Lionel Messi received a plaque from Inter Miami honouring his 45 career titles wearing a protective boot due to an injury suffered in Copa América. (0:47)
Inter Miami defender Sergio Busquets and Club León’s Andrés Guardado said they favor the Leagues Cup format that eliminates the possibility of extra time and sends a tied match directly for penalties because it allows players to consistently perform well despite the heavy schedule.
According to Leagues Cup rules, any games tied at full time will be sent straight to a penalty shootout, with the winning team walking away with two points and the losers with one.
“It’s a different format, but very necessary. Penalties make it more exciting, but playing lots of games in a limited amount of time for players on a physical level is difficult. With the calendar full of games, it’s good to have that format,” Busquets said of the rule.
“In the end, you can’t lose sight of the show. In that sense, for the public it’s very entertaining for the public to be decided by penalties after 90 minutes. It’s attractive for the public, but for the players it’s welcome from a physical aspect to be able to play games at a great level in a short amount of time. It’s a plus for the tournament,” Guardado said.
The Club León player will feature in Leagues Cup for the first time, while Busquets is set to return to the competition as reigning champion after Inter Miami defeated Nashville SC to lift the trophy.
The 2023 Leagues Cup served as the inaugural edition of the tournament, seeing Liga MX and MLS come together for the first time ever in a fully integrated manner under an official capacity.
The two leagues had previously played friendlies in a Leagues Cup showcase and other single-match competitions like Campeon de Campeones, but all 47 had never competed together in this format.
Since last year, both leagues decided to make changes and modifications to the tournament in order to accommodate clubs like the introduction of hubs for top performing Liga MX teams to avoid travel.
Liga MX president Mikel Arriola maintains the tournament’s priority remains the quality of the product on the pitch, forcing the board of directors to seek out the best conditions, referees and sources of income to reach the proposed goal.
“Our responsibility as a league, our responsibility as members of Leagues Cup is to generate the best conditions for the competition. We have to concentrate on generating the best quality of referees, the best sources of income, the best coordination in terms of logistics to take care of our players and teams,” he said.
“The expectations are to have a better tournament in terms of income, reach and awareness but most importantly the quality of the product on the pitch. The interest, the rivalry is there. We have to comply with the expectations of our 160 million fans.”
Still, Guardado insists more can be done.
“MLS and Liga MX are in constant search for improvement and growth, in that sense this tournament helps. For us, in Liga MX, we’d like to have this tournament played in Mexico at some point in some capacity but I think they are on the way to that,” he said.
“This is just the second edition of the tournament and the way the penalty rule is enforced, I am sure there will be progress and changes throughout the years that benefit both leagues.”
The competition runs from July 26 to Aug. 25, as all 47 MLS and Liga MX clubs kick off in a two-match group stage in the hopes of advancing to the knockout round.