It’s been a mixed week for Major League Soccer’s hopes in the Concacaf Champions League after the quarter-final first legs saw the Montreal Impact grab a very credible 2-2 draw in Mexico against Pachuca, while the last remaining US representative, DC United, were heavily beaten by Costa Rican side Alajuelense on Thursday night.

DC, who’d managed a near-flawless qualifying campaign as part of last year’s dramatic turnaround in playing fortunes, had been seeded to avoid the Mexican club sides who tend to dominate the later stages of this competition, but any hopes they had of an easier passage to the semi-finals were dashed by a 5-2 loss that started with a 14th-minute penalty conceded by stand-in keeper Andrew Dykstra. Things only got worse from there.

Dykstra, in for injured starter Bill Hamid, had a night to forget, spilling a 27th-minute cross that allowed Alajuelense’s Johan Venegas to score the home side’s third after Jose Ortiz had scored in the 22nd minute past the off-balance keeper.

At the other end Fabian Espindola had grabbed his side a valuable away goal moments before Venegas had restored the hosts’ two-goal cushion, but when Ortiz grabbed a second after half time the DC goal looked like it would be academic.

And while DC did get another late one when newly Steve Birbaum’s close-range header flew home, they appeared to have taken a page from the Arsenal book of two-legged game management, as less than a minute later Jonathan McDonald was scoring at the other end to round off the 5-2 victory for Alajuelense.

The regional glass ceiling

The DC result means that MLS’s most likely hope for a representative in the semi-finals will be Montreal, whose 2-2 result in Pachuca earlier in the week had some onlookers ranking it high among the results achieved by MLS sides against Mexican teams. (It could even have been better: Montreal led 2-0 after an hour of the game thanks to a brace from Dilly Duka.)

The very fact that a score draw can be placed in the pantheon of MLS’ Champions League achievements probably says everything about a regional glass ceiling the league is still under as it enters its 20th season.

MLS executives have an oft-stated ambition to become a top-10 league in the world by 2022. And after a recent burst of expansion and prioritizing the ownership structure of the league, MLS commissioner Don Garber sees the coming area of priority as the product on the field.

And it follows that regional competitiveness, as measured by the Champions League, is a significant marker of that progress – though it is currently looking as elusive as ever.

MLS sides are not helped in their quest by the less than seamless way the cycles of the competition and their own league mesh. The MLS sides still in the competition earned their original place there by their achievements back in 2013, when DC won the US Open Cup and Montreal Impact won the Canadian Championship. Between those qualifying wins and the quarter-finals, both teams have been through two offseasons. The sides currently representing the hopes of Montreal and DC look very different from the rosters that got them there.

Pre-season woes

In fact both the teams may currently look very little they’ll look in just a month’s time. Both sides are in the MLS pre-season, trying out new players, shuffling systems, finding fitness and shape. Compare to, say, the Mexican teams, who are well into their season as this stage of the tournament takes place.

It can make the knockout rounds a thankless experience for MLS sides, as LA Galaxy’s Robbie Keane noted in an interview with the Guardian last year:

“Yeah, it’s difficult. How can you play a Champions League in two seasons? Players come and go, and stuff like that, so it’s not a fair run for the teams. The Champions League is good – but it’s only good if you win it, to be honest with you. When you’re playing all these games, you’re traveling and so on, it can be a hindrance. It reminds me of the UEFA Cup. The UEFA Cup’s great if you win it, but if you don’t win it it’s a bit of a nightmare, you know?”

Yet the Champions League is there, and the MLS sides and the league they represent would dearly love a significant and symbolic breakthrough in this regional competition, not to mention a brand-boosting appearance at a world club championship.

It’ll mean bridging a gap to Liga MX first though – and serial disappointments by the likes of LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders suggest there’s a way to go before US squads have the strength in depth to seriously alter the status quo, however eye-catching their very top marquee players might be. Real Salt Lake went close to winning the tournament in 2011 – when they lost the second leg 1-0 at home having apparently done the hard part with a 2-2 draw in Monterrey – but that very much bucked the trend.

As it is, on Friday morning DC United might be looking with envy at another 2-2 draw – the one Montreal managed against Pachuca – and wondering how they now go about finding three unanswered goals at home next week. Montreal, meanwhile, may consider RSL’s example as a warning that the job is not yet done. For yet another season MLS hopes in the CCL can be summed up by the belief that any progress from here on out is a bonus. The next competitive step remains as daunting as ever.