Will this be the year that Liga MX finally breaks MLS’s stranglehold on the Leagues Cup?
The third edition of the expanded Leagues Cup tournament — the World Cup-style competition that pits Major League Soccer clubs against their counterparts from Mexico — kicked off on Tuesday night with six games across the U.S. and Canada.
The last two editions of the Leagues Cup featured all-MLS finals.
MLS clubs Inter Miami and Columbus Crew won the last two editions of the Leagues Cup. (Getty Images)
Lionel Messi memorably led Inter Miami to the 2023 title before ever playing an official MLS match for the Herons, scoring 10 goals in seven appearances — including the decider against Nashville.
Last year, the Columbus Crew topped LAFC in a rematch of the previous fall’s MLS Cup final.
But a format shift this year favors the squads from south of the Rio Grande.
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First, after every MLS franchise participated in the Leagues Cup in each of the last two years, only the 18 American and Canadian teams that qualified for the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs are involved (except for the Vancouver Whitecaps, who were replaced by expansion San Diego FC) joining all 18 Liga MX clubs.
Second, there are no more intra-league matches: MLS sides and those from Mexico won’t face opponents from their own circuit during the first phase of the Leagues Cup, or in the quarterfinals.
That switch probably also benefits the Liga MX teams, which are not bound by the strict roster and salary restrictions that limit the competitiveness of MLS entrants in international play.
Tuesday’s results suggest as much, with Mexican sides winning five of the six contests, including three-goal victories by Puebla over NYCFC and Tigers over the Houston Dynamo. Montreal picked up MLS’s lone triumph, with the Eastern Conference’s lowest points-getter stunning James Rodriguez-led Leon on penalties at State Saputo following a 1-1 tie.
“Players will talk, and I guarantee some of the talk was that this isn’t fair that every single club from MLS and we only have 18,” National Soccer Hall of Famer DaMarcus Beasley, a former standout for Puebla who retired as a member of the Dynamo, told FOX Sports in an interview.
“If I play for Puebla and I’m going to United States to play against Toluca, iit’s like a league game. It’s not that much excitement to get up for because I’ve been playing them for six months, yeah. So I think the new format changes that. That every single game is against a different league makes it more exciting for players and for fans.”
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The Leagues Cup really picks up steam on Wednesday, when some of the sexier matches begin. Rodrigo de Paul, Messi’s World Cup-winning Argentina teammate, is expected to make his debut for Miami against Atlas. Club America, Mexico’s biggest club, visits Real Salt Lake and rising USMNT talent Diego Luna. There’s also a doubleheader on FS1, with Orlando City-Pumas followed by Portland Timbers-San Luis (coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET).
The tournament’s breakneck pace continues for more than a week, with seven match days of at least five games each between July 31 and Aug. 8. This endless summer of soccer won’t conclude until the Aug. 31 Leagues Cup final, after which teams on both sides of the Mexican border will turn their attention back to their respective domestic leagues.
It’s too soon to know if the new format will capture the imagination of the ticket-buying and media-consuming public the way the inaugural event did upon Messi’s arrival two summers ago.
But the latest version should still provide a more accurate reflection of where MLS and Mexico’s top division stand in relation to each other and perhaps invigorate the millions of fans who have long made Liga MX the most-watched soccer property in the U.S. ahead of England’s Premier League.
While Mexico’s decades-long dominance of the Concacaf Champions Cup, particularly on home soil, remains the obvious barometer, the business end of that tourney falls early in the MLS season and thus further diminishes its chances.
On the other hand, past Leagues Cup champs Miami and Columbus surely benefitted from the fact that no Leagues Cup games are held in Mexico, where the record of American and Canadian clubs is abysmal.
If this year’s format switch levels the playing field for the visitors as intended, we could be in for the most competitive — and compelling — Leagues Cup yet.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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