By: Michael Crampton
The tournament that brought the greatest highs of Toronto FC’s brief existence is set to begin again. For the fourth consecutive year Toronto FC will represent Canadian club football in its region’s club championship and compete with some of the elite teams of North and Central America for continental glory. Shorn of the qualifying stage in a re-organization designed to lessen the number of games and reduce travel demands, the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League is set to kickoff for Toronto FC this Wednesday evening with Group 1’s opening match versus Salvadoran side CD Aguila.
While the move to direct qualification to the group stage for all 24 participants theoretically made the tournament more open, the practical effect for Canada’s representative has been to make their route to the knockout stages shorter but, in all likelihood, vastly more difficult. Rather than competing with another MLS side or quality Central American team for second place in a four team group the Reds, to advance, must now do something that has never happened in CCL history: eliminate a Mexican team before the knockout stages. Of course, just to add extra spice, the team that stands in their way is the same Santos Laguna side that eliminated TFC in the semi-finals of the 2011-2012 tournament last spring.
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To put the task ahead of Toronto in context it’s worth remembering one in important point: no non-Mexican team has ever eliminated a Mexican club since the inception of the CCL in 2008. Not in the qualifying stage, the group stage, or the knockout stage. Not after Montreal and Puerto Rico’s near shocks of Santos and Cruz Azul respectively. Not during Real Salt Lake’s run to the final or Toronto’s to the semis. There have been some notable upsets over the past few years such as TFC’s win at home over Cruz Azul or FC Dallas’ historic win in Mexico City over Pumas. In the end though the Mexican teams have always stood strong, made it through, and maintained their record of exclusively eliminating each other before one is left to be crowned champion. Toronto even making it out of their group would literally be a history making achievement.
Of course, all of this will be academic if the Reds can’t get results against the club from San Miguel, El Salvador. A former champion of CONCACAF back in the days of the old Champions Cup in 1976 CD Aguila are making their first foray into the modern iteration of the regional championship as reigning Clausura champions in their domestic league. Finishing second in the league table they defeated L.A. Firpo and Isidiro Metapan – both familiar names to dedicated CCL watchers – in the playoffs to win their first domestic honours in six years.
Consecutive home wins over Motagua, Arabe Unido, Real Esteli, and Tauro FC during the past two Champions League campaigns likely mean that victories over Central American teams have become considered relatively routine by Toronto supporters. Regardless, this is not a team to be taken lightly. As FC Dallas learned, much to their embarrassment, even a real outsider (and team written off by virtually everyone) like Tauro FC can still be a potential banana skin in a more forgiving CCL format. Any slip up at home to Aguila could be disastrous to Toronto’s chances before the tournament has barely even gotten going. If fans want to have hope, or even entertain the possibility of eliminating Santos Laguna, the first step is to earn three points on Wednesday night.
At least for once the priorities of the club are in no doubt. While the faintest of slim hopes of a playoff push resurrection still exist in league play the new format of the CCL means that TFC has little reason not to devote maximum resources to the Champions League. After playing Aguila on Wednesday night the club does not play another mid-week CCL fixture, also at home, until August 28th. This is no longer the epic journey of summer 2010 and 2011 spent shuttling across the continent while trying to simultaneously manage the late stages of a league campaign. Instead, it’s a mere four games over three months and a chance, however long, to make history.