Atlanta United now know its opponents for Phase One of the revamped Leagues Cup.
Atlanta is set to take on Necaxa, Pumas UNAM, and Atlas — currently led by Gonzalo Pineda — on July 30, August 2, and August 6 in the latest edition of the MLS-Liga MX tournament. Nexaca and Atlas are home matches, while the Pumas match will be played at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando.
Pumas, who placed 4th in Liga MX’s Apertura and who sit in 5th place in the Clausura on 11 points, advanced to the Round of 16 in last year’s Leagues Cup but fell 4-0 to the Seattle Sounders. Gustavo Lema took the reins of the club in December 2023 and has been at the helm ever since.
Necaxa struggled in the Apertura, going 3-8-6 and finishing in 13th after going winless in its last 10. That led the club to sack Eduardo Fentanes and bring in Nicolás Larcamón, who led Leon to a Concacaf Champions League title in 2023. Through 6 matches of the Clausura, Los Rayos are 3-3-0 and on 9 points.
The Atlas match will be the one loaded with narratives as Pineda is scheduled to make his return to Atlanta since his dismissal as head coach last year. He was named head coach of the Guadalajara outfit in December; so far, Atlas have yet to win a match with him in charge (0-2-4), so there’s no guarantees that he’ll be leading the club in August considering the often short shelf life of managers in the Mexican top flight.
Atlanta, of course, have yet to advance out of the first stage of the Leagues Cup, much less win a match in the tournament. With Emmanuel Latte Lath and Miguel Almiron set to lead what’s projected to be a high-powered attack, perhaps that changes under Ronny Deila.
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So we’re basically in a group with Miami and Orlando? They both play the same three teams.
And the MLS website shows us as the visiting team for the first game, against Necaxa, even though it’s at the Benz.
the format is very bizarre this year. basically, 3 MLS teams and 3 Liga MX teams in each group. MLS teams only play Liga MX teams in the “group stage”. But only the top 4 teams from each league advances to the knockout round.
Looking forward to seeing what the 2025 version of the opt-out button looks like.
of course, they put Atlanta with Atlas…try to bring up drama to get some interest in the League Cup match
cynic…we all know it was a completely blind, random draw.
Well…they probably picked a random blind guy to draw the Atlas card. Wasn’t hard to do since it was the only card in the hopper. :0)
If GP is still in charge of Atlas come August, their strategy will be to lull us to sleep with their high possession a/k/a frequent backpassing.