MLS and Liga MX teams will be seeing a lot more of each other going forward.
The leagues announced a new tournament on Wednesday morning branded Leagues Cup and featuring four teams from each league.
The debut edition will begin in July with the Chicago Fire meeting Cruz Azul and the LA Galaxy meeting Tijuana on July 23. The next day, Club America travels to face Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake hosts Tigres. The tournament will be single-elimination with the semifinals taking place in MLS venues on Aug. 20 and the final set for Sept. 18 at a U.S. venue to be announced later.
Teams were chosen for strategic reasons for this edition, but organizers hope to use on-field performance both in Leagues Cup and in other competitions to fill out the bracket in the future.
It is not a new idea. From 2007-2010, four teams from MLS and four from Mexico played three group matches in a tournament called SuperLiga with the top two teams from each group moving into the knockout phase of the tournament. Those matches also were largely hosted in the MLS' teams home venues.
The MLS Cup champion and Liga MX Campeon de Campeones (the winner of a summer match between the Apertura and Clausura champion) currently meet in the Campeones Cup, which started last season with Tigres beating Toronto FC. Leagues Cup will mean more competition between teams from North America's top leagues - though it remains to be seen if it is the kind of the competition fans in the region want to see.
Even as the Concacaf Champions League has tweaked its format to lead to more matches between MLS and Liga MX teams, directors on both sides of the border have been working to get more matches between teams from the two leagues to capitalize on fan interest in the U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry and a number of memorable meetings between the clubs in CCL play.
MLS and Liga MX announced a strategic partnership in March 2018 that included the Campeones Cup and also included collaboration on portions of MLS All-Star week such as the homegrown game. It also included sharing of best practices. Yet, both sides were clear that more matches could be expected, and Leagues Cup now enters to make good on that desire.
Leagues Cup will be sanctioned by Concacaf, which some speculated would be against increased co-operation between the two leagues. Instead, the governing body's president Victor Montagliani said the new competition signals even more cohesion between all groups involved.
“Concacaf is committed to continuing the development of competitions that will further unite the confederation and provide more opportunities to develop players and connect passionate fans across our region,” Montagliani said in a news release. “Alongside our own expanded regional club competitions, which includes the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, the Leagues Cup organized by Liga MX and MLS further strengthens our sport in our confederation and is a precursor for future collaboration between Concacaf, Liga MX, MLS and other key stakeholders.”
Multiple Liga MX managers said the timetable of this tournament may give fans a better indication of how the two leagues compare than the CCL - though it's still not pitting teams together when both are in rhythm.
"Sometimes it has been difficult due to the dates. And now with this international tournament because in some way the (Liga MX) clubs will be entering their preseason and MLS is in another calendar. But I think that all of these factors have been taken into consideration, it has greatly favored the way teams have expanded," said Club Tijuana manager Oscar Pareja, who coached FC Dallas before taking over Xolos.
For Cruz Azul manager Pedro Caixihna, who said he interviewed for an MLS job after leaving Santos Laguna in 2015, the tables will be turned, creating a challenge for La Maquina.
"I think there is one thing that can explain why, perhaps, the two leagues aren’t even now, and this new tournament, due to the timing, may prove me right or wrong," Caixinha said. "Now things will be flipped: we are going to be starting out preseasons and they will be in the middle of their season, backwards completely from what happens in Champions League. So, if at some point the schedules would even out, then we will be able to see their true growth, because at the moment the preparation is totally different."
LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos said MLS isn't the only league that is growing. While the Mexico international, who played his youth soccer with Barcelona, will make his debut against Liga MX competition in Leagues Cup, he has watched from afar the past several years as clubs push to win the league and to continue Liga MX's dominance of the CCL.
"I think it will be a one-of-a-kind experience for me just like for the club, the league," Dos Santos said. "I think it is important for the growth. I think it is important to be seen worldwide. Liga MX is growing, too. I think it was a good decision to put this together.”
Only time will tell if the timing and execution is right for Leagues Cup to outlive the Superliga or how the landscape could shift in the future. Mexican fans have pined for their clubs to return to the Copa Libertadores, South America's top club tournament, while MLS teams already are coping with league play, U.S. Open Cup play and occasional friendly matches during the summer.
"We are going to go out to compete. It’s going to be something complicated because we are going to have a lot of matches in that month and surely, coach will rotate the roster and try to give a break to some players," Dynamo forward Mauro Manotas said. "If it’s our turn to play there, we will give it all to win.”
