The crown of the best Concacaf team will be contested by teams from Mexico and other teams from the United States. On May 31 and June 4, Club Leon and LAFC will meet in the final of the Concachampions, the biggest tournament on the continent and which will give the winner a place in the World Cup in the coming years.
This will be the second in a row between Mexican and American teams, and the fourth between teams from these countries since the current format of the competition was established in the 2008-2009 season.
When is the grand final of Concachampion 2023 played?
The road to the title will begin on Wednesday, May 31 at 8:00 am (CT) when La Fiera hosts LAFC on the pitch at Estadio Leon in the first leg. The kicker will be announced at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on June 4th at 6:00 am
Where to see the 2023 Concachampion final?
Both matches can be seen on Fox 1 screens for Latin America, in addition to the TUDN signal in the United States. The rest of the world will be able to follow the action from the Concacaf Go confederation app.
Concachampios in the Club World Cup
The tournament champion will be the one who accompanies the club to the World Cup in 2023 and 2025.
The 2023 FIFA Club World Cup will be the last with the current format in which seven teams participate, the winners of each confederation plus the champion team of the host country, while from 2025 the competition will be made up of 32 participants.
Léon seeks to join the chosen members of the Mexicans
It is the first time that Leo participates in the Concacaf Champions League under its current format, so La Fiera reaches the title streak with the goal of joining the list of Mexican teams that have been crowned in their first final competition.
Concachampions contender in his first Mexican teams final
Leon in the 1993 Concacaf Champions Cup
Although this is his first final in the current form of the Champions League, Leo already knows what it is to see action in the fight for the country’s title, since in 1993 he reached the final home run of what was previously called the Champions Cup. CONCACAF, in which he got runner-up.
In that competition, the four finalist teams faced each other and the one with the most points was crowned the champion of the competition. The Guanajuato team played against Deportivo Saprissa from Costa Rica, CSD Municipal from Guatemala and SV Robinhood from Suriname.
In the first encounter they drew 2-2 against the Costa Rican team, then beat the Surinamese team 4-0 and finally drew against the dishonest Guatemalan team.
Leon was equal in points with Saprissa and Municipal, but the goal difference of +4 placed it in the second place, below Ticos, who had +8 and above the Guatemalan team that had left with +3.
Leon vs LAFC in the 2020 Concachampions
Although this is the first time these teams have met in the Concacaf Champions League finals, facing each other in this tournament is nothing new for them. In the 2020 edition, 16 rivals will be drawn to fight for passage to the quarterfinals.
On this occasion, La Fiera was the one who took the first duel 2-0 first in Guanajuato alone with scores from Jean Meneses and Angel Mena, Californians around the house by 3-0 with a double ab. captain Carlos Vela and one more from Diego Rossi to approach the next instance and leave the Mexicans on the road.
Later, the Los Angeles team would eliminate Cruz Azul in the quarterfinals and America in the semifinals to reach the fight for the championship against Tigres, however, the final against the cats 2-1.
Leon until the final of the 2023 Concachamps.
The Leonine team began the campaign against Tauro FC in the 16th round, a series in which they won a double 1-0 in the first leg in Panama with a goal from Iván Moreno and 2-1 in the second leg in Guanajuato with goals from Brian Rubio and Elia Hernandez.
At the quarter finals, they were defeated by the Violator Athletics, who finished with a score of 2-2 on aggregate, winning 5-0 at the Stadium Leone with goals from Víctor Dávila, Angel Mena, Lucas Di Yorio and Elías Hernández, and losing 2-1 in Haiti in the first leg , where Brian Rubio discounted green bellies.
In the semifinals, when they joined the UANL Tigres, the team led by Nicolas Larcamón did not ask for a start, losing 2-1 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leone. Chilean Víctor Dávila closed the distance with his finish.
The return match, held in Bajío, was 3-1 green in favor, the marks of Fidel Ambriz, Angel Mena and Urihel Frías contributed to overcome the adverse score and advance to the grand final by 4-3 aggregate.
In this event, Leo is the seventh team to lose the first game of the semifinals and recover to qualify for the next group. A condition that has not existed since the 2016-2017 season, when Tuzos del Pachuca lost in the first leg to FC Dallas 2-1 and to the second leg 3-1.
Víctor Dávila (Chile), Brian Rubio (Mexico), Elías Hernández (Mexico) and Angelus Mena were the top scorers for Leone with two goals each.
LAFC all the way to the final of the 2023 Concachampions.
The clash of the round of 16 Liga Deportiva Alajuelense put Costa Rica as its first rival in the competition. Steve Cherundolo’s team came into the series as the overwhelming favorite. In the first leg of the match played at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Costa Rica, the Americans were defeated 3-0 by Denis Bouanga. The said result allowed them to endure a 2-1 defeat in Los Angeles, where a goal scored by Mexican Carlos Vela allowed them to prevail 4-2 in the global score.
In the quarterfinals they defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps by an aggregate score of 6-0. The Californians prevailed in both matches 3-0. In the first match played in Canada, Denis Bouanga was on the scoreboard with a double and one more from Opoku Kwadwo, while in the second leg two goals from Mexican Carlos Vela and the other from José Cifuentes completed the burying of the series in California.
Already in the semifinals, the Los Angeles squad belonged to the Philadelphia Union, where they tied the goal in the first leg of Pennsylvania with a goal played by Kellyn Acosta. Back in Los Angeles it was all for the locals triumphing again 3-0 with scores from Timothy Tillman, Kwadwo Opoku and Denis Bouanga.
This latest triumph marked the first time that a Major League Soccer (MLS) team achieved victory in a semifinal match with a score of 3-0, becoming the first American team to score four consecutive goals in this event.
LAFC wins 3-0:
The score of 3-0 was the most that LAFC has repeated in their two participations in the Concachampion since five years.
