{"id":423740,"date":"2026-08-04T18:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423740\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:14:15","slug":"sdfc-faces-club-america-in-opening-round-of-leagues-cup-play-in-mexico-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423740\/","title":{"rendered":"SDFC faces Club Am\u00e9rica in opening round of Leagues Cup play in Mexico City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anders Dreyer strikes the ball to a teammate in February in a win against Montreal. (File photo by Thomas Murphy\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

The\u00a02026\u00a0FIFA\u00a0World Cup\u00a0may have ended a\u00a0few weeks\u00a0back, but\u00a0that doesn\u2019t mean that international soccer\u00a0has\u00a0completely\u00a0left\u00a0the Southern California stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0San Diego\u00a0will play\u00a0a role in\u00a0a major\u00a0tournament\u00a0between\u00a0top\u00a0North American\u00a0professional soccer clubs\u00a0that kicks off this week.<\/p>\n

Starting Tuesday\u00a0and lasting through\u00a0Sept. 6,\u00a0Leagues Cup, an international\u00a0competition <\/a>between\u00a0top\u00a0MLS and Liga MX\u00a0clubs, includes San Diego FC<\/a>.\u00a0The pro franchises will compete, as the tag line goes,\u00a0from\u00a0\u201cthree countries\u201d (and) \u201ctwo leagues\u201d leading to \u201cone champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning\u00a0Thursday, SDFC plays\u00a0three\u00a0first-round\u00a0matches against\u00a0Liga MX clubs,\u00a0one on the road, then\u00a0two\u00a0at Snapdragon Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SDFC\u00a0travels\u00a0to Mexico City to face Club Am\u00e9rica in their Leagues Cup opener at Estadio Banorte. Club Tijuana\u00a0comes to\u00a0San Diego\u00a0on Sunday,\u00a0followed by\u00a0Puebla FC on Aug.\u00a012.<\/p>\n

The tournament comes at very different times in each league\u2019s season. MLS is more than halfway through its year, but the Liga MX season just started in mid-July,\u00a0around the time\u00a0the World Cup\u00a0ended.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s still early days for Liga MX\u2019s season, two teams San Diego is facing\u00a0sit\u00a0atop their league\u2019s table. After\u00a0each\u00a0playing\u00a0three\u00a0matches, Tijuana and Am\u00e9rica have identical 2-1-0 records and seven points, while\u00a0SDFC\u2019s\u00a0third upcoming opponent, Puebla, has four points and a 1-1-1 record so far.<\/p>\n

Have questions about the tournament? We have some answers.<\/p>\n

What is Leagues Cup?<\/p>\n

Leagues Cup is an annual competition that\u00a0pits\u00a0MLS soccer clubs against Liga MX\u00a0franchises in matches sanctioned by\u00a0the\u00a0Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,\u00a0the governing body\u00a0commonly\u00a0known as\u00a0Concacaf.<\/p>\n

The tournament,\u00a0now in its fourth year, pits\u00a018 MLS clubs against all 18 Liga MX franchises in\u00a0the opening round.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s participating?<\/p>\n

In addition to San Diego FC,\u00a0notable\u00a0MLS franchises participating this year\u00a0include\u00a0San Diego rival\u00a0Los Angeles FC;\u00a0Inter Miami CF,\u00a0home of\u00a0arguably the greatest soccer player ever,\u00a0Lionel Messi;\u00a0last year\u2019s\u00a0Leagues\u00a0Cup champion,\u00a0Seattle Sounders\u00a0FC;\u00a0Nashville SC, which has the best record in the\u00a0MLS so far\u00a0this season;\u00a0and\u00a0the Vancouver Whitecaps, which currently leads\u00a0the MLS\u00a0Western Conference\u00a0standings.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the format?<\/p>\n

Also, the tournament is played in two phases: Phase One (through Aug. 13) consists of 54 MLS vs. LIGA MX matchups in a round-robin format. If San Diego FC earns enough points while playing its initial three matches, the club moves on to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

The knockout rounds, from Aug. 25\u2013Sept. 6, are a single-elimination bracket beginning with the quarterfinals and culminating in the Leagues Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Leagues Cup uses a no-ties format to ensure a winner in every match. Three points are awerded for a regulation\u00a0time\u00a0win and two points for a penalty shootout win if the match is tied after regulation. One point goes to the loser of a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

Although all\u00a0matches are competitive\u00a0games\u00a0and\u00a0not exhibition matches,\u00a0they\u00a0don\u2019t count in\u00a0the\u00a0MLS or Liga MX standings\u00a0and have no bearing on\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the top prize?<\/p>\n

In addition to a trophy,\u00a0the winner of the Leagues Cup receives a bye into the round of 16 at the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup, a tournament consisting of clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

The runner-up and third-place finishers also receive entries into the Champions Cup, but\u00a0not the bye.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s the favorite?<\/p>\n

The teams\u00a0favored to win it all are\u00a0all MLS clubs:\u00a0Inter Miami,\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0Nashville\u00a0and\u00a0LAFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SDFC, which has struggled<\/a> this season at 5-7-6, is not expected to\u00a0make it past the first phase.<\/p>\n

MLS teams have dominated so far with title wins in all three previous editions of the Cup: Inter Miami in 2023, Columbus Crew in 2024 and Seattle in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anders Dreyer strikes the ball to a teammate in February in a win against Montreal. (File photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2458,74,1254,76,75,9678],"class_list":["post-423740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-mexico-city","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-snapdragon-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}