Pachuca is the winner of the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup with a dominant 3-0 victory over MLS’s Columbus Crew at Estadio Hidalgo on Saturday night.
Columbus couldn’t explain how good Pachuca was, with the score being an accurate reflection of the balance of the match. The Crew had opportunities but failed to make the most of them, allowing Pachuca to rely on a first-half goal without really threatening to make it a level match. Salomón Rondón proved to be a hero as he scored the winner and added the insurance goal to put the match to bed.
The result means Pachuca has qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup, with the expanded tournament set to take place at venues in the United States. There are only two teams left to be determined of the 32 that will take part in the competition, with one final place from South America expected to be taken by Boca Juniors and a host confederation qualifier to be determined from North America, d ‘Central America or Central America. the Caribbean.
For at least one more year, the 2022 Seattle Sounders remain the only MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup in its modern era.
“I’m really proud of my players, I’m really proud of what they did,” Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy said after the match. “We missed the last step, we tried to do what we wanted to do but it wasn’t enough for tonight.”
Here’s how the Crew fared at Estadio Hidalgo.
Missed opportunities
Columbus will regret their chances and wonder how different the outcome could have been if they had been a little more ruthless in front of the net.
It started just 15 seconds into the game when Diego Rossi collected a pass just outside the top of the box and forced a diving save from Pachuca goalkeeper Carlos Moreno. Rossi absolutely could have done better and given the Crew an ideal start with an early goal.
Two minutes later, the Crew were again threatening for an early goal. Alexandru Matan came in on the left side on a counter-attack, but he failed to find the square pass to find his teammate for what should have been an easy finish.
Less than 10 minutes after that counter, Pachuca opened the scoring when Deossa blasted Rondón with a nasty pass from the outside of his foot and the Venezuelan forward chipped Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.
“The first goal was a positional error, not only with the central defender but also with the back line,” Nancy said. “Usually when we concede a goal we know we have time to come back. I didn’t feel like my team wanted to stop or give up, no. They continued, but it wasn’t enough.
Columbus received a boost when Pachuca’s second goal was called back, and they had a chance to equalize when Cucho Hernandez was set up for a right-footed shot from inside the box in the 31st minute, but Cucho narrowly missed the outside of the right post. and seconds later, Pachuca raced down the field on a counter and Miguel Rodriguez beat Schulte at the near post to double the lead.
Columbus was ruthless during their MLS Cup run last year. They scored the most goals in MLS last season and scored 8.23 goals more than expected. That speed was lacking in the first half against Pachuca, and Columbus paid for it.
Illness could be part of the cause. Nancy later said that “the whole team” and staff had come down with illness before the match, saying they had all had diarrhea since the day before. However, he repeatedly stressed that this was not an excuse and that Pachuca deserved to win regardless of the circumstances.
“Cheers to Pachuca,” Nancy said. “They deserved to win.”
–Paul Tenorio
GO FURTHER
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Rondón stars for Pachuca
When MLS circles talk about Liga MX’s big strikers, the conversation always starts with André-Pierre Gignac – but it shouldn’t stop there. Just as the Frenchman has been at the heart of Tigres UANL’s success since his arrival in 2015, Pachuca appears to have found a reliable leader in Salomón Rondón. Premier League fans will remember the Venezuelan for his oscillating form with West Brom, before Newcastle and Everton took over – sometimes a force to be reckoned with, other times an easy player for opponents to contain.
This is now the 34-year-old striker’s second season outside Europe. After scoring 10 goals for River Plate as they won the 2023 Argentine league title, Rondón arrived in Mexico at the start of the year and quickly made his presence known. Another run of 10 goals ensured he co-guarded the Liga MX Clausura Golden Boot while he was still adapting to his new team, while simultaneously entering Saturday’s final with seven goals in six CONCACAF Champions Cup matches.
The rapprochement between the striker and the club was successful and will haunt Columbus defenders for years to come.
Rondón opened the scoring midway through the first half, rewarding an impressive pass from midfielder Nelson Deossa with an equally nimble looping strike past Patrick Schulte.
Rondón appeared to act as distributor on a potential second goal just two minutes later, before VAR intervened to cancel the count after Rondón did all he could to push Rudy Camacho in the back before rushing towards the goal.
A grizzled striker will always be in style. As Gignac has done time and time again, Rondón’s first half in Mexico has already yielded some iconic moments that will endear him to Pachuca fans for years to come. Venezuelan fans will be hoping he can produce some magical moments this summer in the Copa América. -Jeff Rueter
A familiar ending for MLS
Columbus was only the eighth team to play in a CONCACAF final since the league’s inception in 1996. Had the club emerged victorious, they would have been only the fourth team in league history to taste continental glory. This would also have broken new ground in Pachuca in particular. According to Opta, Pachuca has never lost at home to an MLS opponent, outscoring them 26-5 in eight matches.
Two of those champions, DC United and LA Galaxy, competed in a previous single-elimination edition of the CONCACAF competition in 1998 and 2000, respectively. In 2022, the Seattle Sounders became the first MLS team to win the tournament in its modern era. This was hailed as a watershed moment in the league’s history, an indicator that MLS was finally leveling the playing field with LigaMX.
However, it takes more than one result to change a narrative and on Saturday night, the Crew – the most tactically and stylistically strongest team in recent MLS history – added themselves to the list of clubs in the MLS who failed in continental competition.
Club and league boosters can offer the same justifications deployed every year – regarding scheduling, roster construction, etc. Of course, none of this will do much to temper anyone’s disappointment and with each passing year, these excuses seem a little more hollow.
Despite all of this, there is no doubt that MLS is thriving in this competition. Three of the last four finals have involved an MLS club and the Nancy club are arguably the first MLS team in the competition to get there by playing proactive, attacking football. The Crew performed well throughout the competition, including two admirable performances against Liga MX powerhouses CF Monterrey and Tigres.
Ultimately, though, the club’s fans – and MLS fans in general – have a very familiar taste in their mouths tonight. —Pablo Maurer
GO FURTHER
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(Photo: Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)