Why You Should (or Shouldn't) Care About Leagues Cup
The new tournament debuts on Friday night, with the Philadelphia Union's first game on Saturday against Club Tijuana.
The Leagues Cup is finally here!
The Leagues Cup? What the hell is that?
That’s the response you’ll probably get from 99.9 percent of the people outside our small, but growing, American soccer bubble.
Jim from the Northeast is still going to sit back in his recliner and watch Kyle Schwarber either hit two home runs or strike out three times all weekend.
But for us in the soccer bubble it’s an attempt to see something new grow in real time, or become something we hate and never want to see again.
The powers that be stuck this tournament right smack dab in the middle of the summer, so it is very confusing to explain to anyone what the hell is going on. (Trust me I tried on family vacation this week and even I confused myself).
Why You Should Care About Leagues Cup
It’s Something (Kind Of) Different - Fans of MLS teams that have participated in Concacaf Champions League will probably not see the full novelty in the event. The best teams in MLS have played the top teams in Liga MX in CCL for years and Leagues Cup doesn’t introduce a new concept. For the struggling teams, it’s something different and a change of pace from the 34-game MLS regular-season grind.
Lionel Messi !!!! - I bet if you surveyed the general public they would answer that Lionel Messi is making his debut in an MLS match on Friday night. I wouldn’t blame anyone for answering that way. Messi’s debut is far more about Messi than it is about an Inter Miami-Cruz Azul game. Few people are going to remember the final result, just that that was the night Messi debuted. My personal take is that Messi’s move to Miami will be more transcendent with soccer fans who don’t pay much interest to MLS than with the four-for-four public. To use our example from before, Jim from the Northeast is still going to watch the Phillies every night and will not take the extra steps to learn about MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Sure, there will be some MLS converts from the outside, but I don’t expect to come in legions.
A Trophy! - At the end of the day, trophies matter, even if it’s the 2015 Suncoast Pro Classic championship. The Leagues Cup provides every MLS and Liga MX team with the chance to win another trophy, and that should be plenty of motivation (along with the prize money that comes with it) to take the competition seriously.
Why You Shouldn’t Care
It’s Just Like The Open Cup But With Mexican Teams — The U.S. Open Cup adopted a regionalized scheduling model to limit expenses. That led to too many matches between the Union and the New York Red Bulls, New England Revolution, etc. Very rarely were there new and buzzworthy matchups, unless there were too many east coast teams to fit into specific regions. The Leagues Cup draw is set up in four regions (East, South, West and Central). The Union could play D.C. United or CF Montreal to start the knockout round and potentially one of the New York teams in the next round. Hell, we could have a Hudson River Derby to kick off the knockout round. That’s not what the point of this competition should be. I want more randomness in knockout round matchups. If you’re going to carve out a month into the league calendar, there should be time for teams to travel. I really have no interest in the same MLS teams from the same regions playing each other in the knockout round. More randomness, the better.
We’re Tired Of Soccer — The Union just played their 30th game in all competitions on Saturday. I don’t disagree with the notion that the team needs some time off to chase the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in the coming months. There’s also some fan fatigue from so many games. A break could do us all some good, which is I why don’t blame if you if you aren’t upset about a potential early exit from the Union. The MLS campaign started in February, the regular ends in October and MLS Cup is in December. We don’t need another competition with more games mixed in. We could use at least one week off to reset before the next stage of the season.
Leagues Cup Is Being Forced Upon Us — The U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry is special because the two nations rarely played outside of big Concacaf matches. The same can be said about MLS and Liga MX teams in the CCL. They were big matches because they were the only ones that featured those types of matchups. They actually meant something. The powers that be in Concacaf have already watered down the USMNT-El Tri rivalry a bit with so many games in a short time span. I fear that’s what Leagues Cup could do for the rivalry on the club end. It’s great that we’re trying new things, but I’d like to hear less “rah rah” stuff from within MLS and more talk about if this tournament really is good for soccer on the continent. What if the tournament just kind of sucks? It’s possible and that’s why it’s a big risk to take.