LAFC faces Tigres UANL with Campeones Cup at stake – Orange County Register

The Los Angeles Football Club began the year with six ways to win trophies.

Four unfulfilled chances down, option No. 5, the simplest of the bunch, comes Wednesday night.

Mexican powerhouse Tigres UANL, the Liga MX champion of champions, visits BMO Stadium for the Campeones Cup.

The one-and-done competition, with roots in the joint Mexico-U.S.-Canada bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is the fifth meeting between defending champions from North America’s top leagues.

Major League Soccer is 3-1 against Liga MX in the format. As it happens, only Tigres won at the home of the reigning MLS Cup winner, doing so in Toronto in 2018.

Defeating Pachuca to become Liga MX’s Campeón de Campeones at Dignity Health Sports Park in June made Tigres the best team in Mexico, putting them in line to play LAFC for a second time.

Three years ago, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clubs met without fans on a neutral field in Orlando, where Tigres captured the CONCACAF Champions League final with a late rally.

Second-year LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo, who was coaching U15s in Germany in 2020, said it will take the very best from the Black & Gold to have a chance.

“But if we’re not,” he warned, “it could be a long evening.”

Slotted into the final stretch of a season that has produced long evenings in three of four high-stakes encounters against Liga MX squads, the Campeones Cup is a reminder of what winning brings and how fleeting it can be.

“I think it’s really important when we started the season we said we had many options to win titles,” LAFC captain Carlos Vela said. “Now the time is getting to the end.”

After the winner is crowned following 90 minutes and a penalty kick shootout, if necessary, LAFC’s last pathway to a trophy would be repeating as MLS Cup champion, which hasn’t happened since the Galaxy did it in 2012.

Rebounding from a three-match losing streak, LAFC is now unbeaten in as many league games, pulling consecutive scoreless draws on a difficult trip to St. Louis and Philadelphia following a 4-2 triumph against the Galaxy.

Like LAFC, Tigres made the most of a recent derby, beating city rival FC Monterrey 3-0 on Saturday as the opening half of the current Liga MX calendar unfolds.

“They’re hunters without the ball and then with the ball, they have a lot of individual quality that can change the game in any moment,” LAFC midfielder Kellyn Acosta said. “They’re in this game for a reason.”

Holding off Tigres will require significant improvements from LAFC’s two-leg CONCACAF Champions League final no-show against Club León, and doing what it takes to maintain leads like they could not last month against Monterrey in Leagues Cup (losing from a winning position for the only time in 21 games this year).

Accomplishing that would be a “big moment” for an LAFC side hoping to confidently march into the MLS postseason as it did in 2022, Vela said, “in a good spot to fight for more things.

“That is what we worked for. All the work we did in the past season. All the work we did this season trying to win titles. Again, we are in a good spot to have that chance to win and get a trophy.”

TIGRES UANL AT LAFC

When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.

Where: BMO Stadium

TV/Radio: Apple TV+ – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, 980 AM