The Leagues Cup is an annual competition between clubs from the MLS and Liga MX, running since the summer of 2019. Initially, the tournament was between four clubs from both leagues but was expanded in 2023 to include all top flight sides from the United States and Mexico.
Previous winners include a Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami in 2023 before León defeated the Seattle Sounders in 2021 and Cruz Azul won the inaugural edition in 2019 in a 2-1 win over UNAL Tigres.
The 2020 and 2022 editions of the competition did not play out due to COVID-19 and the fixture congestions caused by the 2022 FIFA World Cup, meaning that Liga MX currently hold the advantage for having more previous winners of the tournament.
On August 25th, 2024, we will know who will be crowned the fourth winners of the Leagues Cup.
The Format
The opening round of the competition features a group stage with 15 groups of 3 teams each. Every team will play against each other once, and the top two teams from each group will advance to the Round of 32. Joining them in the next round will be last season's champions of MLS and Liga MX, the Columbus Crew and Club América, who received a pass from the group stages.
The points system in the Leagues Cup differs from the usual format as no ties are allowed in the group stages. If a match ends in a draw, it goes to a penalty shootout to determine the winner. The winning team earns 2 points, while the losing team gets 1 point. Besides this, the standard rules apply: 3 points for a win and 0 points for a loss.
To read more about the Leagues Cup, be sure to head to their website.
Matchday 1
Results for Liga MX sides:
Friday 26th July 2024
Pumas 2-3 Austin FC
LAFC 3-0 Tijuana
Pumas found themselves behind after 8 minutes but were given a lifeline after the half-hour mark when Osman Bukari was sent off for the MLS side. Despite the man advantage, they were unable to prevent Gyasi Zardes and Sebastián Driussi from scoring. Goals from Ali Ávila and Guillermo Martínez gave the Mexican side some hope, but it was a poor start to their Leagues Cup campaign.
Tijuana began their Liga MX Apertura campaign with two consecutive wins, but a heavy defeat to Cruz Azul and a lacklustre 1-1 draw with San Luís left them lacking momentum heading into the Leagues Cup. The LA side took full advantage, and now Tijuana needs a significant result against Vancouver to qualify for the next round.
Saturday 27th July 2024
Puebla 0-2 Inter Miami
Houston Dynamo 0-1 Atlas
New England Revolution 1-0 Mazatlán
Chivas 1 (3)-(4) 1 San Jose Earthquakes
Three defeats out of four games for Mexican sides of the Saturday night action as Atlas secured the only win of the night. Scoring the only goal of the game in the 83rd minute, Jose Lozano gave Mexican football fans something to celebrate.
Chivas suffered the first penalty shootout defeat for a Mexican side in the tournament despite scoring a 98th minute equaliser to take the game to penalties. The goalscorer Roberto Alvarado missed his penalty to give San Jose the advantage but the fate was sealed when Cade Cowell, who has scored 3 goals in 4 games for Chivas this season, also failed to hit the back of the net.
Other results on Saturday night saw reigning champions Inter Milan comfortably defeat Puebla to kickstart their campaign as Mazatlán suffered a narrow defeat to the New England Revolution.
Sunday 28th July 2024
NYC FC 0 (4)-(3) 0 Querétaro
León 1-2 Portland Timbers
The Sunday evening action continued the theme of poor results for Mexican sides.
Querétaro, who lost all 4 games to start their Liga MX season, were looking for a fresh start in New York but a Ronaldo Cisneros missed spot kick confirmed a fifth straight defeat for the club, and they will look for a first win against Cincinnati reach the Round of 32.
The final game saw 2021 Leagues Cup winners León take on the Portland Timbers. Proceedings seemed to be promising when Alan Silva scored the opening game for the Mexican side before a brace from Zac McGraw sealed the comeback win for Portland.
Next up, the likes of Cruz Azul, Santos Laguna, Juárez, Toluca, Necaxa and Monterrey all make their first appearances of the tournament. Will they be able to lift the hopes and spirits of Mexican football fans? Be sure to let us know what you think!