Leagues Cup: How does the MLS vs Liga MX tournament actually work?

Analysis

Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Leagues Cup 2026 kicks off on Tuesday, 4 August, with Major League Soccer franchise Columbus Crew hosting Liga MX side Atlas.

Created in 2019, the tournament was reformed in 2023 and is now set to enter its fourth edition in the current format. 18 teams from MLS and 18 from Liga MX will do battle over the next month to determine this year's regional champion.

The Seattle Sounders are the reigning title holders after beating Inter Miami in the 2025 final, continuing MLS's domination of the competition since 2023. In fact, only one Liga MX team has even reached the semi-finals since the format change.

Will this trend continue in 2026? Perhaps not, as this will be the first edition that will see select Liga MX teams have genuine home games. Four fixtures are currently slated to take place in Mexico.

FootballTransfers has got you covered with everything you need to know about Leagues Cup 2026...

What is Leagues Cup?

Leagues Cup is a CONCACAF-sanctioned regional competition between sides from MLS and Liga MX. The inaugural tournament in 2019 featured four teams from each league and was eventually expanded to encompass all clubs.

However, in 2025, it was decided that only 18 of the 30 MLS teams should participate following the league's implementation of new competition guidelines, restricting clubs from featuring in more than two cups.

This ruling remains in force for the 2026 edition, meaning that the 18 best-performing MLS teams from the 2025 season have qualified for this year's competition, while all 18 Liga MX teams automatically made it in.

Leagues Cup was created to help MLS capitalise on the popularity of Liga MX - widely recognised as the most popular soccer division in the United States, even ahead of the Premier League - by staging more matches against Mexican opposition.

With Liga MX teams having dominated CONCACAF Champions Cup over the past 25 years, it was also believed that more games against Mexican teams would raise the standard of MLS and make the league more competitive on the continent.

However, this hasn't happened. The Seattle Sounders remain the only MLS team to have won a CONCACAF Champions League/Champions Cup in the competition's modern format.

MLS roster rules, which are expected to soon be liberalised, have been the biggest hindrance to MLS's success in continental competition. American teams have been able to dominate Leagues Cup in recent years because their Mexican counterparts have not always taken it seriously.

Indeed, one of the biggest criticisms levelled at the tournament is that the games are glorified friendlies and easy cash grabs for MLS. The creation of Leagues Cup has had a detrimental effect on the historic US Open Cup, resulting in boycotts from several supporters' groups.

What's at stake in Leagues Cup?

Despite the criticism, Leagues Cup is not an entirely meaningless competition. In addition to some welcome prize money, there are three CONCACAF Champions Cup berths up for grabs.

The second and third-placed teams qualify for round one of the continent's premier tournament, while the winners of Leagues Cup get a golden ticket to the round of 16.

The champions will also pocket $2 million for their troubles, while the runners-up receive $1m and the winners of the third-place playoff get $500,000. All participants receive $100,000 per match, with a victory worth an additional $50,000.

How does Leagues Cup work?

As mentioned, 36 clubs compete in this year's edition of Leagues Cup: 18 from MLS and 18 from Liga MX. Each team will play three matches in Phase One (the group stage).

There are no draws, so tied games will be decided in a penalty shootout. A win in regular time is worth three points, a shootout success grants two and losing via spot kicks will still get you one point.

The tournament has been designed so as to avoid intra-league fixtures. Every game in Phase One and the quarter-finals will pit a team from MLS against a Liga MX side.

The four best-performing teams from each league advance to the knockout stage. The three most important group stage tiebreakers are wins in regular time, goal difference and goals scored, in that order.

Who are the favourites to win Leagues Cup 2026?

The 2026 World Cup has made this year's Leagues Cup particularly interesting because the long mid-season break essentially served as a second pre-season. Several teams will therefore be well equipped to deal with the hectic schedule.

However, the World Cup break hasn't been refreshing for everyone. Reigning Leagues Cup champions Seattle are unlikely to be giving much thought to this year's competition after enduring a historically bad run in MLS.

The Sounders, decimated by injuries, have lost six games on the bounce. To make matters worse, their first match is away at Toluca, arguably the most difficult fixture in North America right now, and they would be well advised to heavily rotate and just focus on getting players back fit for MLS.

From MLS, LAFC and Inter Miami will naturally be among the favourites. The former have started to really hit form, with Son Heung-min overcoming his early-season slump and now performing to the level everyone expects of him.

Miami, meanwhile, have Lionel Messi back from his World Cup break. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner wants to win every competition he is in, and there will be additional motivation after losing last year's final and getting bounced from CONCACAF Champions Cup in the round of 16.

Nashville SC have yet to get back to their pre-World Cup level, but if things click, they will be a force to be reckoned with. After all, they became the first MLS team ever to win at the Azteca when they beat Club America in CONCACAF Champions Cup earlier this year.

The Chicago Fire, now bolstered by Robert Lewandowski, will also be keen to win any some silverware this season to boost their efforts to make the team more relevant and popular. The fact that they have just sold star striker Hugo Cuypers to Monterrey adds another interesting storyline.

Rayados - the only Liga MX team to make the semis in recent years - will surely be among the favourites from Liga MX, given that they now boast the MLS Golden Boot leader as well as former Columbus star Diego Rossi.

On their day, Toluca are easily the most dangerous team on the continent, and they will also be among the contenders. The same goes for Los Cuatro Grandes (America, Cruz Azul, Chivas and Pumas).

As if they needed the advantage, Toluca are the only Liga MX side to play two Phase One games on home soil (versus Seattle and Dallas), while America (versus San Diego) and Tigres (versus Vancouver) play one each.

Will it be enough to break MLS's stranglehold on Leagues Cup?

Written by

Tom Weber | Writer

Tom Weber is an experienced, multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer as part of his freelance work for FootballTransfers.

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