Jon Arnold
Liga MX vs. MLS. It’s what Leagues Cup is about, and we’ll see that rivalry play out more than ever across the fields of North America this summer.
Strip away all the highlight-reel moments, the penalty shootouts, the individual play, and at its base the tournament remains Liga MX vs. MLS. Yes, it’s club against club, 11 vs. 11, but the allure of the tournament always has been seeing which league would be able to have more of its clubs find success against its rivals from the opposite number.
It’s also about seeing more direct contests. With matchups scarce in the Concacaf Champions Cup—a tournament for which Leagues Cup serves as a qualifier—fans in North America want to see more games between teams in the two leagues. After all, they give more fodder for debate about the quality of each league, they often create a clash between styles of play, and they’re just fun.
That’s what the new Leagues Cup format, kicking off this summer, promises to give fans more of. Every match of Phase One will see an MLS team meeting a Liga MX squad—and vice versa. Plus, after a pair of tournaments in which knockout contests between Liga MX and MLS teams were too scarce, every quarterfinal is now an interleague throw-down with a place in the Final Four and a chance at the CCC places on the line.
From there, anything can happen. Fans now are guaranteed more of those brush-ups, the culture clashes, and the chance to see teams who have earned it on the field try to prove they’re up to or above the standard set by the rival league. The Colorado Rapids won’t let even MLS rivals forget how they earned their CCC place by getting results against four consecutive Mexican opponents in last year’s Leagues Cup. Meanwhile, Mazatlán’s triumphs over Nashville SC and D.C. United stand among the highlights of the Kraken’s 2024.
There also remains some intra-league competition. Teams are fighting for the best four slots in each league during Phase One, as the top four teams in each league will move into the quarterfinals. There, it’s another showdown against a counterpart in the opposite league—with seeding coming into play as well—since the most successful MLS team in Phase One will earn the top seed and face Liga MX’s four seed, the most successful Liga MX team in Phase One meets MLS’ four seed and so on. That will create even more cross-league competition with Leagues Cup glory and a place in the 2026 CCC at stake.
There also are still no ties. In previous tournaments, fans have been able to see goalkeepers convert into stars, rescuing their teams with crucial saves, or unseasoned field players stepping to the spot to earn their team critical points or send them through to the Knockout Rounds.
That is what it will all be about when the Leagues Cup ball finally gets rolling: Something that gets back to the basics of seeing which teams are able to excel in international play.
It’s Liga MX vs. MLS, with a new format that will mean that rivalry renewing more than we ever expected.
