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TSN Soccer Analyst

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On the surface, you don't have to look at the CONCACAF Champions League for very long to think of it as little more than a deeply flawed tournament.

Bringing together clubs from across such a large region at a time when domestic leagues are at drastically different points of their seasons has created challenges that haven’t been solved since the tournament evolved from the Champions Cup in 2008.

At the top of that list has been an inability by organizers to find a middle ground that would give Major League Soccer’s best teams a fair fight against the heavyweight super powers of the region from Mexico’s Liga MX. They’ve searched long and hard to find an answer, but the variance in league schedules has made it impossible to find a solution that suits all involved.

This year the compromise has led to another change in format. The group stage has been abolished, replaced by a knockout-style tournament taking place over a more condensed timeframe from Feb. 20 to April 26.

Toronto FC, winners of the last two Canadian Championships, are one of five MLS teams with a berth in the tournament’s last 16. (Seattle Sounders FC, New York Red Bulls, FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids have also qualified).

It would be easy for these clubs to regard the competition lightly, taking advantage of some competitive matches at a time in the calendar when it’s often difficult to find them before going back to concentrating on the domestic season once eliminated, fully aware that the reasons for any MLS team failing in the competition are ready to be written every April.

It’s true that Mexican teams spend more money on their players. It’s also true that Mexican teams are already close to halfway through their Clausura season, while MLS teams are at the beginning of their campaign or still in the preseason when the tournament begins.

Those challenges are real. However, there is one important caveat to all of this: The CONCACAF Champions League matters to MLS. They know the hurdles their teams face, yet every single season the league hopes they can fight through and show governing bodies across the region that the MLS is evolving.

One of the main reasons more money – through Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) – has been poured into MLS is to give teams more of a competitive balance against their Mexican rivals who don’t work within a salary cap and have an ability to pay players in their team high wages.

Of course, teams like Toronto FC pay substantial contracts to star players like Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and Sebastian Giovinco, but it’s the money elsewhere on their roster that is often not comparable with teams in Mexico. TAM is designed to help close the gap that appeared to be widening between 2013 and 2016, when only one MLS team reached the tournament semi-finals in three straight seasons.

That team was the Montreal Impact, who made it to the final in 2015 before losing to Club America. Real Salt Lake was the runner up in 2011. That’s how close an MLS club has come to winning a tournament absolutely dominated by Mexican sides. No MLS team has won the CONCACAF crown since the LA Galaxy hoisted the Champions Cup – the predecessor to the current event – back in 2001 when it was a very different tournament in both format and prestige.

FC Dallas and Vancouver Whitecaps both made the semi-finals last season. Although Carl Robinson’s men gave a good account of themselves against the giants of Tigres UANL, they were outclassed in the end.

FC Dallas was seconds away from getting to extra time in Pachuca before the brilliant young Mexican Hirving Lozano ended their dreams with a 92nd-minute winner. To exemplify the gap in quality, Lozano joined PSV Eindhoven a few weeks later on a contract that included a £30 million ($53 million) release clause.

MLS commissioner Don Garber saw it differently, using the game to reference the gap narrowing: “We’re getting there,” he said afterward, pointing out that executives from the Liga MX came away very impressed with how close FC Dallas got.

No team got closer than Montreal when they led Club America 2-1 on aggregate during half-time of the second leg of the final at a packed Olympic Stadium back in 2015. But quality always wins out in the end. Dario Benedetto – who would have joined Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Paulo Dybala and others with Argentina at this year’s World Cup had it not been for a recent knee injury – smashed a second half hat-trick to power ‘The Eagles’ to a sixth title. Club America would defend their title to make it seven a year later.

It’s that kind of quality that MLS is obsessed with seeing from their teams and no one looks better equipped than Toronto FC to get to that level. They have the resources, and their last competitive match showed they might just have the quality as well.

Tuesday night’s first leg of the last 16 for Toronto FC against the Colorado Rapids (live on TSN 2 at 10 p.m. ET) comes 73 days after the club’s MLS Cup triumph. While that night at BMO Field will forever be a special one for the franchise in the course of history, the focus should now be on how they dominated that match.

In fact, the way Toronto FC was able to reach another level of complete performance and adapt to playing different styles throughout last season’s entire playoff campaign can only help their case in the attempt to become champions of the region.

The MLS Cup victory came at the end of a long season. Duplicating that standard at this time of the year will be difficult, but this group has shown they’re capable of getting the job done.

Should Greg Vanney’s side move past Colorado and face a Mexican team like Tigres in the quarterfinals they’ll face a different kind of challenge that only comes with playing in Central America. That’s when TFC can lean on the experience of their star designated players, along with key pieces like Chris Mavinga, Victor Vazquez and new signing Gregory van der Wiel.

These additions have helped Toronto FC and the league improve. Now they want their reputations internationally to soar together. The next step is for success to come in the CONCACAF Champions League – particularly against Mexican teams that already have a lot of respect around the globe.

That’s why it matters. A lucrative prized slot in December’s Club World Cup, where this year’s UEFA Champions League winner will join all of the region’s champions, provides the motivation to help face the inevitable challenges that will come TFC’s way.

But the club and the league will win a lot more than that should they finally conquer this rigorous regional roadblock.