The following article shows the performance of Major League Soccer teams in CONCACAF Champions League play. Major League Soccer teams have participated in the CONCACAF Champions League each season since the tournament began its current format in 2008–09. Previously, MLS teams played in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. MLS may send up to five teams to the CONCACAF Champions League each season — up to four from the United States, and up to one from Canada.
Contents
- Performance by year
- Performance in knockout rounds
- Champions Cup era
- Champions League era
- Records
- Other continental competitions
- Copa Sudamericana
- References
The first MLS team to finish first in its group was Real Salt Lake in 2010. The best performance by an MLS team to date occurred in 2011, when Real Salt Lake reached the finals, before losing to Mexico's Monterrey 3–2 on aggregate.
Performance by year
The following table shows the number of MLS participants in the Champions League each season, as well as the number of MLS teams that have reached various stages in the knockout rounds. MLS teams performed poorly during the first two years, as fixture congestion from the Superliga tournament as well as CONCACAF Champions League preliminary rounds meant that MLS teams often fielded teams without their first choice players.
Notes:
Performance in knockout rounds
The following table shows the performance of MLS teams in the knockout rounds for each home-and-away series for opponents from various leagues. During the first few seasons of the Champions League, MLS teams have not yet played any foreign teams in knockout stage other than Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Seattle's 2013 quarterfinal win over Mexico's Tigres was the first time since the Champions League format began in 2008–09 that an MLS team eliminated a Mexican team in the knockout rounds. Montreal repeated the feat in 2015 when they beat Mexico's Pachuca in the quarterfinals.
Champions' Cup era
MLS teams joined the Champions' Cup in its 1997 edition, and a total of nine teams earned berths before it was ceased in 2008.
D.C. United (1998) and LA Galaxy (2000) are the only Champions' Cup winners from the United States, and remain the only MLS teams to have won a CONCACAF championship.
Champions League era
17 MLS teams have appeared in the CONCACAF Champions League since the inaugural 2008–09 season.
Real Salt Lake in 2010–11 and Montreal Impact in 2014-15 are the only teams that played in the competition's finals, but both failed to win continental title.
Canadian teams in MLS – Montreal Impact, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps – qualify to the Champions League via separate competition, the Canadian Championship, and they represent Canadian Soccer Association. Only time MLS standings were used for Canadian teams qualification was 2014 season to determine 2015–16 Champions League representative as Canadian Championship format was changed that season.
Starting in 2017-18 season, group stage is abandoned and competition is split into two phases - MLS teams will start in Round of 16 of the second phase.
As of 2016–17 quarterfinals completion
ǂ – teams representing Canada
* – team folded
App – CCL appearances
GP – games played
W, D, L – win, draw, loss
GF, GA – goals for, goals against
teams in italic qualified for the 2017-18 tournament
(IN) - team still active in 2016-17 tournament
Records
Biggest win: 6 goals margin
Portland Timbers - Alpha United 6-0 (2014-15 Group stage)
Biggest defeat: 5 goals margin
Santos Laguna - Seattle Sounders 6-1 (2011-12 Quarterfinals, first leg)
Other continental competitions
MLS teams have participated in other continental competitions.