Leagues Cup's place in a Club World Cup world

New York Times

3 days ago

We all agree that there's too much football, right?
After the FIFA Club World Cup ushered in yet another major tournament into the game's crowded ecosystem, and less than one year away from an expanded 48-team men's World Cup, it appears that there's no turning back. The saturation of soccer is here to stay.
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So in an ever-cluttered space, where does this leave Leagues Cup? The annual MLS and Liga MX inter-league tournament, which began Tuesday night and will run through Aug. 31, has tweaked its format for its third edition. The tournament field has been reduced to 36 teams and now pits 18 MLS clubs against all 18 Liga MX sides. Every match in the opening phase pits MLS sides against Liga MX opponents, and tie games go straight to penalties to add urgency to a tournament that is desperate for its results to matter. The competitive stakes remain, with the top three finishers receiving berths in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup – which presents a pathway to the next Club World Cup.
But everyone's bandwidth – fans and players – has a maximum capacity. And just like the realities of the consumerization of football, fans in the U.S. have been inundated with the perceived virtues of the MLS vs. Liga MX rivalry. The two leagues have grown closer together over the past five years – they just staged their fourth All-Star Game in five years last week – leading plenty to envision a world where they eventually merge. Regardless, it all reflects the zeitgeist of North America's new-age football mentality.
'When I did my own homework and I dug into it, when you look at it, this rivalry is going nowhere,' Leagues Cup executive director Tom Mayo told The Athletic.' You know that this is going to be a rivalry around in 100, 200 years.'
How much of that rivalry is cutting through to the mainstream, though? Arguably the most meaningful and impactful MLS vs. Liga MX showdown occurred in May almost by accident, when LAFC and Club América battled for Club León's vacated Club World Cup place and the $9.55 million prize that came along with it. FIFA stumbled onto a great showcase of both clubs and leagues. Whether Leagues Cup can replicate that aura without becoming redundant in the consumers' eye is its next challenge.
As the 2025 edition kicked off, three of Tuesday night's six opening round games were decided from the penalty spot, though that's not necessarily a reflection of the tension that exists between clubs in the U.S. and Mexico. Penalties do make for more drama, and surely the players prefer that route over 30 extra minutes of football. But if you dig deeper into the new format, you'll realize that at some stage during this revised Leagues Cup, the competition will become a friendly tournament for most teams.
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Losing in regulation or drawing and falling in penalties in the first match can make advancement impossible or highly unlikely before a team has played two group stage matches. A smaller field means goals scored and wins are more valuable than before. At the very least, the leagues are not taking a full hiatus while this competition plays out.
'I like this format better than the previous one, because in the previous format, if you were eliminated in the early stages, there was a long period of inactivity, which made you lose your rhythm in your (domestic) tournament,' Atlas head coach Gonzalo Pineda said on Tuesday. 'That's not the case with this one.'
Portland Timbers coach Phil Neville agreed. Less down time appears to be a universally welcomed change by participating coaches. And with less margin for error, the perceived exigency of the tournament gives players and staff a taste of international knockout football.
'This is not just a game that you've got to win,' Neville said on the eve of Portland's debut versus Atlético San Luis. 'You've got to perform well. Score goals, keep clean sheets, and you cannot rest in these games because the odd goal or the yellow card here and there when it comes to the tie breaks could go a long way.'
Real Salt Lake head coach Pablo Mastroeni didn't bite when asked where Leagues Cup's place is within the international football hierarchy – 'I think that question is for someone that's in a higher position than myself,' he said – but he appreciates the value it can provide for both his players and himself. RSL will face Mexican giant América at home on Wednesday in a major test.
'I think as a player, you always like to measure yourself with the big names in the region, whether you're in Concacaf or Europe,' Mastroeni said. 'It's a real barometer as to where you stand in the international game.'
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Leagues Cup also allows both MLS and Liga MX teams to go head-to-head against some of the top tacticians in North America. Similarly, the Club World Cup allowed MLS sides Seattle, Inter Miami and LAFC to test themselves tactically against Europe and South America's top managers. So, even if schedule congestion is a reality, the innate competitive drive that professionals have could make Leagues Cup a value-add in the long run.
'I'm always a learner,' Mastroeni said. 'I'm forever learning and having the opportunity to play against different opponents like this provides you with maybe a catalyst of different rotations, as far as the tactics are concerned. And from a player's perspective, it's the belief system that allows you to say, 'Man, we played against the best in the region and I held my own.' '
There's a clear distinction, however, between what coaches take away from Leagues Cup and what MLS sporting directors believe regarding the tournament.
'I was a fan in the beginning, but we have too many interruptions during our season and our playoffs,' one MLS sporting director said during The Athletic's anonymous executive survey in March. 'We have to fix that. Our season has to be continuous.'
Another added: 'I prefer Leagues Cup to the U.S. Open Cup, but I don't think (Leagues Cup) is a great tournament. I just think it was lightning in a bottle because (Lionel) Messi got signed.'
The inaugural tournament was indeed a smash success, with an inspired Messi debuting with a stoppage-time, free-kick winner vs. Cruz Azul and taking off from there to the tune of 10 goals and four assists in seven matches. Miami won the title and will once again be the marquee team this summer, opening Wednesday night against Atlas in Fort Lauderdale. Last season, Messi was injured and missed the competition, whose resonance dwindled surely as a direct result.
This year, MLS Cup is what Miami truly desires at this point. How head coach Javier Mascherano manages the minutes for Messi, Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets during an already loaded summer that included the Club World Cup – and how important the club views Leagues Cup as a pathway to a Champions Cup berth – will determine Miami's fate and level of buy-in. The addition of Argentine World Cup winner Rodrigo De Paul, who is eligible to make his Miami debut vs. Atlas, can also contribute to the intrigue of this edition of Leagues Cup and how it's perceived.
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Or perhaps the needle won't move much at all. In the ever-saturated ecosystem, where players' unions continue to deride the congestion of the calendar, Leagues Cup could fade into the background as all of the ancillary competitions become a blur.
For Mayo, though, a former managing director of the globally renowned America's Cup sailing competition and co-founder of SOS Hydration, Leagues Cup is an untapped venture with great potential. History, he claimed, is on the tournament's side.
'You've got a Leagues Cup in its third year, you've got a Club World Cup, you've got a World Cup, and you've got growing leagues independently themselves,' he said. 'But in three or four years time, there won't be a Club World Cup and there won't be a World Cup (in the U.S.). They might come back in 10 to 15 years time, but at some point you want to start laying down the foundations for a future tournament.'