Champions Concacaf, the final: Seattle beats the Pumas

For the first time in the (not very long) history of the competition, a US team wins the Champions Concacaf. The Seattle Sounders managed to do so, who beat the Mexicans of Pumas 3-0 in the final in the second leg, after the 2-2 first leg in Mexico City. The double from the 31-year-old Peruvian (with Croatian passport) Raul Ruidiaz was decisive.

Until 2008-09 the competition was called the Champions Cup, it saw the participation of only 8 teams and two of the MLS had won it: the DC United in ’98 and the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000. In 2005 the expansion to 24, and then dropped to 16 in 2007.

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68,761 showed up at Lumen Field to attend the second leg final, a record for the Seattle facility. Rudiaz’s first goal came in the 45th minute, with a deflected shot from a Pumas defender. At 80 ‘the doubling on the counterattack, with Nicolas Lodeiro who finally closed the accounts 8 minutes later. The Sounders, whose owners also include comedian Drew Carey, hugely popular host of the “The Price is Right” prize game, will thus represent the North American continent at the next world club championship, the first MLS team to do so, and close a triumphal Champions, which saw them win all the matches from the round of 16 to the final. Before them, they had failed at the last act Real Salt Lake (2011), Montreal (2015), Toronto (2018) and Los Angeles FC (2020).