The inaugural CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals took place this past week with Mexican teams continuing their dominance of the region’s premier cross-border club prize.
In 43 years of the antecedent Champions’ Cup tournament, Mexican clubs lifted the trophy on 24 occasions.
Atlante, Cruz Azul, and Santos Laguna remain alive this year in a draw that increasingly resembles last season’s UEFA tournament when it took English teams to eliminate English teams.
Mexico’s only casualty so far are Universidad Nacional—2-0 aggregate losers to Cruz Azul in the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals see Santos Laguna hosting Atlante while Cruz Azul travel to meet Puerto Rico Islanders—an unlikely opponent from United Soccer Leagues First Division, the second tier of professional soccer in North America.
Puerto Rico, along with their USL adversaries Montreal Impact, have breathed life into an otherwise stale competition that has failed to gather the public’s interest.
The Islanders, under the guidance of former Northern Ireland striker Colin Clarke, qualified for the first time in their six-year history via the Caribbean Championship.
Clarke’s men caused a huge shock in the preliminary round by defeating Costa Rican powerhouse Alajuelense 3-2 on aggregate—a team that won the Champions’ Cup as recently as 2004.
Their successful run continued when, after narrowly emerging from the group stages, they prevailed 3-1 on aggregate against Marathón of Honduras to reach the last four.
The Irishman has had mixed experiences in his managerial career in the U.S. over the last decade with abrupt stints at a number of lower level clubs.
His sole MLS appointment at FC Dallas ended in dismay at the end of 2006 when he was dismissed for failing to translate three years of promising regular season form into playoff success.
In two years with the Islanders, Clarke has transformed a team of USL also-rans into championship contenders. They finished top of the regular season table last year before losing the play-off title decider 2-1 against Vancouver Whitecaps.
Clarke’s popularity with the natives has escalated to the point that he now combines his club role with that of Puerto Rican national team manager.
Montreal appeared certain to become the second USL team to reach the semi-finals when they took a 2-1 half-time lead against Santos Laguna in Torreón to build a 4-1 aggregate advantage.
Santos’ Argentine striker Matias Vuoso scored twice as Montreal dangerously retreated toward their own penalty area, but the hosts still needed two goals as normal time expired.
Unbelievably, Colombian international Carlos Quintero supplied the required strikes in the third and fourth minutes of injury time to complete an amazing turnaround as the Canadians shriveled under relentless pressure.
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