MIAMI, Florida – This Friday at 7:00 PM ET, Concacaf will be airing a re-broadcast of the 2019 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal second leg between Atlanta United and Monterrey, followed by the 2016-17 SCCL quarterfinal second leg between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the New York Red Bulls. Both matches will be shown on Concacaf’s Facebook and YouTube pages, plus the Concacaf App.
It was during the 2016-17 SCCL in which one of the emerging stars in the region came on the scene in Concacaf competition.
At the age of 17, Tyler Adams made his SCCL debut on August 3, 2016 when the New York Red Bulls took on Antigua GFC of Guatemala, starting in the Red Bulls midfield and playing the first 78 minutes in what was a 3-0 group stage victory for New York.
It would be the start of a very productive career in Concacaf club play for the United States MF. Adams would go on to feature in two more matches during the group stage, a 1-0 win over Alianza of El Salvador and a 0-0 draw in Guatemala against Antigua GFC.
Adams started all three of those matches, totaling 230 minutes, an impressive haul for such a young player, which would lay the groundwork for an even better display during the 2018 SCCL.
A year after finishing as quarterfinalists in the 2016-17 SCCL, the Red Bulls reached the semifinals of the 2018 edition, making some history along the way as they became the first team from Major League Soccer (MLS) to win a SCCL knockout round match on Mexican soil in their 2-0 victory over Club Tijuana in the first leg of the quarterfinals.
Adams was an integral part of that run to the final four, starting in all six of New York’s matches and going the full 90 minutes in each contest, with the lone exception being that final 10 minutes in that historical win in Tijuana.
With Adams on the field manning the defensive midfield, the Red Bulls conceded just three goals in six SCCL matches in 2018 before narrowly being eliminated by eventual champions Chivas in the semifinals, 1-0 on aggregate.
Yet those SCCL performances, on top of his consistently excellent displays in MLS, earned Adams an offer from German outfit Red Bull Leipzig, where he has become a mainstay in the Bundesliga.
