The results don’t lie. The Liga MX could qualify only one of its teams for the semifinals of the League Cup 2023, a tournament that had many disadvantages for the Mexican team, but that also left clear the stubbornness of some of the officials involved with soccer in Mexico.
After a month of games played between the teams from Mexico and the United States, some conclusions can be clearly drawn.
For starters, the goal of the Leagues Cup was to create a competition in which both leagues would benefit from the selling of television rights. The Mexican sides are looking to increase value in their teams, and MLS wants to attract more viewers to its product by aligning with the popular Liga MX. The timing is right as well, as the hosts of the next World Cup will be the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The success that Lionel Messi has had in the MLS is attracting attention from stars playing in top European leagues.
The best thing to come out of this Leagues Cup was the presence of Lionel Messi at Inter Miami. Few people thought that Messi would have the impact he has had on what was the worst team in MLS, but his presence along with that of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba gave Miami its first trophy as an organization.
On the flip side, the Leagues Cup also dispensed a bit of humility to the Mexican teams and officials, who for some reason thought that despite all types of disadvantages, they would still wipe the floor with MLS.
It is still the case that the Mexican teams with the largest payrolls are slightly better than their MLS counterparts, as 16 of the last 17 champions of the Champions League of the CONCACAF have shown. But it is worth nothing that the majority of the games between the Liga MX and MLS teams were close. In reality, it is not a surprise anymore that any MLS team can beat a Liga MX team, regardless of venue.
Los resultados de Leagues Cup no debieron de sorprender a nadie, pues la Liga MX no solamente enfrentó a rivales muy competitivos de la MLS, pero lo hizo con todas las condiciones en contra.
It still goes without saying that the Leagues Cup 2023 had one of the most unjust formats in world football. And Mexican officials, players and coaches knew this from the start. One thing is to accept the terms put in front of them and another is to live it.
In the case of Monterrey, the Rayados traveled more than 6,000 miles before ultimately losing to Nashville in the semifinals. Meanwhile, some MLS teams like LAFC never traveled away from Los Angeles in their entire run in the tournament. Although some argued that the Mexican teams were playing in front of more of their fans in U.S. stadiums, it is not the same as having true home-field advantage by limiting travel, staying at home and being familiar with your own field.
Why would the leaders of the Mexican federation agree to such an imbalance? It could easily be chalked up to overconfidence in the quality of the Mexican teams, although a misunderstanding of the travel conditions could easily be to blame.
Historically, when Mexican players have come to play in MLS, their biggest adjustment is around travel from one corner of the United States to another. MLS knew this would be an advantage and pushed for this format.
The soccer media also played a role, as nightly soccer shows, like “La Ultima Palabra” on Fox and “Futbol Picante” on ESPN endlessly talked about the poor quality of the Mexican product and were surprised by the improved play of the MLS teams.
One of the perceived positives from the Mexican side for having this tournament was the benefit that teams like Querétaro and Bravos would get from playing in an international tournament for the first time. But what benefit is there to Bravos after suffering a 7-1 loss to LAFC in Los Angeles?
It is very likely that this tournament will continue next year, and the leaders of the Mexican federation have to acknowledge that the differences in the two leagues have become slim. América and Monterrey are not Real Madrid and Barcelona, which could overcome any disadvantages presented by the format of the tournament.
It is impractical to think that this tournament can be played in Mexico and it is a better solution to locate Mexican teams as home teams in the United States. (For example, Tigres hosts teams in Houston and Chivas and América in Los Angeles.)
Lionel Messi scores in regulation and converts on penalty kicks to lift Inter Miami to victory over Nashville SC in the first ever Leagues Cup final.
“We will see next year if we make modifications to the format to level the playing field,” said Mikel Arriola, president of Liga MX in an interview with the network TUDN.
It is also important to remember that there exists one glaring difference between the two leagues: the MLS players’ union.
Although in Mexico the idea is to grab as much money as possible regardless of the development of the players, the players’ union in MLS would vehemently reject the proposals if all the games would be played in Mexico. MLS teams would not accept having their teams on foreign soil for an entire month, traveling across the entirety of Mexico to compete in the Leagues Cup.
When did Liga MX lose its way and allow its reputation to be tarnished on and off the field? No one knows exactly, but it may end up being too late to turn back the clock.
