🦁-⚫️🟡 Form, not flash, sets up León-LAFC CCL final
Instead of a team on a crazy cup run, two of the region's most consistent teams will decide the continental title.
Tigres have the stars. They have the payroll. They pop up pretty often in highlights. They often deserve to suck up lots of the oxygen in the room.
But the CCL semifinal between Tigres and León was decided by the team in better form, not the flashiest one.
León is having a better season than Tigres, finishing the campaign above the northern side in the table and regularly putting better performances on the field. And it played a better game Wednesday night.
The first 20 minutes from Nicolas Larcamon’s side were impressive. The hunger and desire to get through to its first international final since the 1993 Concacaf Champions’ Cup four-team final round robin1 was clear.
It was rewarded with a 10th-minute screamer by Fidel Ambriz and a 15th minute goal by Angel Mena that was scored in a scramble that saw the Ecuador international beat Tigres center back Igor Lichnovsky to the ball.
After going into the halftime break without a shot on goal, Tigres finally showed some passion in the second 45 minutes, with the high point substitute Raymundo Fulgencio’s goal in the 68th minute that tied the aggregate at three goals each.
Yet, León wasn’t done making the most of scrappy opportunities, and Adonis Frias swept in a ball that fell to him at the back post in the 79th minute, the goal that eventually would stand as the winner for the hosts.
“I feel we played the game really well. I was talking with the guys before the game about how it was an historic match,” Larcamon told TUDN afterward. “The way to reach the goal was just knowing the way in which we know how to play soccer, with an intention. with the individual quality we have and above all the union we showed when things got complicated with that goal and responded as a team."
León now turns its attention back to league play, hosting Atletico San Luis in a repechaje match Sunday, before eventually meeting LAFC in the CCL final.
The reigning MLS Cup champion booked its place in the final Tuesday with a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Union that was both closer than the scoreline showed and always felt like LAFC’s game to lose - thanks not only to a strong first-leg performance but also Timothy Tillman’s early goal to calm the nerves.
While plenty of fans were expecting to see a rematch of the 2020 title match, this time in front of the Libres y Lokos and the 3252 instead of in an empty stadium in Orlando, León had other ideas.
LAFC, too, is the form team from the other side of the bracket. It currently boasts a 2.25 points per game mark in MLS, undefeated in eight matches.
That doesn’t always happen in cup competitions when a subpar team can go on a heater and surprise everyone by lifting a trophy. It definitely doesn’t always happen in a tournament as erratic and weird as the Concacaf Champions League.
“We are ecstatic to be in the final of this competition. It’s a competition that was the highlight of our calendar as well as the MLS for sure in the first half of the season,” said LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo on Tuesday. “So far, we’ve accomplished the goals we’ve set for ourselves, and there’s one more to go.”
LAFC is a good enough team, it seems, it didn’t even have to choose between early season domestic success and a deep run in the CCL.
It’s not exactly fair to accuse the Philadelphia Union of being a team that’s all sizzle. Jim Curtin’s sneaker selections draw the eye, but on the field the team matches its city’s workmanlike attitude, in no small part since lots of the players on the team are homegrown products from Philly.
Yet, having won just one of its last five heading into the semifinal second leg, the Union didn’t have much claim on being the team currently playing better.
Part of the fun of a cup, be it the FA Cup, the NCAA basketball tournaments or the CCL, is seeing those underdogs break through.
Yet, fans can settle in for what not only will be two of the teams currently playing best in the region, but a pair of teams who consistently have been among their countries’ best. Instead of a 2020 final rematch, it’s a 2020 Round of 16 rematch.
That series, too, had amazing crowds filled with both local and traveling supporters, it had a huge comeback, it had five goals. It had everything you’d want in a final.
With two clubs playing some of Concacaf’s best soccer, here’s hoping we get another thrilling series.
León also won the 2021 Leagues Cup…take that as you will