MLS St. Louis City SC

Leagues Cup Unveils 2023 Match Schedule and Bracket Announcement Presented by Coors Light

March 9, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
St. Louis City SC News Release


NEW YORK AND MEXICO CITY - The Leagues Cup 2023 Bracket Announcement presented by Coors Light today revealed the official 2023 match schedule. St. Louis CITY SC's Group Stage matches are at Columbus Crew SC on July 23 and home against Club América on July 27. The inaugural edition of the official Concacaf competition will see all 47 clubs (18 from LIGA MX, 29 from MLS) compete in a World Cup-style tournament from July 21 - August 19, 2023.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, April 5th on St. Louis CITY SC's app. Presale access to the event will be available to CITY SC season ticket members and for myCITY+ members on Monday, April 4th. To purchase tickets to the Leagues Cup Group Stage match against Club América, go to seatgeek.com

Advancing teams from the Group Stage will compete in the single-game elimination Knockout Rounds, beginning with the Round of 32 on August 2-4 (16 matches), followed by the Round of 16 on August 6-8 (eight matches). The eight advancing teams will compete in the Quarterfinals from August 11-12 (four matches) before the two Semifinal matches on August 15.

The Leagues Cup 2023 Final and third-place game will be played on Saturday, August 19 and determine the three clubs that will qualify for the 2024 Concacaf Champions League.

Fans around the world will be able to watch Leagues Cup* on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app, which is available on Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices from Roku, Amazon, and Google, game consoles, and the web at ‚ tv.apple.com.

In addition, TelevisaUnivision, FOX Sports, TSN and RDS will be the linear broadcast home for select Leagues Cup matches in the United States and Canada.

The complete Leagues Cup 2023 schedule can be found here.

Leagues Cup 2023 Bracket Announcement presented by Coors Light

Group Stage: As previously announced, the Leagues Cup 2023 groups can be viewed here.

The MLS Cup 2022 champion, the Los Angeles Football Club, has qualified directly into the Round of 32 of Leagues Cup 2023. Club de Fútbol Pachuca earned the bye as the LIGA MX champion with the most combined points accumulated across the Clausura and Apertura seasons in the 2022 calendar year.

Knockout Rounds: Pachuca will enter the Knockout Stage in the South region, in the opposite bracket from the MLS Cup champion, LAFC, which enters in the West region. Following the Group Stage, the advancing teams will join LAFC and Pachuca to compete in the single-game elimination Knockout Rounds, beginning with the Round of 32 on August 2-4 (16 matches), followed by the Round of 16 on August 6-8 (eight matches). The eight advancing teams will compete in the Quarterfinals on August 11-12 (four matches) before the two Semifinal matches on August 15.

Due to the odd number of teams this year, the second-place team in South Region Group 1 will enter the Leagues Cup 2023 bracket in the West Region due to that group having the lowest-performing team in the 2022 season (No. 2 club in the South region).

Knockout Round - Hosting: MLS clubs will host all matches at their selected home venues in the Knockout Rounds in this tournament's first edition. If the Round of 32 matches is intra-league between MLS clubs or between LIGA MX clubs, the home club will be the better performer during the Leagues Cup 2023 group stage. Tiebreaker information will be included in the Leagues Cup 2023 Competition Guidelines. Starting in the Round of 16, the host club in intra-league matches will be determined by the clubs' 2022 regular season performance. If two LIGA MX teams meet at any point during the Knockout Rounds, said intra-league matches will be played at a venue from the higher-seeded club's original Leagues Cup geographic region, as decided by the Leagues Cup Organizing Committee.

Below is the pool of potential host venues, based on region, for LIGA MX vs. LIGA MX matches.

- West: BMO Stadium (Los Angeles, CA), Dignity Health Sports Park (Carson, CA), America First Field (Salt Lake City, UT), PayPal Park (San Jose, CA)

- Central: SeatGeek Stadium (Bridgeview, IL), Toyota Stadium (Frisco, TX), DICK'S Sporting Goods Park (Commerce City, CO), Shell Energy Stadium (Houston, TX)

- South: Q2 Stadium (Austin, TX), Toyota Stadium (Frisco, TX), Exploria Stadium (Orlando, FL)

- East: Red Bull Arena (Harrison, NJ), Subaru Park (Chester, PA), Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)

Knockout Round match locations and kickoff times will be announced at the conclusion of the Group Stage.

Leagues Cup 2023 Schedule Highlights

Real Salt Lake Seek Revenge Twelve Years Later: Twelve years since they last took the field, Real Salt Lake will host CF Monterrey on Wednesday, July 26 in a rematch of the 2011 Concacaf Champions League Final. RSL secured a 2-2 tie in the first leg of the series, but Rayados, thanks to a goal by Humberto Suazo, took the title with a 1-0 upset in Salt Lake. Victor Manuel Vucetich was the coach for Monterrey then and returned to the club in 2022.

MLS and LIGA MX Club Face Off in 2022 Rematches: July 23 will set the stage for a 2022 Campeones Cup rematch between New York City FC and Atlas FC. In New York's 2-0 victory, current NYCFC starting goalkeeper Luis Barraza earned the Man of the Match award and will look to shut down Atlas once more. After playing in the 2022 Leagues Cup Showcase, FC Cincinnati and Club Deportivo Guadalajara square off again on July 27. Led by U.S. Men's National Team forward Brandon Vázquez, Cincinnati recorded a 3-1 victory versus Chivas at TQL Stadium last year.

Coach and Player Connections Resurface in Leagues Cup Showdowns: The Central region features a host of connections between players and coaches on July 31. Sporting Kansas City forward Alan Pulido will battle against his old squad Chivas, where he was named MVP of the 2017 LIGA MX Clausura tournament, which Chivas won. Additionally, Chicago Fire FC and Club Puebla both claim National Soccer Hall of Famer DaMarcus Beasley as one of their own, having played in over 90 games for each club. Finally, Atlanta United head coach Gonzalo Pineda meets Cruz Azul in the South region on July 25, as the Five Stripes head coach suited up for La Máquina from 2010-11.

Beginning in 2023, MLS and LIGA MX will pause their respective league seasons each summer and compete in Leagues Cup, an official Concacaf competition to be played across the U.S. and Canada. The champion and the second and third-place finishers will qualify for the Concacaf Champions League and have an opportunity to earn a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup.

The complete details on the Leagues Cup format can be viewed here.

Ticket Information

Individual tickets will be available to fans via the hosting MLS club. MLS club season ticket holders should contact their club representative for more information. For more tournament information, visit LeaguesCup.com and follow @LeaguesCup on social.

Check out the St. Louis City SC Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from March 9, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central