MLS vs. Liga MX to dominate Leagues Cup lineup

The 2025 edition of the Leagues Cup tournament will return this summer with an altered format for the group stage and knockouts, along with more guaranteed matches between MLS and Liga MX, the competition announced on Thursday.

Kicking off on July 29 with all 18 Liga MX teams and 18 MLS representatives, the tournament, hosted once again in the U.S. and Canada, now includes a “Phase One” group stage that will have each club taking part in three games against teams from the opposite league.

Groupings are decided through rankings that are set by the performances of Liga MX and MLS teams in 2024 regular season matches.

San Diego FC will be ranked last in MLS since the expansion team has yet to begin play in the league.

After playing three games apiece in Phase One, the top four best-performing teams from Liga MX and MLS will move on to the single-elimination quarterfinal stage, where they will be placed in a fixed bracket with inter-league pairings.

According to Leagues Cup, guaranteeing MLS vs. Liga MX clashes in Phase One and the quarterfinals will mean that a minimum of 58 of the competition’s 62 matches will be inter-league.

The championship game will be played on Aug. 31, with the two finalists, as well as the winner of the third-place match, earning a place in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup.

Earlier in the week, MLS confirmed that just 18 teams would take part in the tournament, as opposed to the entirety of the league that was involved in the previous two editions. MLS participants this year were decided by the top nine clubs from each conference last season.

The Vancouver Whitecaps, who finished eighth in the Western Conference, were replaced by San Diego due to their involvement in the Concacaf Champions Cup and Canadian Championship in 2025.

According to MLS, San Diego’s inclusion allowed “for all 30 MLS teams to compete in at least one, but not more than two, North American cup competitions.”

No breaks will be taken in regular season play for either Liga MX or MLS while the tournament is ongoing.