🦁 - Can Olimpia make CCL history?
The Honduran side must protect a nine-month-old aggregate lead to get into the semis.
The Concacaf Champions League is back! I’ll be writing a lot but don’t want to overload your inbox, so in addition to today’s piece, look for a newsletter after each round. We might also do a live chat if there’s interest. Tweet me if you’re into it @ArnoldcommaJon.
The teams still alive in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League now are in Florida, set to play out the finale of the competition in a bubble-environment and cap off a tournament COVID-19 threatened to leave unfinished.
The nature of the timing, though, means every team comes in looking to wash the taste of disappointment out of their mouths: Cruz Azul losing a 4-0 aggregate lead in the Liga MX semifinals, LAFC falling in the first round of the playoffs, América being eliminated by its biggest rival, Atlanta United after … whatever that 2020 season was … Every team, that is, except for Olimpia.
The last time the Honduran champion lost was to Motagua four days after it defeated the Montreal Impact 2-1 in the first leg of the CCL quarterfinal on March 10, giving it an aggregate lead it will defend tonight, nine months later.
It’s not like Olimpia has been inactive, either. In addition to the resumption of its domestic league, Los Leones also have been in the Concacaf League trying to qualify for next year’s CCL. They have a nine-match winning streak and are unbeaten in 16 matches, not losing once since restarting in September.
“The good thing is we’ve continued playing,” the club’s Argentine manager Pedro Troglio said in a news conference conducted via Zoom on Monday. “Of the eight teams that are here, I think we’re the only ones who played two days ago in the local tournament. I think Montreal comes in 22 days after being eliminated, working but not competing.
“We’ve got a 2-1 advantage (with an away goal), and we have to keep that to be able to advance. We’re preparing with the same enthusiasm, as though we were playing back in March when the tournament was suspended.”
Far from overlooking Olimpia, Troglio’s opposite number, Thierry Henry, said the Impact have been paying close attention to what Olimpia is doing in the league, including the weekend’s 3-1 win over Marathón in one of Olimpia’s clásicos.
“This team is a team that doesn’t lose a lot. That gives you a lot of confidence when you’re not losing,” said Henry, a man who knows a fair bit about unbeaten runs. “But we have to believe in what we have and can do.”
Henry described Olimpia’s style as “very physical and direct. They’re very good at what they do,” something that will come as no surprised to the seasoned viewer of Concacaf matches. But Troglio has built a side that can play beyond the stereotypes of a brutish Honduran team, though whether or not that’s in his best interest with a lead to protect in this tie is up for debate.
Not in doubt is the quality of Troglio’s performances with Olimpia, which has put him in consideration for bigger jobs, including a link last month to the Chilean national team. For now, his focus is on getting the Tegucigalpa team into the semifinals.
“It’s a very important moment for me, the team and the Olimpia fans,” said Troglio, whose team was greeted at the airport by an enthusiastic group of supporters. “We didn’t come here just to pass through or anything, but rather to improve on the current good form the team is in and get to the next phase to put us into the top four.
“From there, in one game, we all can dream.”
The fans at the airport (and present at away games in Seattle and Montreal this tournament), the big-time hire from Argentina and even the first-leg win are reminders that Olimpia is a ‘big team.’
This is a club founded more than 100 years ago that still enjoys enormous popularity in its home country and can point to a pair of Concacaf triumphs in the past - winning the Champions’ Cup, the predecessor to the Champions League, in 1972 and 1988.
And, in 2000, Olimpia took advantage of a tournament that, like this year’s edition, required no in-competition travel, beating Toluca 1-0 and Pachuca 4-0 on the way to finishing runner-up to the LA Galaxy in a Champions’ Cup that took place over six days in Southern California.
That was supposed to qualify both clubs for the 2001 FIFA Club World Championship, which never happened as FIFA’s marketing partner ISL Worldwide, dealt with financial troubles and FIFA pulled the plug before later relaunching the competition as the Club World Cup.
Two decades later, it would be an achievement simply for Olimpia to become the first Central American team to get into the semifinals since a pair of Costa Rican clubs did it in 2014-15.
It won’t be easy, but Olimpia can take confidence in more than just its form. The Impact are missing several attacking weapons, with Bojan not making the trip after his contract expired and Maxi Urruti and Lassi Lappalainen missing out because of injuries.
Olimpia also have some questions up front. Los Albos sent forward Jorge Benguché, who scored in the first leg, on loan to Boavista this summer and Michaell Chirinos still isn’t fit to go a full 90 minutes, though he could be an option off the bench. Still, Eddie Hernandez is coming off a hat trick against Marathón and Jerry Bengtson has risen to the occasion in international play before.
The biggest question, really, is whether or not Olimpia can continue its sensational form even when facing an opponent outside the country or if it’s simply feasting on minnows in Honduras and will go back to small-fish status when playing an MLS team with a much larger budget.
Olimpia enters the match with the advantage and is on the verge of making history as the first Honduran team in the CCL semifinals, and Troglio has no doubt his squad can deal with the biggest stage it has been put on in nine months.
“I’m not worried,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot with the squad, we know what we’re playing for. This is soccer, and you can win, draw or lose but there’s definitely something in this team that doesn’t give up. It’s effort and sacrifice.”
What about the other matches?
Especially after Pumas’ 4-0 second-leg win last week against Cruz Azul, I suppose it’s worth noting that Atlanta United does have a chance to turn the tables against América, but it seems so unlikely and Atlanta seem so ready to hit reset that it’s tough to look forward to that contest too much.
LAFC-Cruz Azul will be all about redemption. That loss to Pumas was embarrassing for La Maquina, and it now heads to Orlando without Robert Dante Siboldi, the manager who parted ways with the team after the shocking semifinal.
You could see the players rallying together in a tournament in which Cruz Azul traditionally has avoided the same gaffes that have shadowed it in Liga MX play. But you could also see them essentially folding and getting out of town as the club prepares to bring in a new manager and, presumably, at least some new players while directors continue posting videos on social media with grandiose but vague promises about the club improving.
LAFC is in a much better spot, though most clubs are. Testing the back line and a second-choice goalkeeper, with Jesus Corona out because of COVID, early and often should be the MO for Bob Bradley’s squad.It’s tough to remember much of anything that happened in the first legs of these matches, but that late goal from Eduardo Vargas, who no longer is with Tigres, at Red Bull Arena gives Tigres a big cushion. It could be tough for NYCFC to overcome both Tigres’ ‘home field’ and the players missing because of positive COVID tests and contact tracing.