Philadelphia Union will find out their opponent for the 2021 Concacaf Champions League season on Wednesday night, when the confederation hosts the draw for the latest edition of the tournament. The draw will start at 7 pm ET, and will be broadcast through the platforms of Fox Sports and TUDN in the United States.
The Boys in Blue earned the debut appearance in the tournament after winning the 2020 Supporters' Shield given to the club that earns the most points in MLS regular season play.
The official draw will be executed using a double-blind system and four pots. Pots 1 and 2 will contain the spheres with the names of the 16 participating clubs. Pots A and B will contain the spheres with the bracket positions for the Round of 16.
Based on the 2021 SCCL Ranking, clubs will be distributed in Pots 1 and 2 as follows (in alphabetical order by country):
Pot 1 (clubs ranked 1-8): Forge FC or Toronto FC (CAN), CF Monterrey (MEX), Club America (MEX), Cruz Azul (MEX), Atlanta United FC (USA), Columbus Crew SC (USA), Philadelphia Union (USA) and Portland Timbers (USA).
Pot 2 (clubs ranked 9-16): Deportivo Saprissa (CRC), LD Alajuelense (CRC), Club Atletico Pantoja (DOM), Arcahaie FC (HAI), CD Marathon (HON), CD Olimpia (HON), Club Leon (MEX) and Real Esteli FC (NCA).
The Round of 16 bracket positions will be divided in Pots A and B as follows:
Pot A: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8.
Pot B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7 and B8.
The draw will begin by randomly selecting a sphere from Pot 1, followed by a sphere from Pot A to confirm the club’s bracket position. The same process will apply for the remaining clubs in Pot 1, always drawing a club, followed by a bracket position from Pot A.
Once the eight clubs in Pot 1 have been assigned to a matchup, the first sphere from Pot 2 will be randomly drawn, followed by a bracket position sphere from Pot B. The same procedure will apply for all Pot 2 spheres.
At the end of the draw, each Round of 16 matchup will feature one club from each pot and no more than one club from each country, as per competition regulations, clubs from the same country cannot face each other in the Round of 16.
