NYCFC has always wanted to be a premier MLS club. This week, it has its biggest chance yet to begin its ascent to that level.

On Thursday, the club will make its debut in the CONCACAF Champions League, the top regional competition for North America, Central America and the Carribean. The tournament features 16 teams in a knockout-style format, with the winner slated to be crowned in May.

NYCFC qualified for the tournament — alongside four other MLS squads — after finishing atop the Eastern Conference with a club-record 64 points last season. MLS teams have struggled in the CONCACAF Champions League, which has been won by a team from Mexico’s Liga MX every year since the competition was restructured in 2008-09. MLS has had just three runners-up in 11 years.

Yet the tournament’s importance may be heightened for NYCFC — which plays Costa Rican outfit San Carlos on Thursday in the first leg of a home-and-home tie — with the team’s grace period expiring as it enters its sixth season.

“I think we had unbelievable results last year when you think about how young the club is,” newly hired head coach Ronny Deila said this week on a conference call. “So I think … everybody understands we need to keep building on that.”

NYCFC remains stuck in a weird middle ground. It has legitimate MLS Cup aspirations for 2020, but pays out a middling wage bill (despite its ties to billionaire-backed parent company City Football Group) and is without a stadium of its own.

NYCFC will be forced to play next week’s “home” second leg at Red Bull Arena, its main rival’s stadium, because its regular home of Yankee Stadium is unavailable.

The search for a permanent soccer-specific home is reportedly making progress, but the club would be unlikely to move into a potential new stadium before 2024, according to the New York Times.

For now, the club will have to make do. CEO Brad Sims told several reporters at club headquarters last week that growing the club’s fanbase is not “mutually exclusive” with having a soccer-specific stadium. NYCFC posted its lowest-ever attendance numbers last season, but expects an uptick for 2020 based on early ticket sales.

NYCFC announced itself to MLS fans in 2015 with the gilded signings of David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo. Not until it properly built its squad was it able to progress as a club. Now, a completely unsung squad has earned the right to represent MLS in the Champions League, and Thursday represents a significant opportunity for the club to begin to seize the status it has always craved.

“We can be proud of the season we had last year,” goalkeeper Sean Johnson said.

“Now the task at hand is going down.”