The 2025 Leagues Cup will kick off on July 29 with reigning champions Columbus Crew facing Toluca. The following day, Inter Miami CF will make its tournament debut, hosting Atlas.
The schedule for phase one, released on Tuesday, features a new format that guarantees intraleague matches between Liga MX and MLS teams throughout the group stage and quarterfinals.
All Liga MX teams and 18 MLS teams will participate in the month-long tournament, held at various venues across the United States.
Following their match against Atlas, Inter Miami will host Necaxa and Pumas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Club América‘s group stage opponents include Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United, and the Portland Timbers.
The group stage, now named phase one, will see each club taking part in three games against teams from the opposite league. Groupings were created by ranking the performances of Liga MX and MLS teams in the 2024 regular season matches.
The top four best-performing clubs from both Liga MX and MLS will then advance to the quarterfinals and be placed into a fixed bracket for elimination-based matches.
Leagues Cup revealed that phase one and the quarterfinals will boast at least 58 inter-league matches out of a possible 62.
The upcoming edition of the tournament will continue to award host privileges to the six top-ranked Liga MX teams (Club América, Cruz Azul, Toluca, Tigres, Monterrey, and Pumas) to ensure less travel and neutral venues.
The competition’s neutral venues include BMO Stadium, Dignity Health Sports Park, SeatGeek Stadium, PayPal Park, Shell Energy Stadium, and Q2 Stadium.
The later stages of the tournament do not guarantee the participation of both leagues.
The final will be played on Aug. 31 at an undetermined location, with the two finalists and winner of the third-place match earning a ticket to the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup.
