Leagues Cup 2025

 

Tomorrow night the defending 3rd place Rapids kick off their Leagues Cup 2025 campaign with a home match against our old friends Santos Laguna.  The competition has undergone some radical changes this season.  Out are the 3 team groups, in is a cross-league Phase 1 of the competition.

In Phase 1 the 18 playoff teams from last season (one exception, due to their CCC and Canadian Championship play Vancouver has been replaced by San Diego) face the 18 Liga MX teams.  The 36 teams have been broken down into six 6-team pods.  Each team in the pod plays the three teams in their pod from the other league, in the Rapids' case that's Santos Laguna, Club Tijuana, and Cruz Azul.  The top 4 teams from each league across the six pods will move on to the quarterfinals where each matchup will be Liga-MX - MLS.

So we are no longer trying to win our group, we are trying to be one of the 4 best MLS teams in the competition.  And, as the lowest MLS team in the group we play one game on the road while the other two teams in our group get three home games.

Looking back at the last Clausura Santos Laguna finished deal last and Tijuana finished 13th.  Cruz Azul finished 3rd.  The prior Apertura Santos Laguna once again finished last, Tijuana was 7th, and Cruz Azul won the whole thing.

So tomorrow night's game is absolutely winnable and Sunday against Tijuana is a game we can win.  Next Thursday in LA against Cruz Azul?  We will not be the favorites in any way.

So because of all of that, we shouldn't prioritize this competition this year.  I know our run last year was the high point of the season, but the situation was different.  One, we were solidly in a playoff spot needing only a few more points to clinch one when the Leagues Cup started.  Two, the league took a break for a month to play Leagues Cup so we didn't have to balance the playoff fight with the Cup.  The Rapids play a league match in Minnesota a week from Sunday.  We can't run out the starters tomorrow night, Sunday, Thursday, and Sunday again without ending the season like we did in 2024, with no energy and racking up loss after loss.

Plus this season with the format change, just getting one home win doesn't get us to the knockouts.  We need more than 6 points probably to have a shot.  So throw out the starters tomorrow night, play the kids against Tijuana, and then see where you stand going against Cruz Azul.  Unless the odds are very good that 1 point will get us through against the Liga MX giants we should throw the reserves to the wolves and rest the starters for league play.

No prediction for this one as its impossible to know what Armas is thinking right now.  A quick recap of the game plus a preview of Tijuana on Fri/Sat.