Independiente de La Chorrera

A club from a ground that holds barely 3,040 people beat Toronto FC, a side from a league that draws crowds many times that size. The result belonged to Independiente de La Chorrera.

A president's resignation forced a reorganisation in 1994; the team won its district title that year. It took until September 1999, after years of work with young players, for the club to win the Copa Rommel Fernández and earn promotion to Primera A — Rubens Almanza finished that tournament as top scorer with 21 goals. In 2003 the coach who had built that promoted side, Daniel "Nelo" Montilla, died. Ricardo Escobar bought the club in 2009 and renamed it Independiente F.C.; a new administration pushed the project forward until the club reached Panama's top flight in 2017.

The titles followed fast. Between the 2018 Apertura and the 2023 Clausura, Independiente won the Panamanian league seven times. Omar Browne converted the penalty that decided the first of them, the 2018 Clausura, under a coach who had once kept goal for the club himself, Donaldo González — the same campaign that took Independiente into a Champions League group stage for the first time. Víctor Ávila scored the extra-time winner against CD Universitario in the 2022 Clausura final; Gilberto Hernández, since capped by Panama's national team, scored in the 3-0 win over Tauro that closed out 2023. Manuel Torres captained the side through the 2018-2019 run.

The win over Toronto remains the club's high-water mark in continental football. It has not gone further than that group stage since.