LAFC advanced to the Leagues Quarterfinals in 2023, and went all the way to the Final in 2024. With the competition’s all-time leading scorer Denis Bouanga directing its attack, what does Leagues Cup 2025 have in store for the Black & Gold?
For starters, year three of Leagues Cup brings at least three LAFC home matches to BMO Stadium, as well as a new format that ensures more head-to-head competition between MLS clubs and Liga MX clubs.
This Concacaf-sanctioned annual tournament, which pits North America’s top two mens leagues – Liga MX and MLS – against one another, used to include every MLS team. This summer, however, only the 18 teams who made the MLS Cup playoffs last season* will compete against the 18 clubs in Liga MX, balancing the odds that a Mexican club can take home the trophy after the last two finals were MLS vs. MLS affairs, with Inter Miami (2023) and the Columbus Crew (2024) winning it all.
*Per MLS’ new North American cup qualification criteria, San Diego FC will replace the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Leagues Cup 2025 field.
Monterrey remains the only Liga MX club to reach a Leagues Cup Semifinal, getting there in 2023 after a 3-2 comeback victory over LAFC in an unforgettable Quarterfinal match at the Rose Bowl. (Monterrey fell to Nashville SC in that year’s Semis.)
One of the few hold-overs from last year is that all matches will be streamed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV in over 100 countries and regions.
Let’s set aside Leagues Cup’s new rankings system, with all of its tiers, sets, and points formulas. You can read more about that here if you like. The most exciting change from Leagues Cup 2024 is that in the opening rounds of Leagues Cup 2025 every match pits a Mexican club against an MLS club, heightening the stakes and reviving the ongoing debate about which country’s top league plays the best football. Get ready for 54 (FIFTY-FOUR!) MLS vs. Liga MX matches in just ten days. It’s never been done before.
In Phase One, each club plays three matches against an opponent from the other league with the top four (4) clubs from MLS and the top four (4) from Liga MX advancing straight to the Quarterfinals based on points.
Whittling 36 teams down to just eight means that only the best, most efficient performances will push teams through to the single-elimination knockout phase, which again will feature only MLS versus Liga MX matchups. Mistakes, lapses in focus, and poor halves will be punished harshly in phase one. Teams that slip up will go home.
Another change: following those first three Phase One matches, the MLS and Liga MX regular seasons will continue through the month of August, with most Leagues Cup knockout matches played midweek.
As always, there are no draws in Leagues Cup. When a game is tied after 90 minutes, each team gets a point. The winner of the ensuing penalty shootout earns another point.
That holds true up to and including the Leagues Cup Final, which is scheduled for August 31.
The Leagues Cup 2025 champion, the second-place team, and the third-place team each earns a spot in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, and a potential bid to FIFA Club World Cup 2029.
To get there, LAFC must first advance past three stout Mexican clubs that just began their 2025-2026 Liga MX Apertura seasons.
TUESDAY, JULY 29 | 7:30 P.M. PT | BMO STADIUM
Mazatlán in 2024-25:
Leagues Cup 2024: advanced to Quarterfinals (lost to Philadelphia Union 1-1 [4-3 PKs])
Apertura 2024 regular season: 14th place (2W-7L-8D)
Clausura 2025 regular season: 16th place (4W-8L-5D)
Two months ago Mazatlán hired well-traveled coach (and former Liga MX and Uruguay goalkeeper) Robert Dante Siboldi to lead a club aiming to break its streak of bottom-half finishes and reach the playoffs for the first time in its history. Since Mazatlán F.C. was founded in 2020, Los Cañoneros have struggled to find momentum. Leagues Cup has been the exception.
As the 45th seed in 2024, Mazatlán got hot and defeated higher seeds Nashville SC, D.C. United, and Cruz Azul before falling to the Philadelphia Union on a penalty shootout in the Quarterfinals. Of their eight Leagues Cup games over the last two summers, the underdogs from Sinaloa have gone 3W-2L-3D, and earned an extra point by winning the PK shootout following two of its three draws.
Mazatlán prefers playing in a 3-4-3 formation. They have started strong in the current Apertura 2025 regular season, earning a scoreless draw against Concacaf Champions Cup winners Cruz Azul, then defeating Puebla at home, 2-1, behind goals from midfielder Jordan Sierra and all-purpose attacker Alberto Herrera.
FRIDAY, AUG. 1 | 7:30 P.M. PT | BMO STADIUM
Pachuca in 2024-25:
Leagues Cup 2024: reached Round of 32 (lost to Tigres 1-0)
Apertura 2024 regular season: 16th (3W-10L-4D)
Clausura 2025 regular season: 8th (8W-5L-4D)
Clausura 2025 Playoffs: reached Quarterfinals (lost to América 2-0)
In Leagues Cup 2024, Pachuca, the 14th seed, advanced out of the group stage after defeating NY Red Bulls on penalties and losing 2-1 to Toronto FC. Pachuca then fell to 8th-seeded Tigres, 1-0, in the Round of 32.
After four years at the helm, manager Guillermo Almada recently departed the club, having won one Liga MX and one Concacaf Champions Cup title with Pachuca. Almada resigned before the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and was replaced by former Mexico national team manager Jaime Lozano.
Pachuca was one of five teams that failed to earn a point in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, losing to RB Salzburg 2-1, Real Madrid 3-1, and Al-Hilal 2-0. Defender Bryan González and midfielder Elias Montiel scored Pachuca’s goals in the Club World Cup.
At the MLS All-Star Game on July 23, Pachuca was represented by defender Alonso Aceves and midfielders Montiel and Alán Bautista.
Other key players include recent arrival Kenedy, the elite Brazilian winger who joined Pachuca on loan from La Liga side Real Valladolid.
Pachuca usually plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Through two matchdays in Liga MX’s Apertura 2025 competition, Los Tuzos stood in second place with a record of 2W-0L-0D, scoring six goals and conceding two. Jhonder Cádiz leads the club with two goals.
Pachuca will host Mazatlán in league play on Saturday July 26, three days before LAFC and Mazatlán kick off Leagues Cup at BMO Stadium.
TUESDAY, AUG. 5 | 7:30 P.M. PT | BMO STADIUM
Tigres in 2024-25:
Leagues Cup 2024: reached Round of 16 (lost to NYCFC 2-1)
Apertura 2024 regular season: 3rd (10W 3L-4D)
Apertura 2024 Playoffs: Quarterfinals (lost to Atlético San Luis 3-0)
Clausura 2025 regular season: 4th (10W-4L-3D)
Clausura 2025 Playoffs: reached Semifinals (lost to Toluca 4-1)
A perennial power in Mexico, Tigres was seeded 8th in Leagues Cup 2024 and defeated Puebla and Inter Miami to advance to the knockout rounds. There it defeated Pachuca 1-0 before being upset in the Round of 16 by the 31st seed, NYCFC, 2-1.
Defender Joaquim Pereira and midfielder Juan Brunetta represented Liga MX at the MLS All-Star Game in Austin on July 23.
Tigres employs an aggressive 4-4-2 formation. So far in Apertura 2025, Tigres has played one game, a 1-0 home win over FC Juarez on July 19. Tigres faces Toluca in league play on Saturday July 26.
During the recently completed Liga MX Clausura campaign, Argentine midfielder Juan Brunetta led the team with 10 goals, while veteran striker André-Pierre Gignac chipped in with seven and Nicolás Ibáñez added six. Newly appointed coach Guido Pizarro (a Tigres legend and former captain) has helped balance the team since his arrival in March.
LAFC and Tigres have a history. The Black & Gold fell to Tigres 2-1 in a COVID-emptied stadium in Orlando in the 2020 Concacaf Champions League Final. Three years later they met at packed BMO Stadium in the 2023 Campeones Cup trophy match, where the two sides played to a 0-0 draw before Tigres edged their hosts on penalty kicks, 4-2.
