As names go, Concacaf Championship Cup is a mouthful.

Debuting in 1962, it’s an annual tournament of professional soccer clubs within the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central American and Caribbean countries.

Why should fans of San Diego FC care about the CCC?

Because of SDFC’s actions Tuesday night in Mission Valley.

The second-year Major League Soccer club showed it regards the CCC as a high-reward event and not filler in a sport that, to its detriment at times, insists on playing year-round.

Why else would coach Mikey Varas have his top two stars, veterans Anders Dreyer and Jeppe Tverskov, log heavy minutes unless he saw great reward to advancing within the CCC?

In its 4–1 win against Mexico City’s Pumas UNAM, kicking off its 2026 schedule, SDFC showed it opted against easing into the long soccer year.

SDFC looked fit and connected before the announced crowd of 22,650.

It had the ball for most of the 90 minutes.

Though the visitors went ahead in the 11th minute, on a bicycle kick by Robert Morales, the home team maintained near-constant pressure.

Goals by Manu Duah, David Vazquez, Alex Mighten and Luca Bombino within an 18-minute stretch, starting with Duah’s perfect header off Dreyer’s corner kick in the 68th minute, ensured that hogging the ball would translate into a blowout win.

If Pumas was advantaged by having played four official games this season, it was scarcely evident Tuesday.

The Mexican team had no interest in trying to match SDFC’s ball-control game, nor did its counterattacks pose many challenges.

SDFC’s regulars had the run of play. Legs under them, 2025 MLS runner-up Dreyer, 27, and team captain Tverskov, 32, controlled the game’s flow until the final moments.

Coming on midway into the second half, a few substitutes ran with the baton against a softened opponent. Left wing Vazquez, 19, headed home a diagonal pass from defender/December addition Wilson Eisner, 23. Right wing Mighten freed up Duah for his header and scored the third goal.

For SDFC, the challenge of preparing for the game/season may have been rougher than the game itself.

Three and a half weeks of training camp is all Varas’ club got, due largely to SDFC’s expansion team reaching the MLS semifinals, a 3-1 loss to Vancouver.

Varas commended “the boys” for maxing out less than a month of workouts, including a scrimmage.

“Not one excuse dripped from a single pore of them,” the coach said.

“We have a culture where we really embrace adversity, and learning moments together as a team,” said Bombino, a 19-year-old defender in his second season here.

Tverskov said his teammate maintained fitness before camp began, enabling a productive launch.

By NFL and MLB standards, SDFC’s time off between the end of the 2025 season (Nov. 29) and the start of the 2026 training camp (Jan. 9) was ultra-brief, as was the preseason.

But Tverskov called it “quite normal” for European players such as himself and Dreyer, a fellow Dane. Citing another factor in the quick ramp-up, Tverskov added: “We are comfortable in the way we want to play.”

Even so, the Concacaf Champions Cup’s top prize no doubt caught everyone’s attention.

The winner of the 27-team event gets a berth in the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup, plus $5 million.

San Diego and Pumas will meet Tuesday in Mexico City. SDFC would reach the Round of 16 against Mexico’s Toluca — a tournament favorite, per some pundits — with a tie, a win or a defeat that doesn’t negate its edge in goal differential.

Should SDFC reach the final, May 30, here’s a cherry-on-the-sundae potential opponent: Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami club, which, as the MLS Cup champion, got a first-round bye.

Enough about the CCC’s incentives.

Playing for SDFC, said several players, counts as a major incentive, regardless. While that’s what you’d expect them to say, there’s been too much success, too much entertaining soccer from the fledgling franchise, to dismiss the feedback.

“There is such a clear identity,” said 30-year-old goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega, a Mexico City native.

“How we play, it’s just amazing. It’s honestly the most fun I’ve had playing football my entire life. They just let you play free. There’s a very clear system, but within that system you can play free.”

Yes, they’re back.

And without a whiff of complacency.