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It's a foreign idea for a lot of people in America to understand how a tournament outside of their own league would be more important then the league title itself, but that is the reality we now face with Real Salt Lake in the CONCACAF Champions League title game.
That's not really a shock for anyone, is it? The NFL is at the top of the ladder for football (American football that is) - win that and your the best.
Wednesday, 8 p.m. at Monterrey, Mexico Second leg
April 27, 8 p.m. at Sandy
Baseball has some leagues around the world - Japan, Puerto Rico and others - but they're not competitive money wise and their best athletes do not stay. Win MLB's World Series and you are the best in the world.
How about basketball? Europe has come along way to be very respectable, in fact basketball in Europe is almost like soccer in the states. They have good talent, but it doesn't stay there. There's just too much money in the NBA to not leave for the states. Europe does host a European championship, much like soccer does, while also crowning a league champion. But, it's obvious that no league could compete with the NBA, and although maybe a team or two could sneak into the playoffs from time to time, that's about it.
NHL? Same deal. On the world stage, if your national team does not have at least a few NHL players on it, you are simply not going to do much while competing against Canada and the United States.
But the flaw in all of this - how would you know you can compete if you never go toe to toe with the best?
Enter Real Salt Lake, stage right. Carrying the banner for all 18 Major League Soccer teams, RSL now sits in a position trying to gain respect for the young 16-year-old league.
Can MLS teams go toe to toe and compete with the best soccer teams in the world? The CONCACAF Champions League matters for this very reason.
In the beginning, the tournament was held at one location over just a few weeks. DC United (1998) and the LA Galaxy (2000) both won this tournament, which at the time was called the Champions Cup. Those two teams happened to host the tournament, and played only 3 games.
Things changed in 2008 when the tournament evolved into its current state as a League of Champions. Twenty-four teams were pitted against each other in a group play format, with the winners advancing to elimination rounds.
This format allows teams a great comparison as to how good their teams really are. You need to have good players, depth, quality coaching and a winning attitude to play at the highest level, something most of Major League Soccer did not have until just recently.
The fact that Real Salt Lake has preformed so well in every match they've played stands out. Winning their group, reaching the semifinals and now the championships (the first for American Team in the tournament's current format), has caught the eyes of the leagues in Mexico around the world. The Latin players for RSL understand this. Alvaro Saborio, the only member of Real Salt Lake that has played in the tournament championship and winning it in 2005 with Suprissa, knew RSL had a legitimate chance when he found out they were playing in the champions league.
"We think as a group," Saborio said. "I think we can make it."
Saprissa also happens to be the only team not located in Mexico that has won the tournament since the first revision back in the early 2000s. Mexican teams turned a regional tournament into a country only domination.
It appears that maybe things are catching up to them. MLS produced two teams into the knockout rounds and now a finalist, both firsts for the league. The Mexican media has even gone as far as to liken the upcoming RSL vs. Monterrey match-up as a rivalry.
Primera División de México sees themselves as the best in the region, but RSL is an upstart team playing with a chip on their shoulder from a league out to prove they can compete. This game has rivalry written all over it.
This two game series is a battle for respect, but for Real Salt Lake it means a whole lot more. With a win, RSL would become the first MLS team to play in the FIFA Club World Cup, which could turn the tide for soccer in the United States.
Email: bschroeder@ksl.com
