Latest news with #LigaMX
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
LAFC stuns Club América to reach Club World Cup, becomes a perfect MLS representative
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 31: Denis Bouanga #99 of Los Angeles FC celebrates after scoring the team's second goal during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Play-In match between Los Angeles Football Club and Club America at BMO Stadium on May 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by) LOS ANGELES — LAFC is headed to the Club World Cup. And Club América is going home. Less than a week after falling short in the Liga MX final, América suffered another blow — this time on foreign soil. Backed by a large supporters section here at BMO Stadium that at times drowned out the home team's fans, the Mexican giants pushed LAFC to the brink, but it was the MLS side that delivered in extra time; Denis Bouanga's deflected shot broke a 115th-minute deadlock. Advertisement And at the end of 120 minutes in Saturday's high-stakes play-in game for León's vacated Club World Cup slot, LAFC edged América 2-1, and secured MLS a third place in the expanded global tournament. For LAFC, it's redemption against a Mexican side in a high-profile setting after losing to León in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions Cup final — which is why, two years later, LAFC ended up in this playoff. Its first real threat of the game came in the 18th minute after Sebastian Caceres' reckless studs-up challenge on Mark Delgado earned him a yellow card. After Delgado received treatment, LAFC's free kick from near midfield found Nathan Ordaz inside the box. Ordaz's left-footed shot went just wide of the post. Advertisement After a sleepy first half, the game finally turned in the 63rd minute. Delgado's rough tackle on Erick Sanchez inside LAFC's box gifted América a penalty. Brian Rodríguez, who spent four years at LAFC, stepped up and drilled the penalty kick past Hugo Lloris to put América ahead 1-0. Then, in the 89th minute, with América having one foot in the Club World Cup's door, LAFC found the equalizer. Bouanga's corner kick found Igor Jesus, and the midfielder's header sailed into the net. After seven minutes of intense stoppage time with LAFC almost finding the winner, 30 minutes of extra time were added. And in the 115th minute, Bouanga found the winner. Why LAFC is a perfect Club World Cup flag-bearer for MLS LAFC will be Major League Soccer's third team in the Club World Cup, and in many ways, it will be the best representative. Advertisement First: It has been something of a model MLS club ever since its inception in 2018. Second: Neither of the league's other two participants will offer an accurate litmus test. Inter Miami is exceptional. It has Lionel Messi and a roster unlike anything MLS has ever seen. Its performance won't tell us much about the league's progress or lack thereof. It won't give American club soccer a measuring stick. Nor will the Seattle Sounders, because they'll probably get pummeled by PSG and Atlético Madrid — because almost anybody would get pummeled by PSG right now. The Sounders, too, represent plenty positive aspects of MLS, but their Club World Cup group — PSG, Atléti and reigning South American champion Botafogo — is regrettably murderous. Advertisement LAFC, on the other hand, will slot right into the middle of Group D. It will face Chelsea (England), Flamengo (Brazil) and Espérance Tunis (Tunisia). It could realistically scrape seven points from those three games. It could also flame out with zero. Its performance, therefore, will tell us more than anything or anybody else about how MLS compares to other leagues on other continents. LAFC's Club World Cup schedule LAFC will open on the third day of the tournament, June 16, in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Chelsea. It will follow that with a June 20 match in Nashville vs. ES Tunis and a June 24 tilt vs. Flamengo in Orlando. The 32-team tournament kicks off June 14 in Miami Gardens, Florida, with Inter Miami facing Egypt's Al Ahly.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
LAFC stuns Club América to reach Club World Cup, and becomes a perfect MLS representative
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 31: Denis Bouanga #99 of Los Angeles FC celebrates after scoring the team's second goal during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Play-In match between Los Angeles Football Club and Club America at BMO Stadium on May 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by) LOS ANGELES — LAFC is headed to the Club World Cup. And Club América is going home. Less than a week after falling short in the Liga MX final, América suffered another blow — this time on foreign soil. Backed by a large supporters section here at BMO Stadium that at times drowned out the home team's fans, the Mexican giants pushed LAFC to the brink, but it was the MLS side that delivered in extra time; Denis Bouanga's deflected shot broke a 115th-minute deadlock and sealed the deal. Advertisement In Saturday's high-stakes play-in game for León's vacated Club World Cup slot, LAFC edged América 2-1, and secured Major League Soccer a third place in the expanded global tournament. For LAFC, it's redemption against a Mexican side in a high-profile setting after losing to León in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions Cup final. The first real threat from LAFC came in the 18th minute after Sebastian Caceres' reckless studs-up challenge of Mark Delgado earned him a yellow card. After Delgado received treatment, LAFC's freekick from near center field found Nathan Ordaz inside the box, but his left-footed shot went just wide of the goalpost. Advertisement It was the same Mark Delgado who in the 63rd minute would respond with his own ugly challenge to earn himself a yellow card. But Delgado's rough tackle of Erick Sanchez was inside LAFC's box. And after a VAR review of the play, a penalty was awarded. Brian Rodríguez, who spent four years at LAFC, drilled the penalty shot past Hugo Lloris to put América on the board. Then, in the 89th minute, with América having one foot in the Club World Cup's door, LAFC found the equalizer. Dennis Bouanga's corner kick found Igor Sanchez inside the box and the midfielder's header sailed into the net. After seven minutes of intense stoppage time with LAFC almost finding the winner, 30 minutes of play were added. And in the 115th minute, Bouanga found the winner. Advertisement The match was arranged after León — originally set to represent Liga MX after winning the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League (now Cup) over LAFC — was ruled ineligible due to a FIFA rule prohibiting multiple teams from the same owner to be in the tournament. That opened the door for 2023 runners-up LAFC and América, the No. 1 team in FIFA's CONCACAF rankings at the end of 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup. With the win, LAFC joins a Club World Cup field that already includes Real Madrid, Manchester City and newly crowned Champions League winners PSG. They will compete in Group D alongside Chelsea (England), Flamengo (Brazil) and Espérance de Tunis (Tunisia). In their first group stage fixture on June 16, they will face Chelsea inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They'll follow that with a June 20 match in Nashville vs. Espérance and a June 24 tilt vs. Flamengo in Orlando. The 32-team tournament kicks off June 14 in Miami Gardens, Florida, with Inter Miami facing Egypt's Al Ahly.
New York Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Live updates: LAFC, América play-in match for Club World Cup place
When Mexican club León was booted from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup due to multi-club ownership regulations, it opened up an opportunity for two other clubs, and the time has come for either LAFC or Club América to capitalize. The MLS and Liga MX sides meet at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT), where the winner will claim the final place at the first 32-team Club World Cup. The victor will be placed in a group with Chelsea, Flamengo and Espérance de Tunis, and, more importantly, that team will net the $9.55 million participation bonus that clubs from this region have been bestowed by FIFA – with the potential to earn more on offer depending on performance in the Club World Cup. Advertisement MLS and Liga MX clubs have battled in Leagues Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup and MLS All-Star Game settings in recent years, but none has boasted the combination of financial incentive and competitive stakes such as Saturday night's duel. Should LAFC win, it would join fellow MLS sides Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders in the Club World Cup, while América is aiming to follow Pachuca and Monterrey as Mexican entrants. Follow here for live updates and highlights of goals and key plays from throughout the match (this post will be updated frequently). Here are the lineups for both sides: LAFC The Starting XI for #LAFCvAME#LAFC | @FIFACWC — LAFC (@LAFC) June 1, 2025 CLUB AMÉRICA XI AZULCREMA@FabanReyes nos dice que así saldrá el América en la búsqueda del boleto al mundial de clubes ante L.A. FC#America #TVCDeportes — TVC Deportes (@TVCDeportes) June 1, 2025
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Concacaf Champions Cup's One-Game Final Is A Fixable Problem
If you're a longtime MLS follower, it can feel a little too convenient to criticize the Concacaf Champions Cup's new single-game final format, which enters its second year in Sunday's clash between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Cruz Azul in Mexico City. Yes, the result has been an MLS team hitting the road in both occasions. And last year, the Columbus Crew looked like a shadow of themselves in a 3-0 defeat to CF Pachuca, with reports later contending the MLS side had dealt with food poisoning in the run-up to the match. Yet on some level, MLS complaints about the format of continental competition in Concacaf has become tired, creating a culture of excuses that has helped foster Liga MX's continued lopsided domination All that said, the reality is that if Concacaf ever has any hope of creating a competition that rivals the UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores for reverence, then a home-field advantage in the final has to be abandoned. The Champions League final has been contested at a neutral site since the competition was still called the European Cup. The Copa Libertadores final has also been played at a neutral venue for the last several years, and before that was played in the same home-and-away aggregate goals format as the rest of the knockout stage. Only Asia has an extended track record of playing a one-game continental club final in a home-field environment. And Asia's geographical challenges are considerably more difficult than Concacaf's. And what UEFA and CONMEBOL recognize is that the influence of home field in continental play is too great to extend to one team and still give the competition even a veneer of fairness. Since the tournament became a solely knockout competition in 2018, home teams have won exactly 54% of matches over 90 minutes. (This stat excludes numbers from 2020, in which the latter stages were played at a neutral venue behind closed doors because of the pandemic.) And remember, there are also lots of ties in soccer. That's an enormous home-field edge – about six percentage points more than what MLS teams typically enjoy in league games. And globally, MLS' home-field edge is actually a considered stronger than the norm. To play three to four rounds of competition in the aggregate format, then suddenly switch to a one-leg final is basically the equivalent of giving one team an extra goal in the tournament's most important game. And deciding which team gets that benefit based on tournament record alone is often an exercise in which club received the more favorable draw, not which team played better. That said, it's understandable why Concacaf has flirted with this format after expanding the field to 27 teams in 2024, necessitating the need for an extra round. As a 16-team tournament and four-round affair, it was possible to begin the competition in late February and wrap it up in late April or early May before the Liga MX Clausura playoffs began. That permitted enough space on the calendar to contest the final over two legs, with the home-field edge given to the team contesting the second leg in front of their own supporters only a slight one. The larger field requires an extra round and puts Concacaf in a timing bind, given that the Liga MX playoffs run through most of May. Cruz Azul had been eliminated by the middle of the month in the semifinals. But had they played the final, they would have only had seven days to refocus on their continental aims. With the FIFA international break following in early June, Sunday is literally the last day a match can be contested before international teams have the right to call in players. So as long as the field remains at 27 teams, a one-game final may be necessary. Presumably, Concacaf is acting on the assumption that a neutral site contest would be a dead end commercially. If so, that's because decision makers have not been imaginative enough in considering how they could arrive at a neutral site. For the federation's needs, the best option would be not to decide the venue well in advance, but instead after it knows the two finalists, honing in on a locale that could be a reasonable destination for a sizable segment of both fanbases. (Incidentally, this was once the way FA Cup semifinals venues were decided, until they were relocated to Wembley in 2008.) In instances where two Mexican teams makle the final or two MLS teams make the final, Concacaf should look for a venue that is as close to equidistant as possible between the clubs and in a major transit hub. In instances where one MLS team and one Mexican side qualified, because of the wider popularity of Liga MX clubs across the U.S., the venue would ideally be in an American market that was within one day's drive of the MLS city and in a city with a sizable Mexican American community when possible, or at the very least also within a one day's drive of such a city. The federation could cross the bridge of a finalist from outside MLS or Liga MX when the occasion arises. Going back to 2018, here's where Concacaf might have chosen to host a single-game final at a neutral venue: 2018: CD Guadalajara vs. Toronto FC - Chicago, Ill. 2019: CF Monterrey vs. Tigres UANL - Monterrey, Mexico 2021: CF Monterrey vs. Club America - Guadalajara, Mexico 2022: Seattle Sounders vs. Pumas UNAM - San Jose, Calif. 2023: LAFC vs. Club Leon - Phoenix, Ariz. 2024: CF Pachuca vs. Columbus Crew - Nashville, Tenn. 2025: Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - Portland, Ore. And yes, there would be some logistical issues that might prevent the perfect site from being chosen every time. But from a practical standpoint, Concacaf would have more than 45 days to sort out one of up to four potential semifinal venues, given that the semifinalists would be known by early mid-April. In 2025, it probably would've only needed to consider two potential final locations by mid-April, given two MLS teams in one final and two Mexican sides in the other. Tigres UANL vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - Portland, Ore. Tigres UANL vs. Inter Miami - Houston, Texas Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - Portland, Ore. Cruz Azul vs. Inter Miami - Houston, Texas Ultimately, the goal should be to find venues capable of seating at least 20,000, distributing 25% of the tickets to each club and the remaining 50% to the general public. And venue selection could involve making exceptions where the circumstances allow. For example, had Miami won, the hypothetical venue of Houston is indeed further from Miami than a day's drive. But Messi's popularity across the nation would still make selling out Houston's Shell Energy Stadium more than realistic, and more likely drawing a much larger crowd to NRG Stadium, Houston's NFL venue. Maybe sell outs wouldn't always be guaranteed, and maybe profits for the federation would fall incrementally in the short term. But that impact could be blunted with flexible venue selection, while establishing the final as a marqee event similar to the UEFA Champions League or Copa Libertadores versions. That would also set up the competition for longer term growth, and would be well worth the tradeoff.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Mexico will co-host 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup with United States
The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) will co-host the 2031 Women's World Cup alongside the United States, an FMF spokesperson confirmed to on Friday. The federation announced the plans in a press release Monday, outlining 'important agreements' for the development of football in Mexico. The release came on the heels of a Liga MX owners meeting earlier that day. Advertisement In April, FIFA confirmed the United States as the sole bidder for the 2031 tournament, which will expand to 48 teams that year for the first time in women's football. U.S. Soccer later said it planned to co-host the tournament with other Concacaf partners. The Mexican federation said in its release that it was designated to co-host the tournament with the U.S. 'and other Concacaf countries, with parity in the number of matches.' It's unclear how matches will be split between the co-hosts and whether other Concacaf nations will be added to the mix. The Mexican federation did not share additional details about its plans. has reached out to U.S. Soccer and FIFA for comment. Mexico and the U.S. previously submitted a bid to co-host the 2027 World Cup, before withdrawing from the bidding process weeks before a public vote was scheduled to take place. At the time, the federations expressed their interest in bidding for the 2031 edition. Brazil was later named host of the 2027 tournament. Advertisement There is precedent for the regions to share co-hosting responsibilities, with the men's World Cup in 2026 co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. On the women's side, Canada last hosted the women's tournament in 2015. The two nations also have experience in hosting an expanded tournament, suggesting that the infrastructure for an expanded tournament may have been seen as a draw for FIFA. In expanding the Women's World Cup to 48 teams for 2031, FIFA will bring the women's tournament in line with the men's tournament, which will also feature 48 teams next year. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. International Football, NWSL, UK Women's Football, women's sports 2025 The Athletic Media Company
