🏆 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup preview
Will Lionel Messi lift the trophy? Will Sergio Ramos? Will ... Darlington Nagbe? Let's look ahead!
The Concacaf Champions Cup is back, with the journey to the June 1 final beginning tonight in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, as Haitian team Real Hope ‘hosts’ Cruz Azul at a neutral site.
We already learned about the smallest minnow in the tournament:
🇭🇹 How Haiti's Concacaf Champions Cup entrant Real Hope provides ... just that
Now, let’s take a look at the tournament as a whole, and who might lift the trophy. (Sorry, Real Hope. I’m counting you out as a title contender.)
Tough not to look ahead
Whisper it if you must, but Concacaf’s management of this tournament has been good in the last few years. The tournament kicks off this week with some first legs that are for you reading this and me writing it. But as the tournament goes on, the casuals will start to get lured in.
The first two weeks see Liga MX clubs meeting massive underdogs, with CanPL squads and teams from the Caribbean trying to hang with teams that have many times their budgets.
It’s a nice appetizer for more competitive First Round matchups that come the next week:
Gaming things out a bit more, we have a likely Clásico Nacional in the next round, which would be the second year running that Chivas and América meet in the CCC. There are some consecutive big MLS throwdowns in this quadrant of the bracket, where the Columbus Crew await the winner of LAFC-Colorado Rapids (a Leagues Cup rematch) and Inter Miami or Sporting KC - or Cavalier of Jamaica riding high after a big-ol’ upset.
It may be a slow burn, but this tournament will ratchet up as more and more people realize it’s happening.
A ‘drought’ for the big boys
Part of the fun of the stakes in this tournament is that no Liga MX grande - América, Chivas, Pumas or Cruz Azul - has won the tournament in the last six editions. Yet, because of their performance in league play, all four of those clubs are in this competition.
Club América looks the most likely team to snap its decade-long CCC drought, entering after back-to-back-to-back Liga MX titles and a deep run in last year’s competition before bowing out to boogey-team Pachuca in the semifinals.
They haven’t drastically beefed up their squad, but they haven’t really needed to. They’re still getting great results domestically, sitting atop the Liga MX table even after deploying their reserves in the first two jornadas and cruising to victories. It’s a tournament of focus for Las Aguilas, who would’ve loved to secure a FIFA Club World Cup spot instead of a team like Pachuca or León but are left to schedule friendly matches against MLS teams and Liga MX rivals in the U.S.
Cruz Azul would’ve been a favorite before Martin Anselmi’s abrupt departure to take over Porto. The squad he helped assemble is still strong, and a date with underdog Real Hope will help buy time to get things in order. Unlike América, though, a domestic title would mean much more. We’ll have to see the direction the club opts to take as fallout from the Argentine’s departure continues.
Pumas made the final more recently than any of the other three grandes. Their squad doesn’t currently look constructed to win the title. Neither does Chivas, the last winner, which has never been the same since Matias Almeyda’s departure shortly after the trophy lift.
There’s no collective effort for the grandes. They’re all in it for themselves. But all four teams will have the competition circled for their own reasons and look to make a return to the podium.
The Messi factor
There were two types of people after the CCC draw: Those who thought it was a disaster for Concacaf’s potential marketing of world champion Lionel Messi taking part in the competition and those who thought it was rigged in favor of Concacaf’s potential marketing of Messi taking part in the competition.
The big intrigue, no matter the material your hat is lined with, is a potential return to Monterrey. Last season, Rayados knocked Inter Miami out of the competition at the quarterfinal stage, meaning Messi’s only two matchups in continental play were a Leagues Cup final rematch against Nashville and the series with Rayados.
In addition to the excitement around a rematch and a return to one of Mexico’s most soccer-obsessed cities, there now would be the added attention from European media outlets as the old Barcelona crew meet a former Real Madrid foe.
That would have to wait until the semifinals, however, meaning it’s possible for either team to hit a speed bump along the way that keeps them from crossing.
There are other intrigues along the way. Should Inter Miami get past Sporting Kansas City in the first round, it would head to Kingston, Jamaica. There could be a cross-country battle between LAFC and Inter Miami for a place in the semifinals.
Nothing is guaranteed, not even Messi’s presence in the matches. Also, while we expect Inter Miami to be a good team - perhaps even better than last year’s edition that won the MLS Supporters’ Shield - it is a team that has had to make roster modifications and comes in with a manager that has never managed a club.
It does feel that Messi will not only take part but also be a big factor in the tournament, with all eyes on him like they are in any city, stadium or hotel he shows up at.
Really, who’s the dark horse?
I’m the quirky, fun Concacaf story guy, and I know you’re expecting a quirky, fun Concacaf pick. I don’t really have one.
Like, sure. Alajuelense should be a team that causes problems. The back-to-back Copa Centroamericana champions want to put themselves in with the big boys, taking FIFA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to defend their belief that they should be in the Club World Cup.
And they’re undefeated through five matches in 2025, but looking at their squad it’s tough to see how they manage a path that could include Pumas, Rayados and whoever comes out of the MLS-centric quadrant - maybe Inter Miami and LAFC.
Beyond that, has anyone really been playing well enough? Herediano won the Costa Rican title over LDA and, as of writing, is undefeated as well (they rematch their controversial final Wednesday). Motagua keeps settling for draws in the Honduran league. Antigua looks decent to start the Mauricio Tapia era, but trying to get used to a new coach seems to have made the defense a bit leaky.
But it’s now been two decades since the last time a team from outside North America won the title, and only once has the winner come from outside Mexico. A win from a Central American or Caribbean team looks less likely, not more than it was five or ten years ago.
That’s not to say there won’t be some great moments for the little guy, and of course we’ll talk about them and try to tell their stories here.
The CCC is back. Tell a friend, and enjoy the games!
As an FC Dallas fan, I don't have a MLS horse in this race. I also follow Club America, so my rooting interests will mostly lie there. Outside of that, I'll probably do what comes natural to me and root for the underdogs. It would be nice to see a club from one of the smaller nations lift the cup.
In terms of being able to tell who from Central America is playing well enough, are their league matches even enough to tell us anything? If they were facing other Central American heavy hitters, sure, but I'm skeptical that even, like, 7-0 performances by Herediano or Motagua against a team I've never heard of can really say anything.