated LAFC and LAFC was lucky that Leon only scored two goals.   Added to that, LAFC gets a goal in the last seconds of the game.

Entertaining first half.  Kind of a scrambly second half.  There was an announced 20,000 at the game.

The second leg goes Sunday at 6pm in LA.  The away goals tie-breaker does not apply in the Finals so LA's goal isn't quite as meaningful as it might have been.  But I still think LAFC walks away with the championship despite being outplayed today.

It doesn't matter in the context of an away goal, but it matters deeply on the context of being badly out played away from home and only being down 1 goal. LAFC in the drivers seat now.

[narduch]

2nd leg is tonight at 9pm ET.

[cornerkick]

LAFC play today, then have another game on Wednesday, followed by Saturday.  And they played this past Wednesday.  Brutal schedule...4 games in 10 days?

[narduch]

14 minutes ago, cornerkick said:

LAFC play today, then have another game on Wednesday, followed by Saturday.  And they played this past Wednesday.  Brutal schedule...4 games in 10 days?

They also have to make up a lot of MLS games now.

They have played only 12 league matches and some teams are already at 17.

Edited June 5, 2023 by narduch

[Goal_Kick]

Well, that was unexpected.  Even after Leon scored first today I was expecting LAFC to come back and win it.

With the success our Men's National Team has had recently against Mexico and with Seattle winning the CCL last year, it was easy to forget just how good the Mexican League still is.

Congrats to Leon.

[Kent]

I totally missed that the game was on Sunday. I didn't care much who won, but I probably would have put it on if I knew it was happening. I just assumed it would be on Tuesday or Wednesday, as per usual.

[Ruffian]

16 hours ago, Goal_Kick said:

Well, that was unexpected.  Even after Leon scored first today I was expecting LAFC to come back and win it.

With the success our Men's National Team has had recently against Mexico and with Seattle winning the CCL last year, it was easy to forget just how good the Mexican League still is.

Congrats to Leon.

Before the goal LA was looking like the stronger team but after they got the goal the game seemed to slow down a lot.

[narduch]

Leon were eliminated in the Club World Cup by Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds today, 1-0

[Kent]

4 hours ago, narduch said:

Leon were eliminated in the Club World Cup by Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds today, 1-0

This tournament always seems like a big secret. I had no idea it was happening until I saw your comment.

That's 3 CWC's in a row that the CONCACAF team got eliminated after their first game. 2020 was the last time it didn't happen, and Tigres made it all the way to the final that year ("that year" actually being 2021 in February for the 2020 edition).