Hype vs History: How Two Cup Tournaments Highlight the Battle Between the Past, Present & Future of the Sport in the USA

The schism that divides Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber’s vision for the league (and the sport in general) and the sport’s too-often-forgotten-by-design history was on full display on September 25, 2024 thanks to a cup trophy double-header in the USA.

The day began with Club América of Liga MX lifting the Campeones Cup trophy after defeating the Columbus Crew of MLS. Hours later, Los Angeles FC lifted the US Open Cup title at home in an overtime thriller against Sporting Kansas City.

The former is one of the tournaments invented by long-running MLS commissioner Don Garber. The Campeones Cup pits the winner of Liga MX’s Copa de Campeones Cup and the MLS league winner. This one-off game spawned the separate, month-long Leagues Cup, which is an all MLS vs all Liga MX affair and the latest in big ideas of Garber’s lifelong escapades in US and CONCACAF (and soon-to-be global?!) soccer.

The antithesis to these ideas is the US Open Cup. Founded in 1913, the tournament has hosted US teams from every division and continues to do so today…and that’s in spite of Garber’s attempted meddling in all facets of US soccer.

It was around this time last year that MLS announced that it would not field any teams in the US Open Cup and would instead send in the MLS reserve sides to the tournament. The pushback was swift, but only eight of 29 MLS teams decided to continue competing as normal. The others were replaced by their MLS Next Pro counterparts.

How will they comply w/ Art.II.a.ii of US Soccer's Pro League Standards, which require DI outdoor leagues to play in all U.S. Soccer competitions for which they are eligible. Isn't the Open Cup a U.S. Soccer competition? Are they sending MLSNP rosters under the MLS teams' names? https://t.co/DbxCkodRdv pic.twitter.com/hUw0OSzpnz
— Steven Bank (@ProfBank) December 15, 2023

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Messi League Soccer

Have y’all heard about this guy named Messi? He’s pretty good at this soccer thing.

Messi and Inter Miami came to Los Angeles over the Labor Day weekend and I got to witness it first-hand for LA Taco.

EXCERPT:

Although Messi had already been presented to the Inter Miami faithful during a tropical storm more than a month ago and made his sporting debut in the Leagues Cup against historic Mexican club Cruz Azul, it wasn’t until this game in Los Angeles that the full-weight of the moment came to fruition.

The new iteration of Major League Soccer, with an assist from tech and media giant Apple, as the beacon leading the world into the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the main competition with Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Pro League for players, fans, and soft power, was officially here and shepherding the new age of modern football.

Read it all here: https://lataco.com/messi-mls-history

FC Barcelona Camp Nou tour 2019

I visited FC Barcelona‘s Camp Nou stadium last year on April 5th, which was the day before they defeated Atlético de Madrid with two late goals. It was exciting to have walked down the same tunnel many legendary players have walked through.

Here’s a short video of the tour including the walkthrough of the locker room area and the player tunnel ending with the entrance onto the field: