How Seattle Sounders relied on South American talent to become the first US team to win the Concacaf Champions League

FOR the first time, a team from the United States has won the Concacaf Champions League.

Last week Seattle Sounders beat Pumas of Mexico 3-0 to complete a 5-2 aggregate win.

And so the trophy has gone just over 100 miles from the Canadian border. But it is a North American triumph with a strong South American flavour.

Seattle’s captain is from Uruguay, attacking midfielder Nico Lodeiro, who scored three of the club’s five goals in the final.

The other two, the vital strikes in the second leg, came from Peruvian striker Raul Ruidiaz.

Off the bench in both legs came veteran Colombian striker Fredy Montero, the club’s all-time top scorer.

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The centre-back partnership is all South American – Colombian Yeimar Gomez, who made his name in Argentina, alongside Ecuadorian international Xavier Arreaga. 

And the worker ant in midfield is Joao Paulo, from Brazil.

Major League Soccer has done some serious scouting in South America. At the moment, Joao Paulo, who starred a few years back with Botafogo, is something of an exception.

Put off by higher transfer fees, clubs from the United States have been wary about buying from Brazil.

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Argentina has been a happier hunting ground – Newcastle’s Paraguayan winger Miguel Almiron was a star in Argentina before he moved north to join Atlanta United, and then on to the Premier League.

Colombia, geographically and culturally closer to the United States, has long been part of the MLS mix. And all of this is having an effect south of the border.

Palmeiras have won the last two versions of the Copa Libertadores, South America’s Champions League – both times in all Brazilian finals.

In this year’s competitions, they have played four times, none of them at full strength.

And they have won all four games, scoring an astonishing twenty goals in the process.

The other two members of Brazil’s big three, Flamengo and Atletico Mineiro, are also unbeaten.

Last year Flamengo’s only defeat came in the final and Atletico were knocked out in the semi finals without losing a single game.

The Libertadores, then, has become a Brazilian competition. It is hard to see how the rest of the continent – even the big clubs from Argentina – can compete.

BRAZILIAN ADVANTAGE

The Brazilians have managed to turn the size of their country into a financial advantage, and the rise of the MLS is tipping the balance even further.

The Brazilians are not losing big-name players to the United States. The other countries are.

Looking further down the line, it is surely only a matter of time before a Pan-American club competition is organised, involving clubs from the United States and Mexico as well as traditional giants from Brazil and Argentina.

There are obstacles to overcome – the most obvious being distance. The journey from, say, Buenos Aires to Seattle is an epic trek, and it would be unrealistic to expect regular midweek match ups of this kind.

There could, perhaps, be a tournament involving the best teams from the Libertadores and from Concacaf’s Champions League – with the problem here being the quest to find the time in an already overcrowded calendar.

But something along these lines is surely coming. There were tentative attempts to set up a Pan-American competition six years ago.

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They will be less tentative in the future as club owners and media companies study the potential rewards.

The South Americans from Seattle Sounders may have done more than win a trophy. They might have given a kick start to a re-drawing of football’s map.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk