May 2022 | Page 3

In the SCCL era , no team from Major League Soccer has ever won the Concacaf Champions . Only two teams from MLS have ever claimed Concacaf crowns , with DC United winning the 1998 Concacaf Champions Cup and the Los Angeles Galaxy achieving the same feat in 2000 .
In fact , one has to go back to 2005 for the last time a team from outside of Mexico were crowned Concacaf champions ; that club was Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica , who coincidentally defeated Pumas in that year ’ s final .
Prior to the 2011-12 CCL , no team from MLS had ever won on Mexican soil . The first side to do it was FC Dallas , who defeated Pumas in a group stage game in Mexico City on August 17 , 2011 .
Six days later , the Sounders etched their names into the CCL record books by becoming the second MLS team to win in Mexico when they collected all three points in a 1 x 0 win at Monterrey .
One year later in the 2012-13 edition , Seattle accomplished something that no MLS team had ever done : Win a CCL knockout round series against a Liga MX opponent .
In the quarterfinals of that edition , the Sounders were paired with Tigres . Staring at a 1 x 0 deficit following Tigres ’ victory in the first leg in Mexico , Seattle ’ s comeback task got a lot tougher when they fell behind 1 x 0 at halftime in the second leg in Seattle .
But a night headed toward disaster instead , took a dramatic turn in the second half and ended magical for the home fans , who saw their team score three goals to earn a 3-1 win in the match and a historic 3 x 2 victory on aggregate , giving MLS their first ever Knockout round win against Liga
NOW , MORE THAN NINE YEARS LATER , HISTORY ONCE AGAIN BECKONS FOR THE MEN IN GREEN AND BLUE , AS THE SOUNDERS ADDED TO THEIR LEGACY AND BECAME THE “ FIRST MLS TEAM ” TO WIN THE CCL .
The two sides played to a thrilling 2 x 2 draw on April 27 in the first leg in Mexico City in which Pumas forward , JUAN DINENNO , scored a pair of goals and was matched by Seattle ,
NICOLAS LODEIRO , who tallied a pair of his own .
In the SCCL era , Liga MX sides have fared very well in the away leg of the Final versus MLS teams , as Monterrey in 2010-11 , Club America in 2014-15 and Chivas in 2018 all earned victories in their respective series .
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