MLS vs. Liga MX World Cup-style competition explainer

The growing bromance in between The United States and Canada’s leading 2 expert soccer leagues takes a huge action with this year’s edition of the Leagues Cup

Formerly played as a comfortable, eight-team competition, the Leagues Cup progresses into an overblown 47-team competitors this year, including every Big league Soccer and Liga MX club. Both leagues will stop regular-season play for a month to finish the World Cup-style competition.

The broadened Leagues Cup is simply the current action in the MLS and Liga MX collaboration, that included 2 joint All-Star video games ( 2021 and 2022) and the Campeones Cup, the yearly face-off of ruling champs from each league (this year it will include LAFC versus Tigres Sept. 27 at BMO Arena in Los Angeles).

MLS Season Hand Down Apple television+ will transmit the competition.

What is the Leagues Cup?

The Leagues Cup has actually been held two times prior to (2019 and 2021) with restricted involvement from MLS and Liga MX groups. This year, every group from both leagues will participate in the competition.

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The 29 MLS and 18 Liga MX clubs were divided into 15 groups in 4 areas: East, Central, South and West. The group phase begins July 21 and continues up until July 31. The leading 2 ending up groups from each group â with the exception of Group 1 in the South Area â will advance to the single-elimination knockout rounds, which begin Aug. 2. The last will be held Aug. 19.

Los Angeles FC â the 2022 MLS Cup champ â and Pachuca â the Liga MX champ with the most combined points built up throughout the Clausura and Apertura seasons in the 2022 fiscal year â made byes for the group phase and will get in the competitors throughout the knockout phase.

Automatic certification to the Round of 16 of the Concacaf Champions League goes to the competition winner. The Leagues Cup runner-up in addition to the third-place match winner get approved for the Concacaf Champions League.

Will Lionel Messi play in the Leagues Cup?

Lionel Messi, who lastly signed with Inter Miami CF and was presented to his brand-new house crowd in the rain at DRV PNK Arena on Sunday night, will launching with his brand-new group in the 2023 Leagues Cup

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner exposed last month he would play in the U.S. for David Beckham’s MLS club, however the offer wasn’t settled for weeks.

Leagues Cup group phase will have no ties

A success in policy will count as 3 points. For video games connected after 90 minutes, each group will get one point and the winner of the subsequent charge shootout will make an extra point.

Where will the 2023 Leagues Cup be played?

All 77 matches will be held either in the U.S. or Canada.

Beginning with the Round of 16, matches in between 2 MLS clubs will be hosted by the club with the much better surface in the 2022 Advocates’ Guard standings Matches in between 2 Liga MX clubs will be hosted at a location designated by the competition’s arranging committee.

Here is the swimming pool of local locations for matches in between 2 Liga MX clubs throughout the knockout rounds:

East: Red Bull Arena (Harrison, N.J.), Subaru Park (Chester, Pennsylvania), Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)
Central: SeatGeek Arena (Bridgeview, Illinois), Toyota Arena (Frisco, Texas), COCK’S Sporting Item Park (Commerce City, Colorado), Shell Energy Arena (Houston)
South: Q2 Arena (Austin, Texas), Toyota Arena (Frisco, Texas), Exploria Arena (Orlando, Florida)
West: BMO Arena (Los Angeles), Self-respect Health Sports Park (Carson, California), America First Field (Salt Lake City), PayPal Park (San Jose, California)

Knockout round match areas and kickoff times will be revealed at the conclusion of the group phase.

How do you get approved for the Leagues Cup?

Every MLS and Liga MX group got approved for the 2023 Leagues Cup. Nevertheless, groups were seeded based upon previous seasons’ standings. MLS clubs ranked 2 to 16 based upon 2022 Advocates’ Guard surface were seeded initially in each group. Liga MX clubs ranked 2 to 16 based upon overall combined points from Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2022 projects will remain in the 2nd position in each group, opposite the MLS rankings (for instance, Liga MX’s 16 seed â Tijuana â was positioned in a group with the MLS 2 seed â Philadelphia Union).

How were clubs seeded for 2023 Leagues Cup?

MLS seeds

Los Angeles FC (bye)
Philadelphia Union
CF MontrÃ©al
Austin FC
New York City City FC
New York City Red Bulls
FC Dallas
Los Angeles Galaxy
Nashville SC
FC Cincinnati
Minnesota United FC
Inter Miami CF
Orlando City SC
Genuine Salt Lake
Portland Timbers
Columbus Team

Unseeded: Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Colorado Rapids, Charlotte FC, New England Transformation, Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting Kansas City, Atlanta United, Chicago Fire FC, Houston Eager Beaver FC, San Jose Earthquakes, Toronto Fc, D.C. United, St. Louis City SC

Liga MX seeds