FC Cincinnati takes another break from Major League Soccer play for the annual Leagues Cup tournament.
Cincinnati will host three teams from Mexico’s Liga MX over the next week at TQL Stadium. It will play CF Pachuca at 7:45 p.m. Aug. 4, Pumas UNAM at 8 p.m. Aug. 7 and Atlas FC at 8 p.m. Aug. 11. All three games will air live on Apple TV.
Cincinnati will try to advance to the knockout rounds of the competition and win a trophy, but it won’t be easy. Here is a look at the tournament and the first matchup.
What is the format of the Leagues Cup?
The Leagues Cup will have the same format as last year, with all 18 MLS teams who made the 2025 playoffs competing against all 18 teams in Liga MX. Every team will face three from the other league, and the top four finishers in each league move on to the knockout quarterfinals.
Matches will feature the standard three points for a regulation win, and goal differential will be the first tiebreaker to advance to the quarterfinals.
A special rule in this tournament is that if the teams are tied after 90 minutes, each team gets one point like a normal draw, then have a penalty-kick shootout for an extra point.
Last year, in the first year of this format, Seattle won all three group games in regulation for the maximum nine points. Miami won all three, one in PKs, for eight points. Four teams tied with 7 points, posting two regulation wins and a loss in PKs. LA Galaxy took the third spot with a goal differential of plus-7, and Orlando was fourth with plus-6.
Cincinnati had four points last year, winning its first game and losing the second in PKs. The club lost its third game with mostly backups after facing long odds to advance. If Cincy had won the PK shootout in game two, it would have controlled its destiny in game three.
On Aug. 3, Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said that a quick start against Pachuca is crucial, acknowledging that if his team loses in regulation, it will likely not advance in the tournament no matter how it does the rest of the way.
The emphasis on goal differential means that if Cincinnati is ahead late in the game, the team may focus on extending the lead rather than holding it like it would in an MLS game. Noonan said he won’t worry about that in the first game.
“Pachuca comes in with a good history of success in these competitions,” Noonan said. “Winning a game against a team of that caliber is always a positive, so we have to understand that. If we can have a very strong performance and be fortunate enough to be in a position to have a lead by multiple goals, sure, that’s ideal. But for us, it’s respecting the fact that we’re up against a very good team, and we have to have the right mentality and approach to just win a game.”
Who are FC Cincinnati’s opponents in the Leagues Cup?
In the most recent Liga MX season that completed in May, Pumas UNAM finished first in the regular season (10-1-6, 36 points), Pachuca was fourth (9-4-4, 31) and Atlas sixth (7-5-5, 26).
So far in the new season, Pumas is 2-1-0 (7 points), Pachuca 1-2-0 (3) and Atlas 1-1-1 (4).
Columbus and Charlotte will play the same three teams.
The quarterfinals are Aug. 25-27, the semifinals Sept. 1-2 and the championship final and third-place match are Sept. 6. The top three finishers qualify for the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup, with the champion earning a bye to the Round of 16.
A look at CF Pachuca, FC Cincinnati’s first opponent
Like Cincinnati, Pachuca will be playing on two days rest. Pachuca played Club Leon in league play at the same time Cincinnati was facing San Jose Aug. 1.
Pachuca has four players who participated in last week’s All-Star game in Charlotte against the MLS All-Stars: Midfielder Elias Montiel, 20; forwards Alexei Dominguez, 21 and Salomón Rondón, 36; and keeper Carlos Moreno, 28.
Rondón, the team captain, has three of Pachuca’s four goals this season. He also scored in last week’s All-Star Game for the Liga MX team. Montiel has a goal and an assist.
Oussama Idrissi, 30, is a dynamic winger and playmaker who has two assists in three games. Sergio Barreto, 27, leads the defense.
Enner Valencia, captain for Ecuador’s national team in the FIFA World Cup and has scored 49 goals for his national team, left Pachuca in July. Victor Guzman, a midfielder and one of the team’s best players last season, also left Pachuca this summer, for league rival Toluca.
According to ESPN, Pachuca’s style last season was to press, force turnovers and run in transition. It had more fouls (17.5 per match) than any team in the league and more red cards than any of the other seven teams that made the playoffs.
Noonan said the team’s structure is similar to San Jose’s and that he got a closer look at some of the players during the All-Star festivities, but he noted that Pachuca is a complete team outside the stars.
FC Cincinnati player availability for Pachuca
Noonan had no injuries to report coming off Cincinnati’s dramatic win over San Jose on Aug. 1.
Matt Miazga and Gerardo Valenzuela will be available after missing the San Jose game due to suspensions. Valenzuela will be suspended for Cincy’s next MLS game, Aug. 15 at Orlando, but that does not carry over to the Leagues Cup.
Noonan said his players are in a great place fitness-wise and that no one will be on a minutes restriction despite the quick turnaround.
“I like where we’re at,” he said. “With the conditions sometimes more extreme, you tend to see fatigue set in earlier, with cramping, but that’s been less and less than in the past. I know it’s a different period of time with the (World Cup) break, but the guys pushed themselves very well. Our fitness levels are allowing us to not have to make early decisions on changes. It can be about their performances and tactical adjustments. So that I’m pleased with, and that’s a credit to the medical and sports performance departments for the work that they’ve been putting in. And credit to the guys for their mentality.”
Looking ahead to FC Cincinnati’s Leagues Cup matchups against Pumas and Atlas
Pumas UNAM had two players take part in the All-Star festivities: forward Robert Morales and defender Nathan Silva.
It has three players who were in the World Cup.
Pedro Vite, 24, started in the midfield for Ecuador, which lost to Mexico in the round of 32. He played for the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS from 2021-25 and has three goals with Pumas.
Guillermo Martinez, 31, played for Mexico in the World Cup, starting one game. He has scored one goal in three Liga games this season and has 51 goals in the last six years in Liga MX, 28 with Pumas.
Adalberto Carrasquilla, 27, is a midfielder who was on Panama’s national team in the World Cup but did not play. He played for Houston in MLS from 2021-24 with eight goals, and he has three for Pumas.
Atlas has star power with 37-year old goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, who was Colombia’s starter in the World Cup. He allowed one goal in five games, shutting out Portugal in group play and then posting clean sheets against Ghana and Switzerland in the knockout rounds. Switzerland eliminated Colombia in penalty kicks in the round of 16 after a scoreless draw.
Vargas has started the last two games for Atlas since coming back from the World Cup. He has a shutout win and a 2-0 loss to Monterrey with the first goal coming from former Columbus Crew star Diego Rossi and the second coming on a late PK.
What are the other matchups in the 2026 Leagues Cup?
The matchups in the Leagues Cup are based on performance and geography, with the organizers attempting to make each group of six teams as balanced as possible. They used the 2025 Supporters’ Shield standings for MLS, and both of Liga MX’s 17-game seasons in 2025-26, totaling 34 games, identical to MLS.
The other matchups in the tournament:
Miami, Nashville and Orlando vs. León, Monterrey and San Luis
Chicago, NYCFC and Philadelphia vs. Cruz Azul, Necaxa, and Santos Laguna
Austin, Portland and San Diego vs. América, Puebla and Tijuana
Salt Lake, Seattle and Vancouver vs. Atlante, Juarez and Tigres
Dallas, LAFC and Minnesota vs. Guadalajara, Queretaro and Toluca
Four Mexican teams, América, Cruz Azul, Tigres and Toluca, will host all three of their group-stage games. Monterrey will host two and Guadalajara one. The rest of the group stage will be at MLS sites.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati hosts CF Pachuca to begin play in the Leagues Cup
Reporting by James Weber, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By James Weber, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
