Everything you need to know about Leagues Cup
The Seattle Sounders enter the expanded and reformatted Leagues Cup on Saturday when they play Real Salt Lake. Joining them in the group is Liga MX side Monterrey, one of Mexico’s most successful teams over the past decade or so.
Although this is technically the second time the Sounders have competed in Leagues Cup — you may remember they made the 2021 final, which they lost to Club Léon — there’s really not that much similar about this version of the tournament aside from the name.
But don’t worry, I’m here to help get you all caught up and prepared:
Can you just explain the format?
Of course! While previous versions of this tournament were mostly limited to just four teams from each league, were played in a straight knockout style and were concurrent with the regular season, this is going to be quite different. This year’s tournament features 47 teams — all 29 from MLS and all 18 from Liga MX — and is using a “World Cup-style” format that includes a three-team group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to a knockout stage. Not only that but both leagues are pausing their regular seasons in order to be completely focused on this tournament. The Sounders, for instance, aren’t scheduled to play another league game until Aug. 20 (which will probably be rescheduled if either they are Atlanta United make the Leagues Cup final).
Hold up, you can make a coherent bracket with 47 teams?
Kinda! You may have noticed that there are actually 15 groups of three teams. That’s 45 teams. LAFC and Pachuca both get to go directly to the knockout stage. LAFC earned that perk by winning the 2022 MLS Cup, while Pachuca had the best-combined record of the 2022 Apertura and Clausura. LAFC will play the second-place team from South 1, while Pachuca gets the second-place team from South 2.
How did the rest of the teams get paired together?
This is a little complicated but here it goes: The remaining 28 MLS teams were ranked based on the 2022 Supporters’ Shield standings. The Top 15 teams were seeded and paired in reverse order of standings with the top 15 Liga MX teams based on the combined 2022 table. So the Top MLS team was paired with the worst Liga MX teams and so on. The remaining 13 MLS teams and two Liga MX teams were then placed into vaguely geographic groups.
Who is hosting these games?
All games are being played at MLS venues, with the seeded team hosting both games and the unseeded MLS team hosting the Liga MX opponent. When two Liga MX teams face one another they’ll play at a neutral MLS venue “as determined by the organizing committee.” There are 14 pre-selected MLS venues that can host these neutral site matches, of which Lumen Field is not one.
What can you tell us about the other teams in the Sounders group?
First off, I’ll just say that by almost any metric this is the toughest group. The Sounders are a pretty popular pick to potentially win this thing based primarily on their history of success in international tournaments and they’re arguably the worst team based on current form.
Monterrey is the top team in Concacaf’s club rankings after finishing top of the combined 2022-23 Apertura-Clausura table. The Sounders, who are ranked 15th, are the best-ranked No. 2 team in any group and 18th-ranked RSL are by far the best third-ranked team in any group.
Surely that’s hyperbole. Isn’t RSL kinda bad?
If you’re thinking of the version of RSL the Sounders dominated in Week 2, you’re going to need to re-calibrate. RSL is 12-2-7 across all competitions since mid-April, which includes a 0-0 tie with the Sounders on April 29. Weirdly, though, both of their losses and four of those ties have come at home during that stretch. Still, it’s probably worth noting that the Sounders haven’t won at RSL since the 2012 playoffs.
RSL have been especially good since Diego Luna returned from the U20 World Cup. They are 5-0-2 in his starts, with Luna collecting three goals and three assists in those games.
Is Monterrey really that good?
Yeah, they are really good. Over the last two Liga MX tournaments, they are 23-5-6. They are also 2-0-1 in the early stages of the current Apertura.
If they have a weakness, though, it’s in playoffs. Despite going in as one of the top seeds both times, they bowed out in the semifinals both times. They’ve also gone winless in their last four away playoff matches.
Excuse me, did you just say Monterrey is three games into their current season?
Yep! Say what you will about the timing of this on the MLS side but Liga MX literally just started their season and is now taking a five-week break so there can go play nothing but road games.
Who are some Monterrey players I should be worried about?
Monterrey has effectively kept their team together after last season with all their top scorers returning. Among them are Rogelia Mori, Alfonso Gonzalez, German Berterame and Rodrigo Aguirre. Those four combined for 34 goals and 20 assists in the previous two tournaments.
Is there any good news for the Sounders?
The schedule-makers did do the Sounders at least a slight favor. While the Sounders will be playing both of their games on normal rest, RSL will host Monterrey (July 26) on short rest and Monterrey will play the Sounders (July 30) on short rest.
It’s also worth noting the Sounders have sone pretty good history against Liga MX opponents. During their most recent CCL run, the Sounders went 2-0-2 against Leon and Pumas while out scoring them 9-3. In the 2021 Leagues Cup they went 2-1-0 against Tigers, Santos Laguna and Leon. All-time and across all competitions, they are 7-2-2 — including 5-0-0 under Schmetzer — at home against Liga MX opponents.
Who hosts the knockout stage games?
This is another rather silly quirk to this tournament: While the knockout stage bracket is determined by group-stage performance, that only matters for seeding in the Round of 32. From the Round of 16 onward hosting rights are determined by Supporters’ Shield standings. The big caveat here is that all games between MLS and Liga MX opponents will be played at the MLS team’s home stadium. In previous Leagues Cups, the final was played in Las Vegas but it appears as though the final will be played at a MLS venue this time. If that’s all a bit confusing, you can see the bracket at the top of this story.
Are these tickets in my season-ticket package?
The Monterrey game is definitely in your season-ticket package and unless you opted out of the pay-as-we-go option, you’ll also have tickets to any knockout stage games.
Any other quirks about this tournament I should know?
Games that are tied at the end of regulation — either in the group stage or in the knockout round — will go straight to penalty shootout. In the group stage, the winning team will get two points and the loser will get one point.
Are teams going to take this thing seriously?
I imagine some won’t, but the Sounders have insisted that they will and there’s plenty of reason to believe them. Heck, they took a much less involved version of this tournament seriously enough to get to the final in 2021.
But if the prospect of winning a trophy isn’t enough, MLS and Liga MX recently announced that there will be a $40 million prize pool. Of that, the winner is set to get nearly $2 million. The players will get a significant chunk of that, with the CBA mandating that each teams receives at least $100,000 for each game they play in with a bonus of at least $50,000 for any game they win. That would be a bonus pool of at least $1,050,000 for the winning team. The MLS Cup champion, by contrast, gets a $440,000 bonus.
How do I watch this?
The only way to see every game is with MLS Season Pass, but quite a few games are on Univision as well (including the Sounders’ match against Monterrey). There 10 group stage games and a few more knockout games on FOX, but not the final.
Source: Sounder At Heart
