Orlando
With their cannoners Gignac and Vela at the forefront, Tigres and Los Angeles FC will play the Concahhall Champions League final on Tuesday with the hope of achieving their first gold in the competition and a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup. The Ecuadorians Diego Palacios and José Cifuentes will also be in the Angelinos ranks, who aspire to their first interclub title.
In this edition, the final will be decided in a single match at Explora Stadium in Orlando, Florida, the venue chosen by Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Football) to conclude their main club tournament while keeping safe from the coronavirus pandemic.
For Tigres, the so-called Concachampions is their great unfinished business after having fallen in three finals, the last of them last year against their neighbor and great rival, Rayados de Monterrey.
"We know what we are playing for," emphasized Jesús Dueñas, midfielder for the felinos. "We have missed out on previous editions, we have lost three finals, and we have been eliminated in the quarterfinals twice."
Coach Ricardo Ferretti also longs to lift his first continental trophy with Tigres, which he has guided for a decade filled with triumphs with five Mexican league titles.
In addition, the Monterrey team has the responsibility of maintaining its country's hegemony over the Concacaf Champions League, which has always had a Mexican winner since adopting this name in 2008.
For this, they will again count on the Frenchman André-Pierre Gignac, one of the most feared forwards in continental football, who comes from scoring two penalty goals in the 3-0 victory in the semifinals against Honduran Olimpia.
Palacios and Cifuentes, in Los Angeles since 2019 and 2020, respectively, aim to be starters.
Duel of artillerymen
Gignac, who has been punishing rival nets in Mexican football for five seasons, will face one of the best forwards in the history of that country, Carlos Vela, with whom he is tied at the top of the tournament's goalscorers table with five goals each.
El Bombardero, 31, is the emblem of Los Angeles FC (LAFC) since his debut in the North American soccer league (MLS) in 2018, and on Saturday he led them to the first final in their young history.
With a stunning brace, Vela turned around the 1-0 advantage that América had in the tough semifinal showdown, which ended 3-1 for the Angelinos.
Vela has had a discreet season in the MLS, after being the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2019, but in the Concachampions, he was the executioner of two other Mexican teams, scoring a brace against León in the round of 16 and another goal against Cruz Azul in the quarterfinals.
"It is special for him to play these matches," said coach Bob Bradley about his star. "It means a lot to him. It is a special type of leadership that he then demonstrates on the field".
The coach of LAFC, the fourth MLS franchise to reach the final of the Concacaf Champions League, believes that his team is ready for the trophy to stay in the United States for the first time.
"I am very proud of my players," said Bradley. "We had to develop this mentality. Sometimes you have to suffer a little, and we have done that. So being in a final is really special".
The winner of the tournament, which was suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, will obtain the regional ticket for the next FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar in 2021.
The clash will start on Tuesday at 10:00 PM local time (also in Ecuador) at Explora Stadium in Orlando, where no spectators will be allowed due to the pandemic. (D)