While Leagues Cup involves every team in MLS and Liga MX, two squads have notably been absent from the tournament. Club América and Columbus Crew SC qualified directly for the Round of 32 thanks to their position as champion of their respective leagues.
As other teams fought it out in the group stage, the two defending champions were able to play Leagues Cup Showcase friendly matches and rest key players while other teams started to fight for their place in the next round of this competition.
Rest vs. rust is a long debate in sports, even more so in a direct competition when one team qualifies early for the next round and the other has a more steady rhythm of games. But Club América manager Andre Jardine said the friendly matches against Chelsea and Aston Villa did enough to give his club a good head start ahead of the opening whistle of its Leagues Cup campaign.
“It’s something that plays a part,” Jardine said. “But we’re at a really, really good level because both friendlies were good, we selected the opponents well, really high-level teams and they were really good.
“It’s not the same to play friendly matches against knockout matches like (Friday), but my team played with a really good level of concentration and not making many mistakes which is something that could decide a game like this.”
While the teams will have to go quickly from “friendly mode” into “knockout mode”, it’s been a positive to miss out on a group stage that saw some tournament favorites sent home early. Last competition, the bye appeared to be a blessing for one team and perhaps a curse for another. Los Angeles FC sat out the group stage and made a run to the quarterfinals before falling in a thriller against Monterrey. Liga MX champ Pachuca had to head to Houston to face the Dynamo and fell in a penalty shoot.
But both teams earned the bye, with América becoming the fourth bicampeón in the history of short tournaments and the Crew by lifting MLS Cup with a 2-1 win over LAFC in December, and this year both hope to be able to reap the benefits.
“We know the team got to this place because of the effort they’ve put in during previous tournaments,” said Erick Sanchez, a midfielder who joined Las Águilas this summer from Pachuca. “We’ve got to take advantage of that, be really locked in and concentrated on (Friday)’s match and take advantage of the opportunity to be here.”
After group stage results, both champions ended up facing domestic opponents, with the Crew meeting Sporting Kansas City and América welcoming Atlas to their hub site at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.
Even so, the format of Leagues Cup, the different feel of the tournament, and the knowledge there are three Concacaf Champions Cup places waiting at the end for the top three teams in the competition give the games a totally different feel from past meetings like the Crew’s 4-0 romp past Sporting Kansas City in late June in which star forward Cucho Hernández notched a hat trick.
“It’s a new competition. Everything is open. Yes, we played Kansas City one month ago, but it’s going to be a new game,” Crew manager Wilfried Nancy said Thursday. “We have (five) games if I’m counting right to make a difference, like every team. Everything’s open in a new competition. We’re happy to play, (got) enough rest and are going to try to do something good.”
While both teams won their respective league titles, the Leagues Cup ended prematurely for them in 2023. After the Crew topped Club América 4-1 to win a group that also included St. Louis City SC, they crashed to Earth in the next round, eliminated by Minnesota United in a penalty shootout after a topsy-turvy 3-3 draw. América went one round more and also fell in a penalty shootout, losing to eventual runners-up Nashville SC.
With the desire to do better in this edition, both teams feel they’ve been well-served by the chance to miss out on the group stage this time around.
“Good to hit the refresh button, and glad to be back and enter into this competition,” said Crew attacker Christian Ramirez, who also scored in that June victory over SKC. “You go into this 90-minute game well-prepared and focused on what’s at stake.
“I think we have a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth from how this competition ended last year, so it’ll be good for us to get back into it.”
Nancy said his team goes into the Leagues Cup “confident but humble like usual” since it’s the first tournament in which he feels his team truly goes into it feeling like the reigning champion. Now, it’s about using the lessons learned not only from the past Leagues Cup elimination but also from the MLS Cup win and the near-miss in Concacaf Champions Cup to improve on their performance this time around - starting Friday.
“We’re a year older. We’re happy to be back. Honestly, we had a few days off. It was good,” Nancy said. “Is it good to have more days off than the other team? I don’t know. We’ll see, but just take the game like we want to take the game - respect what we want to do, respect ourselves and try to have a good performance to win the game.”
With the field now full and every remaining entrant in action, that’s the mentality every team in the Leagues Cup must have from here on out. Any defeat means elimination and any win means another step closer to the two-bowled trophy and a place in the CCC.
