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. The first MLS team to finish first in its group was

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...

in 2010."The Throw-In: Real Salt Lake's Champions League run? For MLS' sake, forget it ever happened"
MLS Soccer, March 20, 2014. The first Champions League title won by an MLS side occurred in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, when Seattle Sounders FC defeated Mexico's

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigge ...

5–2 on aggregate in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, CF Montréal,

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

and Los Angeles FC all also reached the final, with Real Salt Lake losing to Monterrey in 2011, CF Montréal to América in 2015, Toronto FC to Guadalajara in

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, and Los Angeles FC to UANL in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

and León in

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, respectively. Seattle are thus far the only MLS team to have won the Champions League under its current format since 2008–09, and therefore was the first MLS side to participate at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Performance by round

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. Beginning in 2018, the Champions League format was changed to eliminate group play and the knockout round starts with sixteen teams rather than eight. Notes: * MLS sent only four teams to the Champions League in 2008–09 because the Canadian team, the Montreal Impact, played in the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system ...

at the time.

Performance by opposition in knockout series

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 nine seasons of the Champions League, MLS teams did not play any foreign teams in knockout stage other than Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama. With the change in tournament format in the 2018 season, specifically with the knockout rounds now including a round of 16, MLS teams play knockout matches against a greater variety of countries. In the Champions League knockout rounds, MLS teams have played Mexican teams more than any other country, in some years facing multiple matchups. Seattle's 2013 quarter-final win over Mexico's UANL 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 quarter-finals. In 2018, Toronto FC and the New York Red Bulls both advanced to the semi-finals by beating Mexican teams, the first time that two MLS teams eliminated two Mexican teams in the same tournament. In 2020, Los Angeles FC became the first MLS team to eliminate three Mexican teams in the same tournament — beating Mexican opponents in the Round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals, before losing in the final to a Mexican team. MLS' improved performance against Mexican teams was attributed to MLS club academies focused on player development, and an increase in player salaries through the league's Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) program.

CONCACAF Club Index

The CONCACAF Club Index was introduced in 2018 as a way of seeding the 16 teams in the knockout rounds. The index does not rank clubs but ranks member association qualification slots and is based on the past five prior years' results. Points are awarded as follows: 4 for participation, 3 for a win, 2 for Champions, 1 for draw, and 1 for stage advanced. The following table shows the index for the five Canadian and American teams. For context, the table also shows the index for the lowest-ranked Mexican slot and the highest-ranked Central American slot.

Performance by team

As of 2022, 21 MLS teams have appeared in the CONCACAF Champions League since the inaugural 2008–09 season. Seattle Sounders FC became champions in

, ending Liga MX's winning streak in the competition. They were the fifth MLS club to make it to the final, following Real Salt Lake in 2011, Montreal Impact in 2015, Toronto FC in

and Los Angeles FC in

. Canadian teams in MLS – CF Montréal, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC – qualify to the Champions League via a separate competition, the Canadian Championship, and they represent the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ...

. The only times MLS standings were used for Canadian teams qualification were the 2014 season to determine the 2015–16 Champions League representative, as the Canadian Championship format was changed that season, and the 2020 season to determine the 2021 Champions League representative, as the

2020 Canadian Championship The 2020 Canadian Championship was the thirteenth edition of Canada's national soccer cup tournament, awarding the Voyageurs Cup. It was held as a final between one representative each from Major League Soccer and the Canadian Premier League. B ...

was postponed indefinitely due to the

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. Starting in

, the group stage was removed, so MLS teams now start in the Round of 16 (first round). ǂ – team represents

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

* – team folded
Apps – CCL appearances
Pld – games played
W, D, L – wins, draws, losses GF, GA, GD – goals for, goals against, goal difference

Records

Biggest win: 6 goal margin
Portland Timbers 6–0 Alpha United ( 2014–15 Group stage) Biggest defeat: 5 goal margin

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

6–1 Seattle Sounders FC ( 2011–12 Quarter-finals, first leg)
Monterrey 5–0 Sporting Kansas City ( 2019 Semi-finals, first leg)

Other continental competitions

MLS teams have participated in other continental competitions.

Copa Sudamericana

* 2005 — D.C. United played in the Round of 16, where they lost 3–4 in aggregate over two legs (1–1, 2–3) to Chile's Universidad Católica. * 2007 — D.C. United played in the Round of 16, where they lost 2–2 on aggregate on away goals (2–1, 0–1) to Mexico's Guadalajara.

References

{{Major League Soccer Major League Soccer records and statistics American soccer clubs records and statistics CONCACAF Champions Cup records and statistics