Leagues Cup 2025 Kicks Off | OneFootball

This CONCACAF-inspired revenue maker (cough, tournament) began back in 2019. Honestly, its format changes more often than a fashion model in a runway show, so I can’t really go into the history and tell you anything really interesting.

In 2025, the top 18 MLS clubs (as determined by Supporter Shield rankings) and all 18 Liga MX teams are included. The teams were stack ranked and placed into “eastern” and “western” groups, further divided into three “tiers”. Within each regional group, six different “sets” were formed. Each “set” contains three MLS and LigaMX teams. Group stage qualification consists of four games, with a team from one league playing all three matches against the opposing league. So, MLS clubs will only play Liga MX, and vice versa.

Clear as mud, right?

A Tight Window

Like other summer tournaments, the Leagues Cup plays out over a month. This means a compacted period where squads play a number of matches with limited recovery time. Here’s the fixture list:

Group Stage Matchday 1 – July 29-31Group Stage Matchday 2 – August 1-3Group Stage Matchday 3 – August 5-7

You’re reading that correctly, all three group stage games are played within eight days.

How You Advance

Just like the Jägermeister Cup, games that end regulation level go immediately to a penalty shootout. A regulation winner earns three points, a shootout winner collects two points, the shootout loser a single point and a regulation loss is zero.

But here’s where it gets really fun…

Only the top four teams from each league will advance. Yep, despite all the groups, tiers and sets, ultimately each team is only graded against their own league’s sides to see who advances to the quarterfinals. There is a very good possibility that a team with a higher point total than the other league will not advance.

So this is, in effect, a “competition” skewed to ensure parity between the leagues. A frozen pizza of tournaments, if you will. You can eat it, but it might not taste good.

The Sets

Eastern 1

Toluca (Liga MX) – Tier 1Columbus Crew (MLS) – Tier 1New York City FC (MLS) – Tier 2León (Liga MX) – Tier 2CF Montréal (MLS) – Tier 3Puebla (Liga MX) – Tier 3

Eastern 2

Inter Miami CF (MLS) – Tier 1UNAM (Liga MX) – Tier 1Orlando City SC (MLS) – Tier 2Necaxa (Liga MX) – Tier 2Atlanta United FC (MLS) – Tier 3Atlas (Liga MX) – Tier 3

Eastern 3

Monterrey (Liga MX) – Tier 1FC Cincinnati (MLS) – Tier 1Guadalajara (Liga MX) – Tier 2Charlotte FC (MLS) – Tier 2New York Red Bulls (MLS) – Tier 3Juárez (Liga MX) – Tier 3

Western 1

UANL (Liga MX) – Tier 1Los Angeles FC (MLS) – Tier 1Houston Dynamo FC (MLS) – Tier 2Pachuca (Liga MX) – Tier 2Mazatlán (Liga MX) – Tier 3San Diego FC (MLS) – Tier 3

Western 2

América (Liga MX) – Tier 1Real Salt Lake (MLS) – Tier 1Minnesota United FC (MLS) – Tier 2Atlético San Luis (Liga MX) – Tier 2Portland Timbers (MLS) – Tier 3Querétaro (Liga MX) – Tier 3

Western 3

Cruz Azul (Liga MX) – Tier 1LA Galaxy (MLS) – Tier 1Seattle Sounders FC (MLS) – Tier 2Tijuana (Liga MX) – Tier 2Colorado Rapids (MLS) – Tier 3Santos Laguna (Liga MX) – Tier 3