🏆 Will familiarity breed contempt in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals?

Intra-city matchups & familiar faces abound in the final eight.

Efrain Juarez is a bit intense. The day he took over as Pumas manager, the club published a video in which he told players that to become champions they would need to “shit blood”.

After Pumas’ 2-1 come-from-behind victory over León on Sunday, he doubled down.

“I’ve had the opportunity and fortune as a player and manager to lift trophies. I’ve also had the bad luck to lose many,” he said. “The reality is that, yes, that’s how you have to suffer, to put yourself into it and if you have to shit blood, you’ve got to shit blood.”

While unconventional, Juarez’s methods have worked for him so far. He became the hottest Mexican coach on the market when he won the league and the cup with Atlético Nacional in Colombia and then left, taking over his former youth club Pumas in March.

Will Juarez’s blood be boiling Wednesday night as he leads Pumas into a Concacaf Champions Cup contest against his former club the Vancouver Whitecaps? Whether or not the former Mexico midfielder sees it as a revenge spot against a club where he spent a year toward the end of his career, it will be one of two series that pit a Mexican team against an MLS rival.

Before Juarez’s arrival, Pumas looked to be the ‘Atlantic editor in the government group chat’ of the Mexican teams. While América, Cruz Azul, Tigres and even Chivas were finding decent form, Pumas were treading water and didn’t really belong. Now under new leadership, they may have the edge in a series against the Vancouver Whitecaps, though the Canadian club’s win over Monterrey at the Estadio BBVA should fill it with confidence that it can get past this round as well.

The other, Tigres against LA Galaxy, has lost much of its luster as the Galaxy continue to struggle in MLS play. They are winless in six matches with just two points thus far.

The reigning champions lost several key contributors in the 2024 run to injury and also bid farewell to many regulars because of salary cap constraints. They were able to get by Herediano in the previous round thanks to a 4-1 win in the second leg of the tie. Tonight, they’ll need a great performance against a Tigres team that was flying high but just fell 3-0 to Club América to have any real hope of moving through to the semifinals.

While familiar, the MLS vs. MLS and Liga MX vs. Liga MX quarterfinals have their own intrigue.

Inter Miami vs. LAFC feels like a game we might see often in MLS, being two of the most-talked about teams in the league for the last several years. In fact, this will be just their fourth meeting all-time and second since Lionel Messi arrived in South Florida. He had two assists in the September 2023 contest, a 3-1 Inter Miami win at BMO Stadium.

Fresh off a Clásico Nacional series, América now faces crosstown rival Cruz Azul in a Clásico Joven series for the right to play in the CCC semifinal. Cruz Azul has a ‘visit’ from Pumas dropped into the middle of the series, though it will be played in Puebla since Cruz Azul is utilizing Pumas’ home field at the UNAM for this tournament and can’t have an accidental Pumas home game.

Unlike the recently founded MLS teams, América and Cruz Azul have been meeting since the 1960s. The most recent Liga MX semifinal and the controversial final in the tournament before that provide plenty of motivation for La Maquina to get past América, while Las Aguilas have set their sights on international glory this year after winning back-to-back-to-back league titles.

It’s hard not to say this round would be more intriguing were the matchups Inter Miami vs. América and LAFC vs. Cruz Azul - but all four teams will work to make sure those matchups (or ones like it) come together in the final.

For now, neutral observers of the CCC will hope the familiarity of regional rivalries or the intensity of Juarez and his charges will lead to those little moments of bitterness on the field that so often turn two-legged ties into must-watch matches.

These matches should have plenty of intensity - though hopefully everyone’s blood stays where it belongs.