San Diego FC welcome Pumas UNAM in Champions Cup debut | OneFootball

MIAMI – The 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup concludes its opening day with debutants San Diego FC hosting three-time winners Pumas UNAM the First Leg of their Round One series on Tuesday at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California, USA. 

San Diego FC secured its first Champions Cup participation after a first-place finish in the MLS Western Conference during the 2025 MLS regular season, its first season ever in the U.S. first division. 

Anders Dreyer is San Diego’s top goal creator with 19 goals and 19 assists in MLS play. Amahl Pellegrino also found the net seven times for the Californian team, and Jeppe Tverskov provided eight assists, as the two prepare to help their side to its first CCC victory.

Pumas UNAM will begin its 13th participation in the tournament, having crowned themselves champions in 1980, 1982, and 1989. The Universitarios also reached the Final two other times, finishing as runners-up in 2005 and 2022. 

The Mexican side qualified to the 2026 edition as the one of the best Liga MX clubs in the overall standings during the 2024/25 season. Pumas will field two former Concacaf Player of the Year Award winners in longtime Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas, and Panamanian star Adalberto Carrasquilla. 

All-Time series  

San Diego FC will make its debut in the 2026 edition, becoming the 52nd club from the United States to participate in the Concacaf Champions Cup and the 26th from MLS. For Pumas UNAM, this will be its 15th match against United States opponents in the competition, holding a record of W-7 D-4 L-3.

Pumas UNAM will face a debuting U.S. club for the fourth time in the tournament. This will be the third occasion in which the matchup is played over a two-legged series, a format in which Pumas UNAM has always advanced.

The first series of this type came against Sacramento Gold in the 1980 edition, in the North America First Round. Records indicate that the matches were ultimately canceled by Concacaf due to the withdrawal of the U.S. club, granting Pumas UNAM automatic qualification to the next round. The second and, to date, most recent series against a debuting club was played against San Francisco Greek American, which the Mexican club won with a 7-3 aggregate score in the First Round of the USA & Mexico Group in the 1989 edition. The first leg was played on March 22, 1989, at Candlestick Stadium in San Francisco (USA), ending in a 2-2 draw. The goals for the home side were scored by Ismail Rahimipour and Andy Atuekbu, while José Luis Salgado and Manuel Negrete found the net for the visitors. The second leg was played on April 19, 1989, at Estadio San Jorge in Colima (MEX), where Pumas UNAM earned a 5-1 victory with goals from Luis García, a brace by Martín “Tincho” Gálvez, Antonio Torres, and Marcos Misdrach. Andy Atuekbu scored for the U.S. side.

The most recent time Pumas UNAM faced a debuting MLS club came in the 2011-12 edition, with a 2-0 victory over FC Dallas in Matchday 8 of Group C on September 21, 2011, at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco (USA), with goals by Eduardo “Lalo” Herrera and David Izazola. In the first leg, played on August 17, 2011, at Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City (MEX), FC Dallas won 1-0 with a goal by Marvin Chávez, marking the only historical defeat for Pumas UNAM against debuting clubs from the United States.