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The 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Final was the final round of the
2018 CONCACAF Champions League The 2018 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2018 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 53rd edition of the premier footba ...
, the championship for association football clubs in CONCACAF, representing North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The 2018 edition was the tenth edition of the
CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...
under its current name and first since being re-organized into a single-year tournament. The final was contested in a two-legged series between Toronto FC from Canada and
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
from Mexico. The first leg was hosted in Toronto on 27 April 2018, at BMO Field in Toronto, while the second leg was hosted in Guadalajara on 25 April 2018, at the Estadio Akron in
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
. Guadalajara won the final 4–2 in a penalty shoot-out after the series was tied 3–3 on aggregate. As a result, they earned the right to represent CONCACAF at the
2018 FIFA Club World Cup The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betw ...
, entering at the
second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...
.


Teams

''In the following table, final until 2008 were in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup era, since 2009 were in the CONCACAF Champions League era.''


Venues

Toronto's BMO Field, with a seating capacity of 30,000, hosted the first leg of the final; it opened in 2007 and was renovated in 2016. The second leg took place in Guadalajara at the Estadio Akron, which opened in 2010 and has a capacity of 48,071. The two stadiums hosting the final were also candidates for the 2026 FIFA World Cup bid shared between Canada, Mexico, and the United States.


Background

The CONCACAF Champions League was established in 2008 as the continental championship for football clubs in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, succeeding the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. During its first nine editions, the Champions League consisted of a group stage in summer and autumn followed by a knockout stage during the following spring. Beginning with the 2018 edition of the tournament, the group stage was re-formed as the CONCACAF League and limited to Central American and Caribbean teams. The Champions League was shortened to a two-month knockout tournament between teams from North American and major Central American nations, as well as the winner of the CONCACAF League. The knockout tournament falls within the beginning of
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
's season, which operates on a summer schedule unlike other football leagues. Toronto FC were appearing in their first final, and were the second Canadian team to have reached the final after Montreal Impact finished as runners-up in
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
. Only four teams from
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
(three American, one Canadian) on five occasions had managed to reach the final of the Champions League or the Champions' Cup. In addition to Montreal Impact,
LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pl ...
(in
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
) and Real Salt Lake (in
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
) had previously lost in the final. D.C. United (in
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
) and LA Galaxy (in
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
) were the only two MLS teams to have won the competition, doing so during the Champions' Cup era. Of these five finals, four were against Mexican opponents, with only D.C. United managing to win. Guadalajara had previously appeared in three finals, all in the Champions' Cup era. They won the inaugural edition in
1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...
, before finishing second the following year after withdrawing from the final. Guadalajara appeared in their next final 44 years later in
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
, losing to fellow Mexican club Pachuca on penalties. Mexican teams were the most successful in the history of the Champions League/Champions' Cup, with a total of 12 teams having won a combined 33 titles. Mexican teams had appeared in every final since
2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, and won every tournament since
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
. There had been a total of eleven all-Mexican finals, all since
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
, including the previous two finals.


Road to the final

''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).''


Toronto FC

Toronto FC qualified for the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League as winners of the
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
and
2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
editions of the
Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is contest ...
. The berth was originally going to be determined via a play-off match in August 2017 between the winners of the two tournaments had another team won either edition, due to the restructuring of the Champions League. Toronto had appeared in four prior Champions Leagues, finishing as high as the semi-finals in 2011–12, losing to eventual runners-up Santos Laguna. The team also won the 2017 MLS Cup and
Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 19 ...
, completing MLS's first ever domestic treble, but could not qualify for the Champions League through either because the berths were designated for a team from the United States. Ironically, Toronto's coach, assistant coach, and several starting players were previous part of Chivas USA, an MLS team affiliated and wholly owned by Guadalajara. Toronto was placed into Pot 1 and drawn against fellow MLS club Colorado Rapids in the Round of 16. Toronto played the first leg away in Commerce City, Colorado on February 20, winning 2–0 during the coldest ever match involving MLS teams, measured at at kickoff and with
wind chill Wind chill or windchill (popularly wind chill factor) is the lowering of body temperature due to the passing-flow of lower-temperature air. Wind chill numbers are always lower than the air temperature for values where the formula is valid. When ...
. The team advanced into the quarter-finals with a 0–0 draw at home in Toronto, winning the series 2–0 on aggregate. Toronto played Mexican champions Tigres UANL in the quarter-finals and won the home leg 2–1 with a late goal from Jonathan Osorio. The team took a 2–1 lead in the away leg, but two goals from André-Pierre Gignac gave Tigres a 3–2 win and a 4–4 aggregate tie. Toronto advanced on away goals, becoming one of two MLS teams to advance to the semi-finals. Toronto hosted the first leg of the semi-finals against
Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América or simply América, is a professional football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...
on April 3, winning 3–1 after two unanswered goals in the 44th and 58th minutes. The match included a half-time altercation between Toronto and América players, in which América coach Miguel Herrera accused Toronto Police of assaulting his players. To prepare for the away leg at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Toronto moved a league fixture and spent several days acclimating to the altitude in Pachuca. In the away leg, Toronto took an early lead in the 12th minute, but América equalized on a last-minute penalty, bringing the aggregate score to 4–2. Toronto became the third Major League Soccer team and second Canadian team to advance to a Champions League final, following Real Salt Lake in
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
and the Montreal Impact in
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
.


Guadalajara

C.D. Guadalajara, also known as Chivas, qualified for the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League as winners of the 2017 Clausura in
Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
. The 2018 tournament was the team's second under the current Champions League format, having finished in the group stage in
2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
. Under manager
Matías Almeyda Matías Jesús Almeyda (; born 21 December 1973) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of Greek Super League club AEK Athens. Nicknamed ''El Pelado'' ("bald one") despite his traditionally ...
, Chivas advanced to seven finals in various tournaments since 2015. Guadalajara was drawn with Cibao FC, winners of the
2017 CONCACAF League The 2017 CONCACAF League (officially the 2017 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) was the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF League, a football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Ce ...
, in the Round of 16. The team stayed in Puerto Plata, approximately from the stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros, due to a tobacco growers' conference that filled available hotel space. Guadalajara won the first leg in the Dominican Republic by a 2–0 margin and the second leg 5–0. In the quarter-finals, Guadalajara played
Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...
of MLS and lost the first leg 1–0 away in Seattle. The return leg remained scoreless until the second half, which saw three goals from Chivas to win the match 3–0. Chivas advanced to the final on a 1–0 aggregate win over the New York Red Bulls in the semi-finals.
Isaác Brizuela Isaác Brizuela Muñoz (; born 28 August 1990), is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Guadalajara. Born in the United States, he represented the Mexico national team. Brizuela was born in the United States to M ...
scored the lone goal of the series in the first leg, played in Guadalajara, while the second leg in New Jersey ended scoreless.


Format

The final was played in a home-and-away
two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...
series, with the team with the better performance in previous rounds hosting the second leg. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the
away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...
would be applied, and if still tied, a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.


Performance ranking


Broadcasting

Both legs of the final were broadcast in English on TSN2 in Canada and in Spanish on Univision Deportes in the United States, where it was also aired on sister station
UniMás UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network's programming, which is ...
. Fox Sports broadcast in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Go90 also streamed the games in English in the United States.


Matches


First leg


Summary

The first leg was hosted in Toronto at BMO Field on 17 April, where the kickoff temperature was and snow flurries fell through the match. Prior to the match, the new Champions League trophy was unveiled by CONCACAF officials. Chivas took the lead in the second minute on a goal scored by Rodolfo Pizarro, during an attack that originated from a throw-in by
Isaác Brizuela Isaác Brizuela Muñoz (; born 28 August 1990), is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Guadalajara. Born in the United States, he represented the Mexico national team. Brizuela was born in the United States to M ...
, who assisted Pizarro's goal. Toronto's Jonathan Osorio scored the equalizing goal in the 19th minute, finishing an attack started by Marky Delgado deep in the midfield. Toronto took control of possession and shooting chances through to halftime, but failed to score after two saves by Chivas's backup goalkeeper Miguel Jiménez. During the first half, Toronto's Jozy Altidore vomited several times on the pitch — the cause being a "stomach bug" that several Toronto players reportedly received in the semi-finals against América. Chivas regained partial control of the match in the second half, alternating attacks with Toronto as both teams sought to take the lead. Chivas scored the match's winning goal in the 72nd minute on a free kick by Alan Pulido, which was misread by goalkeeper Alex Bono and ended up in the far side of the goal. Toronto failed to finish in its later attacks, which also included a no-call penalty for an alleged foul on
Sebastian Giovinco Sebastian Giovinco (; born 26 January 1987) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. A quick and creative player on the ball, Giovinco was a versatile forward capable of playing in multiple offensive positions. Gio ...
.


Details


Statistics


Second leg


Summary

The second leg was hosted in Guadalajara at Estadio Akron on 25 April. Toronto fielded some midfielders and wingbacks in defensive roles due to injuries, including captain Michael Bradley and right back Gregory van der Wiel; midfielder Víctor Vázquez returned from injury to start the match. Chivas extended their aggregate lead to 3–1 on a goal scored by Orbelín Pineda in the 19th minute. Toronto responded with two goals in the 25th and 44th minutes by Jozy Altidore and
Sebastian Giovinco Sebastian Giovinco (; born 26 January 1987) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. A quick and creative player on the ball, Giovinco was a versatile forward capable of playing in multiple offensive positions. Gio ...
, bringing the series level on aggregate. The 2–1 lead for Toronto held through to the end of the second half, despite chances from both teams, including a missed shot by Toronto's Marky Delgado. The final was decided in a penalty shoot-out, which was won 4–2 by Guadalajara after four rounds. All four of Chivas's penalty takers scored, while Toronto's Jonathan Osorio and Michael Bradley both missed.


Details


Statistics


Post-match

Guadalajara's win was the thirteenth consecutive Champions League or Champions' Cup title won by a Mexican team. As a result, Guadalajara qualified for the
2018 FIFA Club World Cup The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betw ...
as CONCACAF's representative. Toronto FC's Jonathan Osorio and
Sebastian Giovinco Sebastian Giovinco (; born 26 January 1987) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. A quick and creative player on the ball, Giovinco was a versatile forward capable of playing in multiple offensive positions. Gio ...
won the tournament's Golden Boot and Golden Ball, respectively. Guadalajara's
Rodolfo Cota Rodolfo Cota Robles (born 3 July 1987) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Liga MX club León and the Mexico national team. Club career Pachuca Cota made his professional debut for Pachuca on 21 September 2007 ...
and Rodolfo Pizarro won the tournament's Golden Glove and the Best Young Player, respectively.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Concacaf Champions League Final 2018
2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
*Final April 2018 sports events in North America Toronto FC matches C.D. Guadalajara matches 2018 in Canadian soccer 2017–18 in Mexican football Football in Guadalajara, Jalisco Soccer in Toronto 2018 in Toronto 21st century in Guadalajara, Jalisco International club association football competitions hosted by Canada International club association football competitions hosted by Mexico Association football penalty shoot-outs