I’m not sure the importance of the Concacaf Champions League has been fully grasped by soccer fans in the United States. This is a big deal, and the fact that Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer has a good chance of winning the competition tonight is something they ought to be paying attention to.

RSL vs. Monterrey of Mexico.

RSL tied the first leg, at Monterrey, 2-2, which came after I saw lots of traffic in the ether about how Monterrey was going to kick around the MLS club. Uh, no.

And it all comes to an end tonight, with a game at RSL’s Rio Tinto stadium..

Why does this matter?

Three words: Reputation, reputation, reputation.

As far as the rest of the soccer world knows, by looking at the increasingly important Fifa Club World Cup, the best club teams in North America come from Mexico.

Only Mexican teams have played in the Club World Cup since it assumed its current form in 2005, aside from the Costa Rican side Saprissa in that first year.

Mexico dominance has come because U.S. teams have not taken the Concacaf competition as seriously as they should (the Galaxy went out of the current tournament 5-3, on aggregate, to the Puerto Rico Islanders, for crissakes) … and because the Mexican League is just plain better than MLS and has the results to prove it.

If MLS wants to be the best league in North America, and it’s safe to say everyone in the league believes they ought to be, they need to start winning the Champions League and then going out and playing other continental champions in high-profile matches.

Real Salt Lake has been impressive during the current Champions League competition, taking out Saprissa in the semifinals.

The winner of the Monterrey-RLS final will play in the 2011 Club World Cup in Tokyo, and with one victory will get a shot at the champion of Europe or South America.

Real Salt Lake playing Barcelona, Real Madrid or  Manchester United? A very, very big deal.

In this link, Jeff Carlisle of espn.com looks at tonight’s matchup. He reminds us that RSL managing a 2-2 result away last week means they can win the championship if it’s 0-0 or 1-1 after 90 minutes, because of the away goal tiebreaker. He also looks at some of the top players and matchups.

May want to pay attention to this … and hoist a brew … or maybe a glass of Hawaiian Punch … if Utah’s team gives the U.S. it’s first continental champion since the Galaxy, circa 2000.