Bragging rights are on the line as reigning league champions from MLS and Liga MX face off
Bragging rights and a trophy will be on the line on Wednesday night as Los Angeles FC and Tigres face off in the 2023 Campeones Cup.
The game at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles will be the fifth edition of the Campeones Cup, which is held between the reigning champions of MLS Cup and the Campeón de Campeones from Liga MX.
LAFC won a thrilling 2022 MLS Cup on penalties over the Philadelphia Union while Tigres, the reigning Liga MX Clausura champion, beat Pachuca, the reigning Apertura champion, in the 2023 Campeón de Campeones.
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MLS is hoping to make it four straight Campeones Cup titles, with NYCFC defeating Atlas 2-0 in last year’s match. Tigres is the only Liga MX team to win the prize, having defeated Toronto FC in the inaugural Campeones Cup in 2018.
For LAFC, the game will also be a shot at redemption after it fell to Club Léon in June’s CONCACAF Champions League final.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of Wednesday’s game.
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After years of tough results, MLS keeps on racking up wins against Liga MX in 2022.
In a match between the defending champions from each league, NYCFC won the very important and definitely not confusing 2022 Campeones Cup 2-0 over Atlas. Alexander Callens struck early for for MLS champs, and Maxi Moralez padded the lead four minutes into the second half.
Between actual competition and informal (but lucrative) meetings cooked up between the two leagues, MLS is on something of a roll. The MLS all-stars beat Liga MX 2-1 earlier this year, one day after also winning the skills competition. MLS also won one of two Leagues Cup Showcase matches, with the LA Galaxy beating Chivas 2-0. Only Club América could keep any Liga MX pride intact, and even that took a penalty kick success after a scoreless draw with LAFC.
Oh, and of course, the Seattle Sounders won the CONCACAF Champions League back in May, posting a 5-2 aggregate win over Pumas UNAM to end an MLS drought in the competition (and its predecessor, the Champions Cup) that ran back to 2000.
Callens put NYCFC into the lead in the fourth minute, finishing off a set piece that worked to perfection. Gabriel Pereira’s free kick from what constitutes long range in the tiny confines of Yankee Stadium found Nicolás Acevedo free at the near post, and the Uruguayan midfielder headed the ball over Atlas goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, leaving Callens the job of smashing the ball home from two yards out.
If there was some mild controversy over that goal—Atlas appealed for offside, with some imperfect replay angles appearing to show Acevedo and Callens just barely on—there could be no complaints about the second.
Talles Magno and Santiago Rodríguez combined brilliantly through the midfield to open Atlas up, and the veteran Moralez provided a precision finish that just barely fit through a window where neither Vargas nor midfielder Jeremy Márquez could intervene.
Despite a wide-open game that produced 37 total shot attempts, NYCFC held on for the shutout, becoming the second straight MLS team to win the Campeones Cup. The Columbus Crew beat Cruz Azul in 2021, also by a 2-0 scoreline.
On one hand, for NYCFC, any kind of win is good news. A side that at one point this year lost just once in 17 league matches has, since July 30, gone 1W-2D-7L. That includes home losses to expansion strugglers Charlotte FC and D.C. United, who will probably “win” this year’s Wooden Spoon.
On the other hand, striker Héber—more or less the club’s only natural striker after 2021 Golden Boot winner Taty Castellanos moved to Girona in the summer transfer window—left what is still just a showcase friendly in the 29th minute due to injury.
While NYCFC’s early-season success has made it nearly impossible for them to fall out of the playoff places, losing Héber (who, in positive news, was well enough to make it out for the trophy lift) or failing to turn a win over Atlas into genuine momentum over the final three games of the season will be signs that they’re destined for a quick postseason exit.
