Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
The 2025 Leagues Cup field has now been whittled down to just eight teams — with four each from MLS and Liga MX left standing. We’ll get to those quarterfinal matchups, but let’s assess the tournament so far.
Liga MX Giants Bow Out; Messi, Miami Remain
The revamped format – fewer MLS participants, inter-league-only contests until at least the first knockout round – improved the product on the field. But it still wasn’t enough to prevent MLS clubs from continuing to get the better of their Mexican counterparts in a competition staged entirely on American and Canadian soil. (Liga MX squads have failed to reach the final in each of the last two editions.)
Coming on the heels of FIFA’s U.S.-hosted, 63-match Club World Cup and played at the same time as the Premier League’s stateside “Summer Series” and in many of the same cities, fan turnout has reflected this market over-saturation. Phase One of the competition drew just 16,631 fans on average, well below MLS’s 2025 regular season average of 21,747. Just 5,709 watched already-eliminated San Diego FC beat Mazatlán — another team with no chance to advance — at SnapDragon Stadium on Tuesday.
With just four of 18 clubs from each league making the quarterfinal cut, the final first-round match was rendered meaningless for too many fan bases.
Henry Martín and Club América were bounced out early from Leagues Cup competition. (Photo by Alex Goodlett – Leagues Cup/MLS via Getty Images)
Most of Liga MX’s giants didn’t advance. Club América, Chivas, and Monterrey all went three games and out. Same on the MLS side of the ledger, with defending champ Columbus Crew going home early despite amassing seven points from its three first-round games. Last year’s runner-up LAFC and Supporters Shield-chasing FC Cincinnati are similarly gone from trophy contention before the business end of the tournament has even begun.
Plenty of star power remains, however. Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami is there, with the Herons hoping Messi is healthy for his side’s meeting with perennial Liga MX powerhouse Tigres to kick off the quaters in Fort Lauderdale on Aug 20.
The Seattle Sounders, like Inter Miami also a Club World Cup entrant, are there, too. So are last year’s MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy, plus Toluca, Pachuca and Puebla from south of the border. The single-elimination quarterfinals are as follows, with all four contests scheduled for Aug. 20.
Quarterfinal Preview
Inter Miami vs. Tigres UANL (8 p.m. ET on FS1 and Apple TV)
Messi’s two assists led the Herons past Atlas in the opener, but the Argentine legend limped out of Miami’s second Leagues Cup encounter with a leg injury. Javier Mascherano’s team won anyway, despite playing most of the match with 10 men. Miami then came from behind to beat Pumas 3-1, with new signing Rodrigo De Paul running the show in the GOAT’s place as Inter clinched a quarterfinal berth.
It’s the second time this summer that they’ve advanced to the knockout stage of a major international club tourney, having been eliminated from the Club World Cup by eventual finalists Paris Saint-Germain just five weeks ago. (Miami also reached the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup back in April.)
Miami will face a formidable opponent in Tigres, the winners of six Mexican titles since 2011. Los Auriazules are led by longtime Atlético Madrid forward Angel Correa, Messi and De Paul’s World Cup-winning teammate in 2022. With four goals in three games so far, Correa leads the Leagues Cup in scoring. As for Messi, reports on Aug. 4 suggested a layoff of around two weeks, which would put the 38-year-old in line to return for the game at Chase Stadium.
Lionel Messi sat out Inter Miami’s game on Wednesday due to a minor leg injury, but is expected to be back for the Leagues Cup quarterfinals. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
Seattle Sounders vs. Puebla (11 p.m. ET on FS1 and Apple TV)
The Sounders were the only team in the entire 36-deep field to win all three of its league stage games during regular time, without penalties. Seattle’s 7-0 trouncing of reigning Concacaf Champions Cruz Azul was the eye-popper, but the Rave Green also handled Santos Laguna and Tijuana without much trouble.
Despite its success in Leagues Cup, Puebla is beatable, too: Los Camoteros finished 17th out of 18 Liga MX teams last season, and they’ve lost two of three games so far in this one.
LA Galaxy vs. Pachuca (11:45 p.m. ET on Apple TV)
If you go by their current position in each team’s respective domestic circuit, the Galaxy are in big trouble. Pachuca sits atop the Liga MX table three games into the Apertura season, while the MLS Cup holders remain dead last among MLS’s 30 franchises, having won just three times in 24 tries in 2025.
None of that matters in the Leagues Cup, though. With the playoffs a pipe dream, this is the Galaxy’s season now. They’ve already matched their MLS win total by beating both Tijuana and Santos Laguna by four goals and topping Cruz Azul in a shootout. Now, America’s most decorated club is just three more wins away from adding another piece of silverware to its collection.
Marco Reus and the LA Galaxy may be dead last in the actual MLS standings, but they’re still in the hunt in Leagues Cup play. (Photo by Liza Rosales/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Orlando City vs. Toluca (9 p.m. ET on Apple TV)
As loud as Óscar Pareja’s Lions have roared so far, they’ll surely get their sternest test yet against Toluca. The Red Devils outlasted Club América to claim Liga MX’s Clausura title in May, and they’ve won two of three games to kick off the new Apertura campaign. Toluca beat CF Montreal and NYCFC in regulation and the Crew in a penalty-kick tiebreaker to secure the top seed on Liga MX’s side of the bracket.
It also won’t help Orlando that the game will be played 2,500 miles from home, in Carson, California, as the undercard of next Wednesday’s doubleheader at the Galaxy’s Dignity Heath Sports Park
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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