Vavel provides details and view on the Columbus Crew and Tigres UANL as they are about to face each other. They will play to survive in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The game tonight is leg one of two quarterfinals matches.
The winner of the set will go on to face one of the other remaining eight CONCACAF clubs. The other six clubs are New England Revolution, Club América, Inter Miami CF, Monterrey, Herediano and Pachuca. One of these eight remaining clubs will show the world what CONCACAF is made of.
Columbus is a pretty good team in the MLS. The Crew is tied for second in the MLS Eastern conference. They are also the defending champions of the MLS. They have a plus three goal differential through six games in MLS play this season.
Columbus takes on an opponent that they are not that familiar with. Tigres UANL is a Liga MX club. These teams face occasionally in competitions such as this.
Tigres UANL is in fourth place in Liga MX; they sit just four points from first place this season with just under half the games to go. Tigres finished in third place in the regular season last fall in Apertura 2023 in Liga MX; they would go on to lose in the Apertura final to Club América.
Tigres looks to rebound from that loss in their last title match. Perhaps a CONCACAF title match would ease the pain as they wait to enter into the Liga MX postseason again this spring. Will they have enough to overtake a powerful Columbus foe?