Last year, the Kansas City Wizards’ venture into international competition ended with a first-round exit from the Merconorte Cup. The winner of its group was Mexico’s Santos Laguna, which beat the Wizards in Torreon and in Kansas City. Tonight, the Wizards meet Santos again, in Mexico, in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. (The second leg is April 24 in Kansas City.) “We’re a much better team than we were last year and we want to go down there and get a decent result to bring back home,” says the Wizards’ Peter Vermes said. “We view this CONCACAF Champions Cup as our [European] Champions League. We need to win this thing and prove to the teams within our region that MLS is the strongest professional league and that our team is the best.” FC Champions Cup quarterfinals: Ñ Communicaciones (Guatemala) vs. Alajuelense (Costa Rica) April 14 in Guatemala; April 24 in Costa Rica Ñ San Jose (USA) vs. Pachuca (Mexico) April 17 in Mexico; April 25 in San Jose, Calif. Ñ Chicago (USA) vs. Morelia (Mexico) Dates: TBA Ñ Kansas City (USA) vs. Santos Laguna (Mexico) April 10 in Mexico; April 24 in Kansas City