🏆 Can the Philadelphia Union give neutrals a CCL final to get excited about?

It's #MLS4RSL but just hoping for something interesting

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Greetings from somewhere between Newark, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!

I’m headed to see the second leg of the Concacaf Champions League semifinal between the Philadelphia Union and Club América. The drama in the game, as it so often is in this tournament, comes from seeing if an MLS team can hang with Mexico’s best.

It’s not just that question, though, which we’ve largely already answered. It’s also about seeing what the Union can do down 2-0 on aggregate and seeing if they can add any flavor to the CCL final. If not, the question is if even the Leagues Cup, in its second-ever edition, can manage to have a more fascinating matchup for those interested only in MLS vs. Liga MX contests now that the Sounders landed in the final.

It may sound silly, but think about the drama even in the world’s best club competitions. While this year’s Copa Libertadores still has exciting games left (please read my pieces for CopaLibertadores.com when they are published) the most interesting thing happening is Barcelona, a team from Ecuador, still being in the tournament that otherwise has only Brazilian clubs.

If América makes it through to play Monterrey or Cruz Azul, that’s a game we watch all the time.

The Union against La Maquina? Now, that not only sounds like an Upton Sinclair book, it also sounds like something a run-of-the-mill soccer fan might flip on the TV to check out.

América earned a 2-0 victory in the first leg despite a hard-nosed showing from a Union team with a smart game plan it largely executed but fell short of pulling off to perfection.

Now, América wants to make sure it won’t fall short of the final as it did last season when LAFC ended its CCL dreams in the Orlando bubble.

“It’s a continental semifinal. We’re going into the return leg with all the respect and humility it deserves,” América manager Santiago Solari said Tuesday. “There’s nothing defined right now. Tomorrow, we have to work had to make what we got in the first leg worth it. We’re focused on tomorrow.”

The Union are running into América at the wrong time. Las Aguilas are yet to lose in the Liga MX campaign and are coming off a 2-0 victory against Mazatlán. The only doubt that comprehensive victory left experts and fans of the team? If it was the best showing of the season.

The strength of América undoubtedly is at the back, where the Mexico City squad has allowed just three goals in eight domestic matches. Most fans will recognize the curly locks and standout saves of Guillermo Ochoa but in front of him Ema Aguilera and Bruno Valdez have developed into one of the league’s top center-back pairings. It’s tough enough to get through to them with Pedro Aquino living up to his All-Star status so far this tournament in the middle of the midfield.

While the Union do have strong attackers and, look, we all know things can get weird in CCL matches, that’s not exactly what a team in search of at least two goals (without conceding) wants to hear.

“We have an uphill battle, but with our fans behind us at home, the key becomes not conceding and pushing for that first goal," Union coach Jim Curtin said in a news conference Tuesday. "It’d shift the pressure to them. Our strategy is to just be ourselves at home. We know that we’re capable of scoring more than a goal at this building, we’re capable of keeping a clean sheet. That is our belief, that is our goal.”

So, what if the Union don’t reach that lofty goal and we end up with the ninth of 13 finals in the CCL era that have pitted a Mexican team against another Mexican team?

It’s still possible to have a thrilling CCL final with a pair of Mexican teams (the 2016-17 final with Pachuca topping Tigres comes to mind): The best case for the neutral may be a Mexico City showdown pitting América and Cruz Azul in a Clasico Joven similar to the Clasico Regio final of 2019. In this very year we had a fantastic final in a Concacaf competition between teams from the same league.

“Historically, it’s a tournament that has been dominated by Mexican football. It’s going to take a long time for the MLS or Central American teams to reach Mexican football, not just win one,” said Ochoa, the América goalkeeper. “On the way, you can run into Mexican teams at any time, including in a final because we all know the potential this tournament has.”

The Union, of course, will do everything they can to fly the flag for themselves and try to become the first MLS team to lift the CCL trophy.

It’s their job to win. It’s not their job to make MLS respectable.

That’s the job of the owners and sporting officials at MLS who see their leagues’ clubs fall just short over and over again but choose not to take the steps required to regularly top their Mexican rivals when it matters.