Liga MX's Concacaf Champions Cup dominance of MLS continues
With Toluca and Tigres set to square off in the Concacaf Champions Cup final, a Liga MX club once again will be the continental champion.
As the years go by, the Seattle Sounders' 2022 triumph in the Concacaf Champions Cup increasingly looks like more of an anomaly than a sea change. The Sounders' win snapped a series of 16 straight continental champions hailing from Mexico, and many MLS fans − and many in the league office − hoped it would signal that teams from the U. S.
and Canada were set to win additional continental trophies. How many Concacaf Champions Cup finals have Liga MX teams won in the modern era? Instead, Liga MX is starting another streak, with this year's final confirmed to be taking place between Toluca and Tigres.
That will mark the fourth consecutive Mexican champion and make it 20 of the past 21 teams who win the top club tournament in the region hailing from Mexico. It also means that all but one champion since 2008-09, considered the modern era when the governing body made key changes to further professionalize the tournament, has been from Liga MX. Toluca erased LAFC star Son Heung-min from the second leg of their series and notched an emphatic 4-0 win at home Wednesday, May 6 .
The Diablos Rojos will host the final in the Estadio Nemesio Diez, nicknamed La Bombonera, thanks to better CCC results than fellow finalist Tigres. Tigres were able to secure 1-0 wins over Nashville SC both in Tennessee and at home in Nuevo León to return to the final for the first time since they lifted the trophy in 2020. One MLS club made the final in each of the last three years, with LAFC, the Columbus Crew and the Vancouver Whitecaps all falling short in the final − which has been a one-off match since 2024 after years of being played as a two-legged series.