MIAMI, Florida – The 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf League kicks off next week in which seven teams will be making their first ever appearance in the tournament, the most debutants in a single SCL since 2019 when 13 teams played their first ever SCL match.
While the 2022 SCL will mark the first ever Concacaf appearance for some of these clubs, there are some household names that can be found among the seven.
Look no further than 1994 Concacaf Champions Cup winner Cartagines of Costa Rica. Thanks to their title conquest in Costa Rica’s 2022 Clausura, Cartagines are back in Concacaf competition for the first time since the 2013-14 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.
The former Concacaf champions, who will begin the tournament at the Round of 16 stage, are the seventh different team from Costa Rica to participate in the SCL.
Pacific FC are just the second team from the Canadian Premier League to appear in the tournament after breaking the three-year run from Forge FC. Pacific defeated Forge 1-0 in the 2021 CPL Final to punch their ticket to their first ever Concacaf tournament.
Pacific will try to follow in Forge’s footsteps in this year’s Preliminary Round by winning their first SCL series. Forge achieved that feat in 2019 when they eliminated Antigua GFC of Guatemala.
Malacateco clinched their spot in the 2022 SCL Preliminary Round by virtue of winning the 2021 Apertura in Guatemalan football and will now make their first foray into a Concacaf tournament. Guatemalan clubs did not start competing in the SCL until 2019, yet already Malacateco have become the sixth different club from the country to play in the tournament.
While it is the first SCL for Panama’s Sporting San Miguelito, who will start in the Preliminary Round, the club have experienced the thrills of Concacaf competition before when they qualified for the 2013-14 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. Their lone appearance in the SCCL ended in the group stage, but it did include a memorable 1-0 home win against Alajuelense of Costa Rica.
No country has had more SCL representatives than Panama, with eight different clubs appearing in the tournament. In addition to Sporting San Miguelito, who qualified as the non-champion with the best aggregate record in 2021-22 in Panama, 2022 Apertura winners Alianza FC will also be making their SCL debut in the Round of 16, having never played before in a Concacaf tournament.
Platense of El Salvador are the seventh different club from that country to play in the SCL and will kick things off in the Preliminary Round. While they never played in a SCL or SCCL, they did win the 1975 UNCAF Club Championship, known then as the Copa Fraternidad. Platense reached the SCL thanks to having the best aggregate record among non-champions in 2021-22 Salvadoran football.
Atletico Vega Real became just the second team from the Dominican Republic to qualify for the SCL, following in the footsteps of Cibao FC, by finishing third in the 2022 Flow Concacaf Caribbean Club Championship last May. Beginning in the Preliminary Round, Atletico Vega Real will be in a race with Cibao to become the first Dominican team to score a goal in the SCL.