It’s around this time of year that thoughts turn towards the CONCACAF Champions League. North and Central America’s premier club competition has struggled for an identity at times. Many fans, particularly those of a Major League Soccer persuasion, have issues with the scheduling, but it has grown in stature and significance in recent years.

Much of that has been due to the added emphasis MLS teams are now placing on the CONCACAF Champions League. Last year, Toronto FC made it all the way to the final, with the Montreal Impact making it that far in 2015 and Real Salt Lake also becoming finalists in 2011. Not since 2000 has an MLS team won the continental competition, and that was before the Champions League rebrand.

In recent years, it has felt like North American teams are getting closer to making that breakthrough. However, two of the MLS sides that might have been considered challengers this season have undergone off-season overhauls, with Toronto FC moving into a new age following the sale of Sebastian Giovinco and Atlanta United losing head coach Tata Martino and Miguel Almiron over the winter.

Partly for this reason, this season’s CONCACAF Champions League promises to be the most compelling and most exciting in years. The Mexican sides will be strong, as they usually are, but champions Chivas won’t be there to defend their title, with many of their key players and head coach Matias Almeyda leaving after their 2018 triumph. 

Instead, Santos Laguna, Tigres, and Monterrey will be among the frontrunners, although many predict that Atlanta United might be the ones to finally break MLS’ CONCACAF Champions League drought. That will depend on how quickly the MLS Cup winners adapt to life under Frank de Boer, though.

The CONCACAF Champions League doesn’t quite boast the prominence of its European counterpart, but this season’s competition arrives with countless storylines and plots to follow. Whether or not an MLS team makes a long-awaited symbolic breakthrough, there will be plenty to talk about.

Graham Ruthven is a soccer writer based in the U.K. He has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Eurosport, Bleacher Report and others.