Like it or not, the dates for the 2024 Leagues Cup group stage are set, and Atlanta United is the opening act of this year’s tournament between MLS and Liga MX teams. The club and league announced the full group stage dates on March 14th, and the first match will be Atlanta United vs D.C. United on Friday, July 26th at 8 P.M. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. They’ll then host Santos Laguna on Sunday, August 4th at 4 P.M., also at home.
Should Atlanta make it out of the group stage, the Round of 32 runs from August 7-9 and the Round of 16 is set for August 12-13. From there, those eight teams will move forward to the quarterfinals on August 16-17 and finally the two semifinal matches on August 20 or 21. The Leagues Cup 2024 Final and the Third-place match will be played on Saturday, August 25, which will determine the three clubs that will qualify for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.
Last year’s version of Leagues Cup was unceremonious for the Five Stripes, but it was the prelude to a very successful latter portion of the MLS season. Atlanta United emerged from their Leagues Cup group stage loss with a renewed vigor in league play thanks to the lucrative incoming summer transfers of Tristan Muyumba, Xande Silva, Saba Lobjanidze, and Jamal Thiare.
With three CCC spots up for grabs in Leagues Cup, any club would be ill-advised to not take the competition seriously. However, Atlanta United has a smorgasbord of players being called up for international duty throughout the season, and at least two starters – Thiago Almada and Caleb Wiley – could miss the Leagues Cup group stage for Atlanta because of some other competition called the Olympics. If you haven’t already, take a look here at how international fixtures could alter Atlanta United’s entire season, including the Leagues Cup.
Atlanta United season ticket holders will automatically have access to the opener against D.C. and info for the Santos Laguna match will come out later today. Per the club, tickets to Atlanta’s Group Stage matches against D.C. United and Santos Laguna will begin to go on sale to the public on Friday, April 5 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.com.
Let us know in the comments how you’re feeling about this year’s Leagues Cup and Atlanta’s opponents!
Super helpful, I do not think I saw that e-mail come through. E-mailing them now to opt out
I’d also add, I’m getting increasingly frustrated by the “opt out” approach. In no world should I automatically be opted in for something I have to pay for.
so dumb to run a tournament during major international tournaments
Idk I think I’ll go. The format definitely needs continued refinement but I don’t see them wholesale abandoning the tournament any time soon.
I personally would like to see the group stage games count in league standings. Even the games vs Liga MX teams. It would solve a lot of the schedule congestion complaints and then the break would be much shorter, only for the knockout rounds.
Idk about vs LMX, but I like the idea of having our game vs DC count as a regular season match.
The nba did this earlier in their season.
I’m going to give you a possible explanation as to why Leagues Cup matches don’t count towards the regular season.
What ALL fans of MLS need to understand is this – Most teams in MLS are more concerned with other teams doing things or getting things than they are concerned with their own team doing things or getting things. Once you understand this, lots of things that the league does that seem puzzling make sense.
Here’s how that applies. Because MLS has a lot more teams than Liga MX, that means that the Leagues Cup schedule can’t be balanced. What I mean specifically is that 2 groups will contain 2 Liga MX teams and 1 MLS team while the others will be 2 MLS teams and 1 Liga MX team. I can guarantee you that the bitching would be off the charts for one group or the other over this. Either the MLS teams in the 1 MLS team groups will bitch that they don’t get any credit for MLS league matches in the tournament or the teams that play in 2 MLS teams + 1 Liga MX groups will bitch about how unfair it is that their one MLS vs. MLS match counts as a regular season match while the 2 lucky teams (Austin and Miami this year) with 2 Liga MX teams in their group don’t get any credit for MLS league play and that’s somehow unfair or they’ll both bitch about how unfair it is. I’m not kidding. So many teams spend so much time and energy bitching and complaining about other teams. Want to know why we don’t have 4 DPs per team? It’s because teams like Philadelphia and NYRB would rather stop us and Miami from getting a 4th DP than to pay for it themselves. So I can promise you that somebody somewhere is bitching about Leagues Cup and preventing the matches from counting for the regular season. And I don’t know how you count any MLS vs. Liga MX team matches as MLS regular season matches without some team throwing an unbelievable fit about how unfair that is. There may also be impossible to resolve scheduling problems with that too that would lead to one ore more MLS teams having to play 33 or 35 regular season matches instead of 34.
How am I feeling? Indifferent and not going to watch the games. I still think this competition is misguided
Agree. I won’t be going to the matches either. Nonsensical tournament, hope they get the message when nobody shows up.
I’ll be at the first round match hosted by Apotheosis FC at Silverbacks, Wednesday night. I will not care a lot about AU in the Lamar Hunt unless hardware is at stake.